Cgarena Jun12 Mag

CGArena
VOLUME 7, ISSUE 3, JUN - JUL 12
Get Attention in the Computer Graphics Community
Interview
Jonatan Catalan
Photoshop
Making of
Carnivorous Plant
ZBrush
Making of Supermamika
3DS Max
Making of Piercings are Cool
Maya
Making of Aroma
Latest 3D Inspiring Art

CG Store Deals
VOL
Get Attention in the Computer Graphics Community

Volume 7, Issue 3 Jun - Jul 2012
Issue Contents
05 Interview Jonatan Catalan

16 Photoshop Making of Carnivorous Plant
22 ZBrush Making of Supermamika
36 3ds Max Making of Piercings are cool
42 Maya Making of Aroma
52 Gallery Showcase of latest impressive art
Magazine Edited: Ashish Rastogi

Magazine Cover Image: Darko Vucenik
Magazine Design: Yousef Ikhreis
www.cgarena.com Page 2
Issue 3 Jun - Jul 2012
Industry News
CGArena
Submit your Production Now Free Pre-Release Trial of Au-

Deadline Soon todesk Smoke Now Available
The animago AWARD is an international contest Autodesk, Inc. announced that Autodesk Smoke 2013
around 3D, animation, visual effects & interactive video editing software, a completely redesigned and
productions. Participants from more than 60 coun- repackaged pre-release version of the all-in-one video
tries have attended the competition in 2011, which editing and visual effects tool for the Mac, is now avail-
underlines the event’s international character and able as a free trial download http://www.autodesk.
its leading status in the field of Digital Content Cre- com/smoke-trial.
ation (DCC).
The three-month pre-release trial period will afford us-
Entries for the animago AWARD 2012 can be sub- ers the opportunity to not only experiment with the uni-
mitted until June 30, 2012. The animago jury of ex- fied editing and effects workflow, but also to provide
perts screens and evaluates all submissions from additional feedback to the developers. Smoke can
the fields of film, interactive and still image. The help editors simplify workflow, centrally manage me-
award ceremony on October 25, 2012 in historic dia, work interactively with high-res media throughout
Potsdam-Babelsberg is the undisputed highlight of projects and deliver high-end content on the most re-
the two-day animago AWARD & CONFERENCE cent generation of Apple iMac and MacBook Pro sys-
the 25th / 26th of October. CGArena is official me- tems. Autodesk anticipates Smoke 2013 will launch
dia partner of this event. September 2012 for $3,495 MSRP per license.*
Brush Professional Tips and Techniques - ZBrush is used by top art-

ists in Hollywood to model and sculpt characters in such films as Ava-
tar, Iron Man, and Pirates of the Caribbean. In addition, this amazing
Book
technology is also used in jewelry design, forensic science, aerospace,

video games, toy creation, and the medical field. Written by Pixologic’s
in-house ZBrush expert Paul Gaboury, this full-color, beautifully illustrat-
ed guide provides you with the ultimate tips and tricks to maximize your
use of all versions of ZBrush.
Unrealscript Masterclass: Part 1-2-3 - Recreating Assault in UDK-

