3d art

Maya • 3ds Max • Photoshop • Vue • Cinema 4D • ZBrush 

Creative 

guides for 

amazing 

3D art 

INCLUDED INSIDE… 

• Ultimate guides to next-gen designs 

• Interviews and advice from professionals 

• Inspirational galleries from top artists 

• Free disc packed with great resources 


02 

&design 

VOL 

Practical inspiration for the 3D community 

FROM THE MAKERS OF


VOL 

&design 

02


&design 

Imagine Publishing Ltd 

Richmond House 

33 Richmond Hill 

Bournemouth 

Dorset BH2 6EZ 

% +44 (0) 1202 586200 

Website: www.imagine-publishing.co.uk 

Editor in Chief 

Jo Cole 

Production Editor 

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Design 

Charles Goddard 

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Distributed in the UK & Eire by 

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3D Art & Design Volume 2 © 2011 Imagine Publishing Ltd 

ISBN 978-1-906078-9-73

02 

Your guide to what’s 

included in the book 

96 

34 

Create a 

magical 

3D lake 

6 

Environment 

Gallery ...........................................................................8 

Feature: The world in your hands ....................... 14 

Create a futuristic city ............................................22 

Create a beautiful landscape ................................28 

I made this: Meny Hilsenrad ................................32 

Creating a magical forest lake ..............................34 

Texture and paint environments ........................40 

I made this: Nikita Veprikov .................................44 

Model environments ............................................. 46 

Creating nature – plant modelling ......................52 

I made this: Rafal Waniek ......................................57 

FREE 

CD 

25 textures • Tutorial files • Podcasts 

Turn to page 258 for full listings 

Character 

210 

Gallery .......................................................................58 

Interview: Oliver Ponsonnet ...............................64 

Painting up a demon image .................................72 

Texture and light a beautiful girl..........................76 

Creating a savage warrior ...................................80 

I made this: Hodong La ........................................96 

Making of The Sky Fisherman ...........................98 

Create a sexy fairy woman ...............................104 

Portrait masterclass ............................................108 

I made this: Iker Cortázar ................................... 114 

Model a cute fantasy figure ................................116 

Build your own monster ..................................... 120 

Interview: Andrew Hickinbottom ....................124 

Create a futuristic bar scene............................. 130 

Create a friendly dragon .....................................134 

Add textures and light to objects .....................138 

I made this: Martin Ruizl .....................................142 

Create a Lovecraft legend .................................144 

Create Pixar-style artwork ................................148

102 

SUBSCRIBE 

TO 3D ARTIST 

MAGAZINE 

Page 254 

234 

Architecture 

104 

168 

64 

The hottest 3D 

artists show us 

how they create 

inspirational 

works of art 

Gallery ........................................................................ 152 

Grand designs ..........................................................158 

Texturing and lighting architecture ...................164 

Creating a stylish museum building ..................168 

I made this: Viktor Fretyán ................................... 172 

Interview: Kuan Studio .......................................... 174 

I made this: Anton Cherenko ...............................179 

Creating a mansion ................................................180 

I made this: Luis Tejeda .........................................186 

Interview: F10 Studios ............................................188 

I made this: Arkin Esref ......................................... 193 

Transport 

Gallery ........................................................................194 

