3DAD 015 : Directing the Sci-Fi Series Nobility : Interview with Pioneering Digital Film Maker Neil Johnson

By on May 15, 2013 in Podcast

In this session we continue to follow the progress of the sci-fi series project CAS Nobility which is actively pitching for crowd sourced funding on the Kickstarter.com website. Go to Kickstarter.com and just search for nobility and take a look at the videos describing the project, which feature E.J. Del La Pena, the creator of the Nobility project and also the director Neil Johnson. They are offering all kinds of goodies to those who donate to the project. We interview both E.J. and Neil in this session, with an emphasis on Neil’s directing role and past achievements.

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E.J. De la Pena is an Actor/Film Maker with more than 20-years experience in the entertainment industry. He’s been a child actor who has earned dozens of credits – including projects like Jingle All The Way and Boy Meets World. He is now the president and founder of the film production company Cowboy Errant!

Neil Brook Johnson (July 26, 1967) is a British film and music video producer, director, and editor best known for his long association with heavy metal band Manowar, and for directing and writing Science Fiction Films. Neil is regarded as a pioneer in digital film-making.… Read the rest

Read Issue 28 : 3D Shipbuilding, Curious Imagery with Vue and Planetary Exploration with Mojoworld

By on May 4, 2013 in Interview, Magazine

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52 Pages of Insightful Interviews and Fresh Inspirational Artwork

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Issue28FrontCover

BRYCE ● VUE ● TERRAGEN ● POSER ● MOJOWORLD ● CARRARA ● DAZ STUDIO ● CINEMA 4D ● 3DS MAX ● BLENDER ● LIGHTWAVE

Editorial: How to make a sci-fi series : The Making of CAS Nobility

The creation of a single static scene in 3D can be time consuming, but when stepping up to animation it certainly takes a great deal of extra resources. But what about the making of a whole science fiction series? It’s an ambitious and exciting project to undertake and 3D Art Direct will be following the creation of this venture. It’s called C.A.S. Nobility–with the tagline of “These are not the heroes you are looking for”. It’s also dubbed “The Office in Space” – which indicates it is a drama/comedy or a “dramedy”. The story is set 700 years from now and it’s about the starship “C.A.S. Nobility”, Humanity’s most powerful starship yet crewed with people that are anything but noble.… Read the rest

3DAD 014 : Vue Educators – Interview with Vladmir and Ami Chopine at GeekAtPlay Studios

By on May 3, 2013 in Podcast

In this session I’m interviewing the husband and wife team that run the GeekAtPlay studio website which is totally focussed on education for 3D digital artists.

What delighted me most about Vladmir and Amy Chopin’s efforts for teaching 3D Digital Art applications is the sheer amount of content they provide.  Today is May 3rd 2013, and I’ve just looked at their YouTube channel – GeekAtplay studio and I can see seven new videos uploaded just two days ago.

Now admittedly, this is probably to do with the fact that Vue 11.5 has been released and Vladmir is showing what’s new for this version, so this is probably a few more than he would normally upload, but during our interview he mentioned he had created around 1500 training videos.

In fact GeekAtPLay specialise in Vue, so if you want to start digital art with creating 3D environments with a great sense of realism, you could download a trial or free version of Vue from e-onsoftware.com and start looking at Vladmir’s training videos on YouTube.

Now Amy Chopin is equally busy, she’s the author of 3D Art Essentials, which is a great start for 3D digital artist in getting to know the basics on the history, the terms of 3D art.… Read the rest

ZBrush®, the tool that changed the GAME

By on April 26, 2013 in Game Artwork

As both an enthusiastic gamer and a digital artist I follow closely both the hardware and tool innovations that happen in the computer and digital art worlds.

The digital entertainment business is a huge and varied one, yet, there’s many tools that are used all across the board, whether it’s creating gaming content, working on the next blockbuster movie or just making high-quality 3D content for the masses (as I do).

ZBrush4R5_logo_gradient

Among all of them, there’s one that really stands out as game-changing (pun intended): ZBrush®.

ZBrush® is perhaps the program that had the strongest impact on the 3D digital entertainment world since its release in the early 2000, although it did take a few years for it to become a full-fledged application.

Pixologic®’s tool allows artists (both modelers and texturers alike) to go beyond the limits set by hardware and gaming engines, adding details that wouldn’t otherwise be achievable.

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I started using ZBrush® since version 2, back then, compatibility was still a bit of an issue. ZBrush® could interface easily enough with higher-end tools, such as Maya, which has always been a major one in the pipelines of game-developing studios, but people like me, that had to import their final content in Poser, for example, had to jump through some hoops, sometimes fiery ones.… Read the rest

3DAD 013 : How to Create a Science Fiction Series – The Making of Nobility

By on April 20, 2013 in Podcast

This session is a little different from what 3D Art Direct podcast normally presents, since this time we are exploring the making of a science fiction series –which will be a drama/comedy produced with the aid of crowdfunding. The series is called C.A.S. Nobility – that has the tagline of “These are not the heroes you’re looking for.”. Nobility is the name of the starship in this series with a curious crew of characters on board.

The project is notable because of it’s story, and because of the amount of passion and power behind the project which is generated in gigawats by E.J. De la Pena, the producer AND because he has managed to cast the actress Claudia Christian (from Babylon V) .

Nobility

This project was brought to my attention through Danny Gordon, who is the new conference and community manager for 3D Art Direct. He is one of the 3D artists on the project and invited me to follow the production of this series. I’ve always had a great interest in the production and what goes on behind the scenes of sci-fi television series and films.