In this training James Tan continues his series on re-creating Assault in
Training
UDK. James uses his 13 years of experience with Unreal Technology and
Global UDK Educator with Epic, to demystify custom UDK game creation
using UnrealScript. He starts by explaining how to update to a newer
revision of UDK, adding Pickups, adding an Announcer, Scaleform, Navi-
gation Meshes, Way Points, Upgrading the Task System, AI Overview, AI
and Kismet, and some final words. This training is an amazing resource
for those looking to customize their games using UnrealScript.
Interview with
CGArena
Publishing work in
Jonatan Catalan portals, forums,
create portfolio are
Q. Hello Jonatan, could you tell us a bit about yourself and
things you need to
your background in CG and from where you have taken get new projects
some training?
I was born in Valencia (Spain) in 1983, I grew up seeing the Disney animated films and my camera was
always in my hand, after seeing for the first time Pixar film Toy Story, I knew what I wanted to do.
At 18 years old I started to work on info-architecture, where I saw that lighting was my favorite part. In my
free time I worked on personal projects, to continue learning and to make me a website to see what lies be-
yond architecture visualization. Among the first jobs offers, I want to stress the start of a great collaboration
with the team of Maxwell Render, 8 years ago they offered me to be a beta tester, which certainly allowed
me to gain experience and evolve more with lighting and shading.
After 2 years working in various companies, I decided to start my own studio called Keytoon Animation Stu-
dio with 2 friends, Alex and Jaime Maestro Mateo, where my role was to take care of lighting and shading of
all projects as well as modeling environments. We were working for clients like Disney, Wildbrain, Mattel and
Paramount Pictures and created characters as Dr.Maxwell and his short “The Grandfather of Soul” which
was a finalist of Siggraph 2007, after this came the most ambitious project of my career “Alma” by Rodrigo
Blaas.
Interview with
CGArena
Jonatan Catalan
After 3 months of preproduction, the project “Alma” leaves the company and me as well, leaving Keytoon
after 3 years and starting a new period as a freelancer, which allowed me to open the Sitges Film Festival
and get the Goya nomination with “Alma”, as working primarily with the United States and very awesome
international studios.
Q. What education and experience required to becoming a Lighting artist?
One of the most important things is to have a good artistic eye, maybe learning an artistic career, practicing
by yourself at home, watching movies, comics...
I learned self-taught, so I can’t tell you which way is better because I don’t know the other way, but I can
tell you that by learning yourself, you are forced to try many ways to get to the same place, it gives you
more versatility, trying to reproduce anything you see interesting, looking for your own style and refinement
technically, you have to be very curious, analyzing the films you see in another way, watching very closely
the work of the director of photography, why they put this light here and leave this part in the shadow? Etc.
Photography is so helpful because it is very direct, just push a button and have the result in a frame, allows
you to do many tests much faster than in 3D, where you have a very slow process like lighting, rendering
Interview with
CGArena
Jonatan Catalan
and composition... this way you will understand much better how it works physically the light, how it works
the surfaces, the colors of daylight hours, the color is very important in nature and we have a lot of perfect
examples.
About the experience I recommend starting on a small studio where they do many projects of different
styles, working on Keytoon or as a Freelance has allowed me to change the style for each project, and to
take what I saw best of each one, to evolve my own style. If you enter in a long project, or in a studio with
a specific look, you can be very good at it, but you will not develop other styles, or know really if the style is
where you feel more comfortable.
Q. On what types of projects you like to work best – short films, commercials, promo etc.?’
Commercials are very interesting, because normally you always find something that you don’t know, let you
always learn new things but in a very short time, with timings extremely tight, it gives you the time to discover
how it works, to apply it and you will be feeling that you could have done better, but you must learn faster,
be more productive and work with new tools quickly.
I think the short films are my favorites, you have more time for R+D, development of the look is my favorite
Interview with
CGArena
Jonatan Catalan
part, think the best way to do the 3d with the 2d concepts, trying to make something new and interesting,
is really cool. You have a longer schedule enough to try to do things well and not so long to get tired of the
project. Also the short films always allow you a bit of investigation and do the things differently, in commer-
cials you don’t have the time needed, and the films can’t risk so much.
Q. Can you tell us about other tools you can’t do

without these days?
I started on the 3d at the same time that the boom of

the global illumination, I lived a few months of transi-
tion, where I still used Scanline from 3ds Max in projects
where there was no time for renders of hours, and where
the GI was beginning to emerge as the perfect tool for
lighting artists.
I think as ZBrush was the natural evolution for a modeler,

leaving behind technical steps, polys, extrudes ... only
need to have artistic skills to learn modeling without limits,
although the ZBrush interface need some getting used to.
With global illumination is the same, if you know light-