Interview: Daniel Simon ...................................... 200 

Creating a futuristic flying vehicle ......................210 

Get that post-apocalypse look ............................214 

Creating a magnificent Spitfire ...........................218 

I made this: Simeon Patarozliev .........................234 

Modelling a sports car..........................................236 

Lighting the Silver Arrow .....................................240 

I made this: André McGrail ................................245 

Building a concept car ..........................................246 

I made this: Neil Maccormack ........................... 252 

7

Environment 

Feature: The world in your hands ................14 

Create a futuristic city .....................................22 

Create a beautiful landscape .........................28 

I made this: Meny Hilsenrad .........................32 

Creating a magical forest lake ...................... 34 

Texture and paint environments ................40 

I made this: Nikita Veprikov .........................44 

Model environments ...................................... 46 

Creating nature – plant modelling ................52 

I made this: Rafal Waniek ...............................57 

8

Environment 

When I started work on Interurban, my intention 

was to convey both the massive scale and the hustle 

and bustle of the sprawling cities of the future. Don’t 

look down 

Jacob Charles Dietz, 

Interurban, 2010 

Artist info 

Jacob 

Charles Dietz 

Personal portfolio site 

JacobCharlesDietz.com 

Country America 

Software used 

Poser Pro 2010, Vue 9 Infinite 

and Photoshop CS5 

Artist bio 

Jacob is an award-winning artist, 

illustrator and matte painter 

specialising in science fiction 

and fantasy. Born and raised in 

Seattle, Jacob studied Visual 

Communications at The 

University of Washington before 

moving on to receive traditional 

fine arts training at Seattle’s 

School of Visual Concepts. He 

has always been fascinated by 

the fantastic worlds of comic 

books and classical paintings of 

the old masters, so he leverages 

both of these influences in his 

work making a one-of-a-kind 

style that can be seen in 

everything he does. 

9

Light played a key 

part in the composition of 

this image – everything 

was assigned to guide 

your eyes from the bright 

centre to the darker sides. 

For the main illumination, 

I used a V-Ray Plane light, 

while a Target Direct light 

was used in order to 

simulate sunshine 

István Vastag, The Way I Feel, 2009 

Artist info 

István Vastag 


http://dy217.cgsociety.org/ 

gallery 

Country Hungary 

Software used 

3ds Max, ZBrush, V-Ray, 

Photoshop 

Work in progress… 

10

Environment 

Artist info 

Lebedev Denis 

Victorovich 


N/A 

Country Russia 

Software used 

3ds Max, V-Ray, Photoshop 


It all started when I watched 

the film Mary Reilly (1996). I very 

much liked a fleeting shot with 

an old watch, but gradually the 

idea and composition developed 

and I also wished to introduce 

some history into the interior 

Lebedev Denis Victorovich, Antique clock, 2010 

11

This was created for the NVArt 5 competition. It’s 

inspired by pictures by Syd Mead, who is a living 

legend of futuristic images. I used similar colours to 

try and convey the same mood as master Syd 

Christopher Czerwinski, 

Periodical Service, 2010 

Artist info 

Christopher 

Czerwinski 


http://hris.cgsociety.org/ 

gallery 

Country Poland 

Software used 

CINEMA 4D R10.101, Advanced 

Renderer 2.5, Photoshop 

Elements 6 


12

Environment 

13

» Cirrus Minor 

Using stratified materials on the rocks nearest the camera, and then a 

moon and planet in the sky using MojoWorld 

14

Environment 

The 

world 

hands 

in 

your 

If you want to create 

your own CGI world, 

you need the right 

software. Duncan 

Evans investigates 

the best options 

© Edson Moraes 

Ever since there have been computers 

capable of creating semi-realistic-looking 

images, there have been software 

programs around to help create CGI landscapes. 

It really started in the days of the Commodore 

Amiga, when terms such as ‘multimedia’ and 

‘information superhighway’ were fresh on 

everyone’s lips. Since then, the software has 

become ever more sophisticated and the images 

more natural with massed vegetation, stunningly 

realistic water, architecture and atmospheric 

conditions being added to the mix. In this feature, 

we’ll take a look at the main options for those 

looking to create their own piece of CGI heaven, 

from bargain-basement offerings, to those 

designed for pro studios. 

It wasn’t always the case, but it certainly is now. 