 

I mentioned that this series was going to be funded by crowdfunding. What is crowdfunding?… Read the rest

The Best Game 3D Artwork in 2013

By on April 18, 2013 in Game Artwork

As a medium videogames have in recent years officially earner the status of Art, this may sound pretty straightforward to many passionate gamers that have grown up playing iconic characters, intense stories and wandering wonderful worlds.

As gamers we all have fond memories of the first games we played, we have favourite characters, stories and places, just as we may have in regards to movies, books, music or paintings.

A piece of art should convey emotions and feelings and this is something games are very good at, in fact, being an interactive media that involves the consumer, they may even be particularly good at it.

While the debate is still going on the matter, even within the industry itself, the European Union officially recognized them having cultural importance back in 2008, while the US made a similar move in May 2011, when the National Endowment for the Arts (that funds artistic projects) decided to accept them under the “Arts in Media”.

In 2012 the Smithsonian Museum was the first to host “The Art of Videogames” event that is now touring the US. Currently you can find it at the EMP museum in Seattle until May 12th.

It will take time for the public at large to really see and accept videogames as art, but that’s what usually happens to new media and forms of art.… Read the rest

3DAD 012 : Behind the Scenes of Reality 3 – Photo Realism for Poser. Interview with Paolo Ciccone

By on April 7, 2013 in Podcast

This session’s podcast has a wonderful interview with Paolo Ciccone, author of the reality software for Poser and Daz studio which helps these applications take advantage of the incredible LuxRender engine, allowing photo realism for Poser renders. Version 3 of this popular software is about to be released on the 8th April 3013. See Preta3D.com for details.

Paolo originates from the city of Trieste in Italy and originally worked as a software engineer for Borland before entering into the digital arts world with Reality. He has over 30 years’ experience as a software developer.

In this interview we cover:-

  • Paolo’s legacy and origins including his studies at the Art Institute of Trieste.
  • The PC revolution and how Paolo took advantage of it with a career as a software engineer.
  • Paolo’s take up and promotion of Blender.
  • His discovery of the LuxRender engine and desire to bridge this photo-realistic engine with Blender, Daz Studio and Poser.
  • How the first version of Reality took the market by storm and how it has developed as a product since.
  • The new “wow” factors of Reality 3 for Poser users.

Paolo also presented at the Poser Expo : Runtime Live conference, held between the 22nd and 24th of March 2013, which was the first ever conference Poser users, presented through our 3D Art Live webinar service in partnership with Runtime DNA.… Read the rest

Three Ultimate Tips for a 3D Digital Artist : Be knowledgeable, be focused and be driven

By on April 6, 2013 in Interview, Magazine

Don Webster has made a career around images and digital technology. From his army officer days as an aerial surveillance officer in the 60s to an executive management position at a technology company in the 90s, he has built a diverse experience base uniquely suited to the field of 3D art.

Don’s love of period history spanning multiple generations is a pallet of inspiration for a gallery of digital art to be envied. From the streets of Rome and the time of Emperors, to the battlefields of the American Civil War, Don has an eye for period art and uses a wide array of 3D tools to bring his vision to life.

Enjoying his retirement in the lush hills of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, Don blends his free time with taking care of his beautiful home, traveling with his wife of 34 years, Shirley, and working in his exquisite studio creating digital art of the highest quality.

He is a long-time Mac user and uses Vue, Modo, and Zbrush, along with several other software packages as the primary tools of his handiwork.

We originally interviewed Don in issue 19 of 3D Art Direct, and we’ll return to visit his work in this month issue.… Read the rest

Read Issue 27 : Discover Behind the Scenes of Two Superb Poser Artists – Nightsong and Arki

By on March 16, 2013 in Magazine

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68 Pages of Insightful Interviews and Fresh Inspirational Artwork

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Issue 27

BRYCE ● VUE ● TERRAGEN ● POSER ● MOJOWORLD ● CARRARA ● DAZ STUDIO ● CINEMA 4D ● 3DS MAX ● BLENDER ● LIGHTWAVE

Interview : Kim Schneider
“I really got my feet wet with Poser. It was sort of the easy entry to the mystical world of 3D. That was back in the days of Poser Pro Pack, long ago. At that point I never would have thought to model myself one day. “

Interview : Mary Williams
“The biggest thing that helped me learn 3D quickly was that, by using Poser, I did -not- have to model every little thing from scratch: I could instead concentrate on learning composition, lighting, and how to create shaders, and after that I picked up how to model my own things at a much more rapid pace than I would have otherwise.”

Interview : Massimo Verona
“A little over a year ago I downloaded Vue PLE ….… Read the rest

Read Issue 26 : Special Bonus Compilation – Seven In-Depth Interviews with 3D Digital Artists

By on March 5, 2013 in Magazine

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Over 100 Pages of Insightful Interviews and Fresh Inspirational Artwork

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Issue26

This issue of 3D Art Direct is a special compilation of some of the best interviews we undertook in the earlier editions of the magazine. There are 106 pages of outstanding gallery artwork and interview text with these seven great artists shown below.

Here a snippet of our interview with Artur Rosa (Vue)

3DAD: If there was one function you could add to Vue that it currently doesn’t have – what would that be?!
AR: A “Cloud Painter”. I would like to have the possibility to paint clouds in the sky in the same way as we can now paint materials in terrains or paint trees in a field.
3DAD: What was one of your first “breakthrough” images that you published, where you started to get a lot more feedback and more notice for your work?

AR: “Assassin”, from November 2007, was the first. This was my first image that was used by e-on in a marketing initiative (in Siggraph 2008, I think).

… Read the rest

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