ing, if you have a base of traditional lighting, making a
lighting setup like a photographic studio, cinematographic
... without knowing much technically you could get amazing results. The programs were technically compli-
cated; many parameters only to turn on the global illumination function, a lot of tests to adjust the quality,
wrongs renders with flicker shadows... then came Maxwell Render.
With Maxwell Render, I don’t care if I have the parameters in high or low, if antialiasing is correct, if the
samples of the reflections are well ... I work with the lighting how best I can and I don’t have to worry about
anything else. It seems that the other programs are evolving that way, the day that we forget the technique
and only have to think about the artistic part, everything will be better :)
In answer to your question, I prefer to change the word “tool” by “technology”, without the global illumination
technology could not do the things I do in the same way.
Q. In your opinion, what are your strong points?
In my opinion, as I’m coming from the info-architecture field and I really like photography, I have that point
of view of realism, even working with cartoon that’s my favorite style, I always try to light as in reality, this
mix of styles I think that’s my strong point, my knowledge of shading and environments modeling, make the
Interview with
CGArena
Jonatan Catalan
entire production process and thinking about how I will work with lighting at the end, makes the result always
be better.
Q. How much self-promotion for a freelance artist is necessary?
I think it’s a necessary part of a freelance artist, if they don’t know of you or your works, how they will call you
to give you a project or job? Publishing your work in 3D portals, specialized forums, create a blog or website
with your portfolio, etc. ... are things you need to get new projects and clients.
Q. What is your favorite project / render that you have done?
As you can imagine my favorite project is “Alma”, it was a great opportunity to learn and work with an amaz-
ing team, I learned a lot from Rodrigo Blaas and his vision, really “Alma” was an important point in my life
that made me see the things differently, I left my own company to change completely the way, I hope soon
to take me where I want to :)
Interview with
CGArena
Jonatan Catalan
Q. How do you feel as Lighting and Shading director when short film Alma got the international
recognition and awards in various festivals?
It’s very special, international recognition and awards at various festivals are really awesome, the positive
criticism from the people and encouragement they give, and be especially proud of the end result is a great
feeling.
As you know after a while at festivals, Guillermo del Toro and Dreamworks Animation offered to Rodrigo
Blaas to develop a film based on Alma, that’s really the best reward for me.
Q. You are not just lighting and shading artist but you are also doing texturing, props and sets mod-
eling… so are you really enjoying all this or is this necessary to become jack of all?
Absolutely! My favorite part is the lighting but I really enjoy the rest, to create a complete image for me is just
fantastic. Also when I model some props or environments, I always think the way as will look afterwards in
3D, the color and light are two different things, but in 2d are like only process.
I try to take that process both at the same time, working with flat colors and basic lighting at first, and then
evolve everything gradually adding detail in the beveled so that later shading works well, working with the
textures that improves the outcome of the surface with the lighting...
Interview with
CGArena
Jonatan Catalan
Q. What advice would you give a lighting artist on how to make a shot look right in these different
scenarios: bright sunlight, underwater and a lightning storm?
Bright sunlight - In this kind of lighting the most important are the colors, with warm and pleasant tones,
there are times when the color is more important than light, and in this case with a direct light and some
rebounds to help is enough, but you need to work with good colors to get the right feel.
Underwater - The atmosphere is the key, good depth, volumetric lights, particles and dust, some nice caus-
tic ... the color here is important too, whenever you do something in nature you realize how complex it is to
make it with all the details, a good idea is to see many pictures to see references of color and atmosphere.
Lighting Storm - I love this kind of lighting, very dramatic, desaturated, marking the outline of the characters
... is truly cinematic, it’s a good chance to play with the black areas, the shadows are not our enemies! Many
people think that good lighting is where you see the whole picture well and without shadows ... I think the
other way around, playing with shadows is fun and having this type of lighting, we have a very strong key
light to mark the important and the shadows will do the rest.
Q. What kinds of details do you look for in the way light interacts with surfaces of CG creatures and
Interview with
CGArena
Jonatan Catalan
objects that tells you if it’s working well or not?
I love to illuminate characters, highlight the details of the model or the feel from the acting of the animator.
Following the instructions of the director, is very important to go in the right direction and a very funny pro-
cess
Here it is important to have knowledge of shading, sometimes you need to adjust some of the subsurface
scattering parameters to highlight the rim or backlight, working with the specular or glossy for direct light ...
having a base of traditional lighting will help you know how to highlight the character or object in the best
way to perform well in the picture.
Q. On Facebook we often see the cartoons of animators/artists saying all work and no pay or less
pay. Are you agreeing on this?
Well it is a sensitive issue, there are times when circumstances are in a job where you find it difficult to leave,
you have not a portfolio that allows you to get better jobs, or want to try other projects ... if you can keep your
economy with a stable job, and in your free time you want to help a team of people to cooperate in a very in-
teresting project, I think the opportunity may be good, maybe with that, you can get better jobs and projects.
Interview with
CGArena
Jonatan Catalan
But you can’t live working for free, there are people who abuse that, and it seems that people who start or
want to work in 3D, must have to start working for free, and that is wrong.
However, we can decide to do it or not, if you think you cannot work for free for 4 months (for example) and
that does not interest you personally or professionally, do not start the project.
Q. Do you feel your life is more or less stressful than people in non-artistic careers?
Depends on the project, in commercials when you work 20 days without rest, making a minimum 16h per
day, sleeping 5h more or less, finishing your day when the sun rises ... you may sometimes hate this work,
but it is also our vocation, I could not do crazy deadlines if I don’t like my work, I know that is not the best
way to work, but sometimes you have to do it.
Q. How do you manage to combine your

personal life and work? In other words, you
got some time to work on personal proj-
ects? Do you have any hobbies?
My wife will be able to answer that question

better than me haha, I have not much personal
time as I’d like, but I’m working to change that.
On the personal works, recently finished my
reel and last year I was working on projects and
in my free time I worked on the reel, it was re-
ally stressful, so I think that even I have no time
for personal projects.
The photography is my other hobby, I really love