Vue from e-on software is the number one 

landscape creation program and not just for 

Hollywood studios. There’s a Vue for everyone as 

the range is split into Enthusiast, Artist and 

Professional categories. For enthusiasts there’s 

entry-level Vue 8 Pioneer (it’s actually free), three 

pack versions: Fantasy, Fairy Tale and Sci-Fi 

($49.95 each), and Frontier ($99). Artists get 

Esprit ($199), Studio ($399) and Complete 

($599), while the professional users can look at 

shelling out $895 on Infinite and $1,495 on 

15

Masses 

of trees 

If you want to cover 

your environment in a 

swathe of realisticlooking 

trees without 

having to go to the 

effort of planting every 

single one, then the 

best solution by far is 

to use Vue. However, 

you’ll need the version 

that actually uses the 

EcoSystem painter 

which starts with Vue 

Studio. Large forested 

areas should generally 

have a limited number 

of different tree 

species – otherwise it 

won’t look realistic. 

The best way of doing 

this is therefore to load 

two or three varieties 

of the same tree into 

the EcoSystem and 

use the airbrush to 

spray the instances 

onto the terrain. For 

really thick jungle 

canopy, change the 

density setting so that 

they can stack up 

together or it will look 

more like a city park 

than a lush forest. 

» Woodland Waterway 

Featuring a bridge from 

Cornucopia3D, this Vue image 

uses a couple of terrains, lots of 

tree models and thick cloud cover 

xStream. In terms of functionality, the initial 

packages are fairly basic, concentrating on 

terrains and manual placement of vegetation. 

Frontier adds Poser support, while Esprit enables 

high-resolution renders, more import support and 

offers a content pack. Possibly the biggest Vue 

upgrade of recent years was the introduction of 

the EcoSystem tool that enables vegetation and 

indeed, any compatible objects, to be spraypainted 

onto the terrain surface. You only get that 

from Studio upwards but it really does enable 

complex environments to be created in a short 

© Dominic Davison 

» English Country Garden 

Vue master Dominic Davison 

creates the perfect English country 

garden with this classic scene 


timeframe when the alternative wouldn’t bear 

thinking about. The top-end package Infinite 

incorporates all the modules from the series and 

in xStream you have a version that integrates with 

mainline 3D apps like Max and Maya as well. 

The heart of Vue is terrain creation with a 

2D/3D sculpting interface that has seen plenty of 

improvement with recent releases. Like any kind 

of sculpting it takes a good concept and some 

practice to get a decent result. While the tools are 

quite good, there’s definitely room for expansion 

and improvement here so look forward to this 

being enhanced, especially with dedicated brush 

types, in the twice-yearly updates. For those 

seeking to re-create existing landscapes, then the 

ability to import 16-bit heightfield data from 


» Forever Autumn 

Using items from the Cornucopia3D store to create an autumnal feeling 

with an arching canopy of branches 

16

Environment 

© 20th Century Fox Film Limited 

Landscaping the movies 

Scott Brisbane of DreamWorks Animation increasingly uses 

Vue in his role as a matte painter 

Scott Brisbane graduated from USC’s School of Cinema- 

Television with a BA in Cinematography. He then studied 

matte painting at the Academy of Art University in San 

Francisco and was hired shortly after as a digital matte artist 

at Matte World Digital. After creating matte paintings for 

The Last Samurai, The Alamo and Catwoman, Scott moved to 

DreamWorks Animation in 2005. His credits as a matte painter there 

include Over The Hedge, Flushed Away and Shrek The Third. He was then 

promoted to lead matte painter on Kung Fu Panda, the first film where the 

studio used Vue extensively, creating over 700 shots. In 2008, Scott has 

served as the matte painting supervisor at DreamWorks Animation for the 

studio’s first stereoscopic movie Monsters vs Aliens. This film allowed the 

matte department the opportunity to push the boundaries of digital 

environments in 3D. Under Scott’s supervision, the team of ten artists 

delivered hundreds of shots with environments ranging from foreground 

buildings and distant city views to dimensional aerial cloudscapes. After 

completing Monsters vs Aliens, Scott left DreamWorks to work at Rhythm and 

Hues Studios on Land Of The Lost, The Wolfman and The Cabin In The Woods. 