go to travel, lately I have not had much time for
this ... but as I say I’m working to change that :)
Q. What would you suggest to someone wanting to become part of this industry? What are the es-
sential skills to focus on when one starts?
I think the motivation and illusion are the key, if you have it is easier to evolve in this industry, of course you
need to have artistic abilities, but the motivation will make you learn much faster.
Be humble and good partner is very important to work as part of a team, you can be very good artist, the
best in the world, but if you cannot work in a team you will be fired no later than a month. The beauty of this
Interview with
CGArena
Jonatan Catalan
work is to see how all the pieces come together, see the result of work of the whole team, there is no room
for people who think it is the most important piece of the puzzle.
To learn in this industry is so important to know that our entire business is not new, perhaps the technology
itself yes, but the artistic base existed many years ago, you can start to see black and white movies to see
the performance of the actors, photography, composition. .. Disney movies will teach you what it really is
animation, you really need to look back to move forward, and of course you need to know what tools and
techniques are used now, but will always be a step in working as an animator, illuminator, modeling ... and
people are working on that many years ago in different fields : )
Q. On which projects you are working these days?
Now I’m working on the preproduction of a children’s TV series as lighting & shading director, and in another
very interesting project but I can’t give more details for now, I can only say that the way I chose when I left
my company and I started to work as freelance, is coming to an end, and the next step is near ;)
Web: www.jonatancatalan.com
Tutorial by DangMyLinh, Vietnam
CGArena
Software:
Making of Photoshop
2D
Carnivorous Plant
I want my character to have a layer of skin and eyes are clear and
highly detailed sparkling makeup on his face.
SKETCH + IDEA
I began with quick concept, and reference
Reference gave me some detail and material for the skin
COLOR + LIGHTING
Trick: Create a black color layer on the top, add mode Color. It’s
useful for you to check the contrast of your painting. Identify the
light source, and have quick painting.
Orange- yellow- green tones, a very good tone that I use, it’s
cold enough, but also hot enough, and very easy to combine.
Trick: To make clear your object, the color in the dark, I always use high color saturation, will make the block
look like the light running through it, it looked bright and clear. I think this is the most important things!
CGArena
Making of Carnivorous Plant

I’ve learned from other artist’s method and applications on my work. So I don’t have to create a new brush,
because it’s been very available to use.
I use the brush of Martah Dahlig , one of my favorite artists.
The blend brush is really useful, not too smooth like air brush, it’s still keeping some detail on the surface,
that’s what I want (download brush at the end of this making).
I think the work will be much quicker if there is a detailed

sketch of your ideas.
But usually I do not like that, so I often have to navigate in

the definition sketch when drawing
And I think this is also good for pre-defined curls that you
want to draw.. Exactly this hair is not good. But I just want to
show the way I use to draw hair. Ha-ha!
CGArena
DETAIL
With some brush I collected, I add in

some detail to the surface of the pet-
als. It’s easy to create by yourself too!!
CGArena
Sparkling effect
Finally, draw a simple detail in the background and in front .I like dew drops
detail, simple but effective!
I filmed my work process. Sorry about the brush, I don’t know what happen
with it. You can watch it on below link:
Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRxa_gMNTo4
Brush - www.cgarena.com/freestuff/ezine/files/brush_DangMyLinh.rar
Blog: http://dangmylinh-art.blogspot.com
Email: [email protected]
Tutorial by Catalin Obreja, UK
CGArena
Software:
Making of ZBrush
3D
Supermamika
CONCEPT
Once I saw the actual photos of the real life Super Mamika
I knew I had to make a 3d version; the randomness and
quirkiness as well as the expressive face fascinated me.
These shots helped me on the modelling stage a great

deal, and served as the basis for the expression.
Rather than making a perfect 3d model I focused more on

the expression of the face and the posture. I used some
references from the web for skin and wrinkles, as the ac-
tual Super mamika shots were really low res.
MODELING
The modelling was done entirely in ZBrush, not worrying

about anything else, as I knew I was going retopologize
and make UV-s later on. The final purpose of the model
was to create a low poly version for games, to showcase
my knowledge in that area.
If you want you can see a short clip I made using Xoliul
Shader in 3DS max with the final 5k poly model.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M19Bagb7MGg
The clothing was done using masks on the model and

extraction. The cape was done using just a simple plane.
CGArena
DETAILING
Most of the work was involved around the facial detail, especially the wrinkles, respecting certain guidelines
for creases. I did in fact cheat a bit by using masks from real photo references.
Masking by hue/intensity/saturation + brushes gets you quick details that you can keep or work on after-
CGArena
wards. It’s a great way to get good results from textures rather than using alpha masks that are restricted
by size.
TEXTURING
Applying some textures by projection after you build the initial model can help you visualize the details you
CGArena
want to keep and how they would look, and doesn’t get into over-detailing your model, and lose a lot of time.
After the detail sculpting I textured the model mostly by projection from Photoshop, but most of the depth
comes from the details.
Going through tutorials made by Cesar Dacol Jr. helped me alot, and I would recommend him to everyone,
especially the “Sculpting Wrinkles in ZBrush” tutorial.
The low poly map Projection was done using X-normal on the topology built in Topogun.
RENDERING
The scene was taken into 3DSmax, and this particular image I decided to render it in Random Control Arion.
I did not use any SSS map, just a subsurface modifier from the renderer. The passes were actual different
renders but with different light settings (around 15 min/ render on I7+gtx480), plus ambient occlusion, Fres-
nel and roughness.
Render Passes
from Arion
Render Passes
from VRay
CGArena
I love Arion and Fryrender as they give you a good idea of what you`re doing really fast, changing light
intensity& color, gamma mapping on the fly on a high res image, as long as you`re willing to wait on long
render times for the final shot.
COMPOSITING
The extras from composting involved adding more detail in the eyes, making eyelashes (the alpha mapped
ones from the low poly model did not look too great ), using dodge burn on some contours and adding some
filters and correcting some edges
I also made another render using v-

ray, and a small SSS skin showcases
video you can watch here:
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=OLCD-GN8dJI
Final Render (in the right page) I did

in Arion. If you would like to check out
my other works in 3D and 2D please
visit my website.
Web: http://www.catalin.obreja.in-
vitro-freelancers.com
CG Store Corner
CGArena
www.cgarena.com/store
Learning Adobe Photoshop CS6 - In this video training course for Adobe Pho-
toshop CS6, expert author and trainer Andy Anderson introduces you to the ba-
sics of this graphics software from Adobe. Photoshop is a huge and complex
program, but Andy breaks it down into bite sized pieces that anyone, from begin-
ner to more experienced users can understand. This course is designed for a
beginner, and no prior knowledge of Photoshop is assumed. This tutorial covers
the essential features of Photoshop that everyone should be familiar with.
Original Price - $ 100 | CGArena Price - $ 75 BUY NOW
Modernist Loft Day & Night Scene - This is NEW Full 3ds Max 2010+ with Vray
Render | DAY & NIGHT SETUP (PSD Files Included), ready to download, this is
really great scene if you are looking to learn realistic and complex vray lighting.
This scene comes with two different scene setup DAYLIGHT & NIGHTLIGHT for
maximum learning options. This scene is setup with realistic vray shaders, fully
detailed 3d models, hires textures, accurate lighting, full render setup, PSD files
included in the package and much more.
Exterior Visualization - Do you want to create beautiful, realistic exterior ren-

derings? Here’s your chance to learn how to do it! In this video you will learn
how to: Set up cad drawings for modeling; Model the building; Use Batzal Roof
Designer plug-in for creating 3D roof shingles; Create materials and textures for
the building; Model the ground and paths; Model the grass and flowers; Scatter
the grass and flowers with Itoo Software Forest Pack plug-in; Create and texture
a birch tree with Exlevel GrowFX plug-in etc...
Elikia: 3D Character Modeling & Texturing - Learn to model and texture a

3D character. Using 3D Studio Max and Adobe Photoshop. This DVD contains
the 3D model of Elikia the 3D Character, fully textured, and video tutorials last-
ing more than 6 hours. No third-party plugins required: we save your time and
money on expensive plugins by relying on 3D Max’s limitless creative possibili-
ties. More than 6 Hours of training.

CG Store Corner
CGArena
www.cgarena.com/store
CryEngine 3 Materials Vol 1-2-3 - THélder Pinto starts by studying the mate-
rials and examining reference. He then sets up the scene in CryENGINE and
gives an overview of the Material Editor. From there Hélder shows how to create
a golden material, tinted glass material, shattered glass material, car paint mate-
rial, velvet material, rubber tire material, and a worn and painted metal material.
More than 14 hours of training. This DVD, will provide you with an invaluable
amount of information needed to start creating your own production materials.
MotionBuilder - Motion Capture Production Pipeline - In this training, Instruc-

tor Markus Hammarstedt goes through the entire pipeline of taking several mo-
tion capture data files and creating a complex final scene. He starts off by giving
an overview of the UI and then shows how to export your character from Maya
and get it into MotionBuilder. From there he goes into assigning the bones and
creating the bind pose. Next, he assigns the markers to an actor and takes that
actor to retarget the motion capture to the character.
Ground Surfaces Textures - Dosch Textures: Ground Surfaces provides 100

very detailed depictions of seamlessly tileable outdoor ground surfaces. The tex-
tures have been exclusively designed by Pino Gengo for DOSCH DESIGN. Pino
has worked as a texture artist on games like Crysis, Crysis Warhead and Far Cry.
These high-resolution Dosch textures (2048 x 2048 pixel) can be used for ani-
mations, architectural visualization, and for all kinds of computer graphics or
print applications (e.g. catalog, magazine).
Rayfire - RayFire Tool gives you the ability to fragment, destroy, demolish, wreck,
break down, wreak havoc, blow up, burst, detonate, explode and do other similar
things you have always dreamed of to do in Max... Support for 3ds Max 2013
Support for Nvidia PhysX plugin 2.85, Support for Included Entropy Bullet plugin
(Beta), Clusterizing for All fragments, Tesselation for Voronoi fragments, Dead
Objects feature for Sleeping objects with ability to Revive by Velocity, Biped and
CAT support for Kinematik objects.