» Avatar 

Scott joined Weta in the matte painting department as the senior painter where they worked on shots for 

Avatar, now available on Blu-ray/DVD. The floating mountains are only 3D to the mid-ground; the ones in the 

background are all matte paintings 

Scott moved over to Weta in 2009 as senior matte painter where Vue was 

used on James Cameron’s Avatar. He’s now back at DreamWorks, where he 

completed work on Shrek Forever After. Scott had this to say about using the 

program: “Vue is one of the most artist-friendly tools I’ve ever used. It has 

become an essential package in my workflow for environment creation. In 

fact, as more and more stereo films enter production, I see Vue becoming an 

extremely helpful tool in creating those imagined worlds dimensionally.” 

For us, Digital Nature has a dual meaning. Firstly, it’s Vue’s ability 

to create Digital Nature scenery with all that Vue is renowned for and 

seen in major cinematic productions: windswept forests, cloud-filled 

skies and vast mountainous terrains. Secondly, even novice users can 

quickly create awesome renders. The path between one’s own 

creative Digital Nature and a visually satisfying render with Vue is 

very straightforward and unobtrusive Nicholas Phelps, president, e-on software 

external apps or USGS DEM data will be useful. 

It’s the kind of thing that made VistaPro popular in 

the first place. Also on this front, there’s a very 

handy ability to load a terrain picture as a bitmap, 

display it inside the Terrain Editor and then sculpt 

a landscape based on it. 

The interface has a more old-fashioned feel to it 

than, say, Bryce, but it works well and consistently 

with a four-pane display on higher-spec versions, 

or a single display on the Enthusiast options. The 

real quality of the program is in assigning 

materials to your terrains and whether they are 

regular or procedural. The infinite procedural 

terrains have the benefit of automatic subdivision 

closer to the camera for more detail, and render 

time-saving general detail further away. Getting 

into the heart of the program is creating the 

materials and mixing them, applying rules for 

greenery, snow lines, scale, etc. 

It’s the EcoSystem painter that really makes 

Vue invaluable for densely populated terrains. 

Any objects can be loaded into the EcoSystem – 

whether they are clumps of grass, trees or even 

buildings, and they can be painted singularly for 

» Peaceful Island 

Created with Terragen 2 and reflecting 

the artist’s romantic mood at the time 

precision, or airbrush painted to cover your 

landscape en masse. This is the feature that the 

Hollywood studios love and you’ve seen it at work 

in everything from Pirates Of The Caribbean and 

Indiana Jones to Terminator: Salvation. 

When you throw in mist, atmospheric haze, 

low-lying fog, the different types of lighting with 

© Susanne Krings 

editable clouds and then the water simulation 

where surfaces can be smooth and lake-like or 

heaving like the Atlantic and you have 

unparalleled control for realistic landscapes. The 

caveat to this is that while it is easy to pick up and 

use, the results tend to be poor on close-up shots 

until you have mastered the technical aspects. 

17

Bryce 7 is a toolset inspired by artists. Based on the input and 

direction of professional Bryce users and DAZ 3D community 

members, the Bryce 7 toolset is truly customised to fit the needs of its 

artists. With updated lighting, rendering and export capabilities, as 

well as a brand new Instancing Lab that allows users to create even 

larger scenes that require less memory, Bryce 7 offers more options 

than ever before Dan Farr, CEO, DAZ 3D 

© Edson Moraes 

Then the results can be jaw-dropping. Vue also 

supports animation, and this is where studios tend 

to go for the xStream version. The animation 

wizard is a bit ropy but there’s Poser figure and 

animation support, atmospheric and individual 

object and camera animation. Objects can even 

be configured to react to the terrain. 

While there are certain areas that would 

obviously benefit from improvement, Vue has the 

kind of breadth that means it can do pretty much 

everything and you certainly get out what you put 

into learning it. That’s why it’s the number one 

choice for landscapes. 

For those looking to get powerful facilities and a 

good user interface, without having to spend very 

much, there’s a great alternative in Bryce. 