Tutorial by Darko Vucenik, Croatia
CGArena
Software:
Making of 3ds Max, Mudbox, ZBrush

3D
Piercings are cool
Hello. In this making of I will take you through some of the techniques used in the creation of this simple
cartoony 3d illustration.
As most of my ideas, the one about a tough little fish with piercings came at random. Fishhooks seamed as
a logical substitution for jewelry a fish would use. I grabbed a piece of paper and sketched the shape of my
fish. It turned out to be a mix between a piranha and... Hmm. Well, I don’t really know what sort of a fish it
is, but it’s tough and stupid.
MODELING
I usually start modeling by roughing out the shape in ZBrush and then retopologize, but since this was such
a simple concept, I decided it would be faster to go straight to some old fashion poly modeling. Before I
imported the sketch into 3DS Max for reference, I colored it gray in Photoshop. I find it easier on the eyes
than staring at a big area of white. Since this character has such big bulging eyes, I started modeling from
there. Building the mesh from a plane into an eyelids using Freeform extend tool. It’s a fast way to build
CGArena
Making of Piercings are cool

a surface over the sphere of an eye. Shift dragging the
edges to create new polygons is my favorite method for
quick surface development. Both, fish and hooks were
built using this method.
Posing was simple. I just made a soft selection from the

tail to the middle of the body and then applied twist and
bend modifiers. Fishing line remnants are just some ed-
itable splines with thickness. Created some bent cones
for little sharp teeth and cloned the hooks around. The
eyes are simple lathe objects. For UVW unwrapping I
used the X-ray Unwrap plugin. I like its simplicity. Just
place the seams and press unwrap button. With that the
base model was finished and ready for sculpting.
SCULPTING
Since the model won’t be animated, I have imported it

into ZBrush already posed. Poseable Symmetry option
came in very handy. Bigger forms were built with clay
brush and then smoothed. For wrinkles, I used

Standard and Damien Standard brush. To break
up the silhouette of the fins, I just pulled some
spikes out of them with move brush. Sculpting
process to this point was fast, around 20 min-
utes. The only things left to model were the
scales.
I painted one scale in Photoshop (marked A) and

made it tillable by cutting and copying in combi-
nation with the offset filter (B). Using a gradient
ramp, it was easy to create bump version (C).
Once this was done it was simple to just fill the
side of the fish with scale pattern. Both the color
version for later Texturing and bump version to
be used to displace the mesh in ZBrush.
CGArena

TEXTURES AND SHADERS
Usually at this point I start putting some

color on the model simply by polypainting.
However, this time, I didn’t have a clear
idea of how the color map should look. I
decided to switch to Mudbox for Texturing
since, unlike ZBrush; it has various blend-
ing modes for texture layers. This comes
in very handy for experimenting with differ-
ent color schemes. I used pattern scales
from before in grayscale version. Previous
yellowish shade was chosen at random
anyway. Head and belly were filled with
noisy organic map fond on Total Textures
Alien Organic collection. This newly com-
bined texture was used in bump channel
and as a base for diffuse color and reflec-
tion maps. To create a diffuse map I added
several layers with colored strips. This is
where blending modes came in handy.
Mostly color and overlay modes. To create
a reflection map I just adjusted the bump
map with curves filter and added a few
random scratches and smudges. Plenty of
variation in reflection helps a lot in getting
rid of that too perfect CG look.
With textures painted and model sculpt-

ed, it was time to put it all together back
in Max. Since really tiny scratches and
scales were in textures instead in ZBrush
geometry, the model didn’t need many
subdivision levels so I just exported it to
max without using decimation master or bothering with displacement maps and retopologizeing.
All materials but one is scanline materials. Default Scanline Renderer is now days often considered obso-
lete but I still find it perfectly fine for more than just rendering masks and other such simple stuff. I love its
speed. You can see the main setting of the body material in the picture (A). It is quite simple. What makes it
look good are the reflections. Instead of achieving the shiny, fishy look by pumping up the specular values,
it’s better to combine HDR image and speculars. So the texture I painted for reflections is used as a mask
where light areas are more and dark less reflective. What is seen through light areas is an HDR image
CGArena

filtered through the falloff map. Falloff map is an easy way to achieve Fresnel reflections. Other materials
(cornea (B), teeth (C), fish hooks (D), fishing line (E) and eyeballs (F)) are even simpler mostly just varying
specular values, glossiness and angle of the falloff mix curve.
LIGHTING AND RENDERING
Although there are more than 3 lights in the scene, they are mimicking standard three-point light setup. Light
E is the key light. Four lights marked with D are the fill light. By creating four instances of the same light,
closely spaced, I am faking an area light. Lights A, B and C act as the back or rim light. All lights are target
spot lights using shadow maps. They have the shadow map sample range set to 30. Such a high value
makes shadows blurry. Blurry shadows helped suggest murkiness of the water.
Ready for rendering. The final image was rendered 6000 pixels wide and it took three and a half minutes.
There were 3 passes rendered. Beauty pass, zdepth pass used to achieve gradual fading of the fish in un-
derwater depth and slight depth of field effect. Material ID pass that I ended up not using at all. Additionally
falloff pass was rendered to help accentuate the rim light. Finally I switched to mental ray to do the ambient
occlusion pass.
COMPOSITING
Photoshop was used for compositing. I started by adding a gradient ramp in blue tones for the background
behind the beauty pass render. Multiplied the occlusion pass over the beauty. Next, I painted some wavy
light blue tones to indicate the surface of the water. I overlaid some textures with caustic looking patterns to
add more interest to the water. To
create the tiny bubbles, I traced the
shape of several actual bubbles
from an underwater photo and then
converted that shape in a custom
brush that allowed me to simply
spray them wherever needed. To
achieve subsurface scattering look
on the fins and tail, I masked them
off and increased their saturation
and brightness. To enhance the rim
light, I sprayed some blue tones
using falloff pass as a mask. I du-
plicated that layer and blurred it to
get the glow effect. Next came the
blue fog using the z depth channel
as a mask and finally to finish the
picture some depth of field using
the lens blur filter again with zdepth
pass. A bit of playing with exposure and that is it, the picture is finished.
There are countless ways to create a nice image and I hope you enjoyed this little overview of how I made
this one. This little fish was a very fun project.
Portfolio: http:// darkov.cgarena.com
Tutorial by Yasin Hasanian, Iran
CGArena
Software:
Making of Aroma Maya, Mental Ray, ZBrush

3D
COLLECTING REFERENCES
First step in almost any production is gathering references. As

my goal was to make a close-up shot so, I collected detailed
references of fruits close up specially peaches and strawber-
ries under different lighting conditions to evaluate how each
look according to their corresponding lighting setup.
MODELING
Most of the organic models were made and detailed in ZBrush.

Other objects were modeled in Maya with basic modeling tools
such as create poly tool, extrude, merge etc. After the model-
ing was done I unwrapped the objects either with the help of
headus UVlayout or UVmaster in ZBrush.
CGArena
Making of Aroma
LIGHTING
Usually before I do the shading or texturing I do the lighting, this way you can first be sure of the lighting to
a large extent then base your shading stage on that. I just assigned a gray non-reflective mia_material as a
material override to all the objects on a different render layer and then adjusted the lighting. There are two
area lights in the scene, one serving as a portal key light simulating the light coming from the window and
the other is the kick light providing nice speculars as well. There is also an IBL having an HDRI photo of a
kitchen connected to it.
TEXTURING
Generally texturing was hand-painted in Photoshop and in some cases I used ZBrush with the help of auto
masking by cavity to add details for instance the peaches have two texture sets, one for their shell and one
for their meat. Main textures I created were diffuse, glossiness, bump/normal, displacement and others ac-
cording to the need. For instance the strawberry also has epidermal and diffuse-weight maps. It has sepa-
rate textures for its seeds as well.
CGArena
Making of Aroma
SHADING
This is where the fun begins! All the materials are mia_material except some mix8layers like ones for the
peaches and the strawberry. Be aware that mix20layer does not work with the newer versions of Maya any-
CGArena
Making of Aroma
more. Most organic objects in the scene own an SSS shader built-into their mia_material. You can do this
by plugging the output of SSS to the additional color slot of mia_material and diffuse weight would act the
same as the diffuse weight in SSS shader.
On the peaches there

is also a coat layer of
water mimicking a wet
appearance. This layer
was achieved by com-
bining all peaches in
ZBrush and inflating
them a bit off the peach
surfaces.
CGArena
Making of Aroma
RENDERING
Both Final Gather and Global illumination was used mainly because it is a close-up interior shot and there-
fore requires specific bounces of photons around. The scene got rendered in passes to have maximum con-
trol over the final look with the help of 32 bit EXR files. The passes were then assembled in Nuke to make
use of 32 bit data and then passed to Photoshop for final touches.
POST-PRODUCTION
In Photoshop I adjusted all objects each by each with the help of material ID pass. And then applied bunch of
layer adjustments to eventually bring all the tones together. As a tip, almost every time increase the contrast
of your rendered shots because human eye seeks for contrast to define objects from one another. Last of
all I added grain, CA and depth of field to finalize the piece. (Next Page)
Working on this was really delicious ;). I hope you found something useful from this making-of, please don’t
hesitate to ask me any question you might have.
Andrius Balciunas, Lithuania
[email protected]
3ds Max, Mentalray
Victoria Passariello, Venezuela
[email protected]
3ds Max, Vray
Evi Account, Persia
[email protected]
Maya, 3ds Max, ZBrush, Mental Ray
Cihan ÖZKAN, Turkey
[email protected]
3ds Max, VRay
Daniel Fonseca de Moura, Brazil
[email protected]
3ds Max, Vray
Jordi Gonzalez, Spain
[email protected]
Photoshop
Yaroslav Primachenko, Russia
[email protected]
3ds Max, ZBrush
Aleksandr Kuskov, Ukraine
[email protected]
Maya, Mental Ray
Ahmed Salim, Egypt
[email protected]
3ds Max, ZBrush
Vadim Valiullin, Russia
[email protected]
3ds Max, Photoshop
Have you created your
CG Por tfolio?
www.cgarena.com/por tfolio
Please consider the environment before printing this magazine.
Save Paper. 100% Environment Respect.
How to send in your images...
We showcase the cream of reader images in magazine and on website gallery.
Here’s how to get yours noticed
Upload Images through Website

Follow this link http://www.cgarena.com/submit.php
This is by far the quickest and easiest way to send your images to us.

Cgarena Jun12 Mag

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Cgarena Jun12 Mag

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Cgarena Jun12 Mag

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

CGArena

VOLUME 7, ISSUE 3, JUN - JUL 12

Get Attention in the Computer Graphics Community

Latest 3D Inspiring Art

Get Attention in the Computer Graphics Community

05 Interview Jonatan Catalan

Magazine Edited: Ashish Rastogi

Submit your Production Now Free Pre-Release Trial of Au-

Brush Professional Tips and Techniques - ZBrush is used by top art-

technology is also used in jewelry design, forensic science, aerospace,

Unrealscript Masterclass: Part 1-2-3 - Recreating Assault in UDK-

Q. What education and experience required to becoming a Lighting artist?

Q. Can you tell us about other tools you can’t do

I started on the 3d at the same time that the boom of

I think as ZBrush was the natural evolution for a modeler,

With global illumination is the same, if you know light-

Q. In your opinion, what are your strong points?

Q. How much self-promotion for a freelance artist is necessary?

Q. What is your favorite project / render that you have done?

Q. How do you manage to combine your

My wife will be able to answer that question

The photography is my other hobby, I really love

Q. On which projects you are working these days?

I began with quick concept, and reference

Reference gave me some detail and material for the skin

Making of Carnivorous Plant

I use the brush of Martah Dahlig , one of my favorite artists.

I think the work will be much quicker if there is a detailed

But usually I do not like that, so I often have to navigate in

Making of Carnivorous Plant

With some brush I collected, I add in

Making of Carnivorous Plant

These shots helped me on the modelling stage a great

Rather than making a perfect 3d model I focused more on

The modelling was done entirely in ZBrush, not worrying

The clothing was done using masks on the model and

I also made another render using v-

Final Render (in the right page) I did

Original Price - $ 100 | CGArena Price - $ 75 BUY NOW

Original Price - $ 60 | CGArena Price - $ 54 BUY NOW

Exterior Visualization - Do you want to create beautiful, realistic exterior ren-

Original Price - $ 60 | CGArena Price - $ 54 BUY NOW

Elikia: 3D Character Modeling & Texturing - Learn to model and texture a

Original Price - $ 28 | CGArena Price - $ 16 BUY NOW

Original Price - $ 150 | CGArena Price - $ 96 BUY NOW

MotionBuilder - Motion Capture Production Pipeline - In this training, Instruc-

Original Price - $ 55 | CGArena Price - $ 51 BUY NOW

Ground Surfaces Textures - Dosch Textures: Ground Surfaces provides 100

Original Price - $ 89 | CGArena Price - $ 79 BUY NOW

Original Price - $ 325 | CGArena Price - $ 275 BUY NOW

Making of 3ds Max, Mudbox, ZBrush

Making of Piercings are cool

Posing was simple. I just made a soft selection from the

Since the model won’t be animated, I have imported it

brush and then smoothed. For wrinkles, I used

I painted one scale in Photoshop (marked A) and

Making of Piercings are cool

Usually at this point I start putting some

With textures painted and model sculpt-

Making of Piercings are cool