Originally launched in 1994 for the Mac, Bryce – 

named after the famous canyon in the US – rapidly 

overtook VistaPro in the landscape popularity 

stakes. A PC version came out in 1996 and by 

1999 the program had rapidly evolved with 

version 4 offering a sophisticated SkyLab for 

atmospherics, better textures and object import. 

MetaCreations sold it to Corel in 2000 where 

trees and a few improvements were added for 

version 5 in 2001. And after that helter-skelter 

development, it stagnated under Corel until DAZ 

3D bought the program and released version 5.5 

which allowed import of DAZ and Poser 

characters – thus expanding the range of the 

program. Finally in 2006, the basis of the latest 

version came out with Bryce 6.1 which improved 

the terrain editing, added HDRI lighting and made 

it take advantage of multi-threading and multicore 

CPUs. 

At the moment, a significant upgrade is in the 

final stages of development with Bryce 7 which 

will incorporate the Instancing Lab, new light 

» Venedig Kopie 

No post-work on this Vue image; 

Rudiger was aiming to simulate a 

painting style 

Essential 

links 

www.e-onsoftware.com 

www.planetside.co.uk 

www.daz3d.com 

www.rendernation.com 

www.xfrog.com 

www.cornucopia3d.com 

www.mojoworld.org 

An entire world 

Out of all the software applications, from dedicated 

landscapes, to general 3D, there is only one package 

that lets you create an entire world in one go and 

that’s MojoWorld. Creating a complex and 

interesting world is in fact so tough and time 

consuming that the author of the program 

types, more data exchange, improved SkyLab and 

Material Lab, particle animation and more 

rendering options. The Instancing Lab allows 

users to copy objects or create Instances, making 

it possible to create larger, more realistic scenes 

than ever before, using less memory. The new 

lighting includes Distant light, Parallel, Cluster, 

Dome and a series of 3D fill lights. The data 

exchange function means models and scenes 

from DAZ Studio can be imported more easily, 

while the Sky Lab gets a big 

upgrade with more tools and 

controls over cloud settings. Tools 

include Image Based Lighting 

(illuminating your scene or objects 

in the scene with images of light 

© Rudiger Wacknitz 

recommends starting with an existing planet and 

modifying it to your specifications. After that, set the 

camera down anywhere on the surface or let it loose 

and create an animation as you soar above the 

surface of an entire planet. Next up are entire solar 

systems apparently! Watch this space… 

18

Environment 

Importing characters 

While most software packages can import characters in a variety 

of formats, if you want to actually create characters and objects 

and put them into scenery, the fastest and easiest way is to use 

Bryce and DAZ Studio. Your DAZ characters and objects can be 

exported at the moment for easy inclusion into a Bryce scene, but 

this relationship will get even closer with the release of Bryce 7. Vue 

has a few tricks up its sleeve as well with the Enthusiast versions, so that 

Vue Frontier supports physically posing the Poser characters making 

animation a real possibility. 

© Bernie Stafford 

» Dawn Patrol 

Using an Anders Leczar model, rendered in Bryce for the clouds 

from the real world), added capabilities for HDRI 

images (saturation control, transparency and 

HDRI from inside), soft shadows for IBL, specular 

map settings and Powerful Sun options. 

So it’s all cooking in the Bryce world, but how 

easy is it to pick up and how good is it in practice? 

Well to answer the first question you need to go 

back to the beginning. It was developed on the 

Mac and ported to the PC and it’s had the same 

bizarre and idiosyncratic interface since. Let’s say 

that it’s full of good stuff, though vegetation isn’t a 

strong point, but you’ll need to learn the interface 

to use it. The best parts of Bryce are the terrain 

creator – but note this is 2D with a 3D preview, the 

various sky types and the Material Editor. 

Back in the good old days, before the rise of the 

PC, the Amiga world gasped with amazement 

when the original Vista program brought CGI 

landscapes to the desktop. Using fractal 

technology, where previously blank polygons had 

ruled supreme, we marvelled at the swathes of 

© Lars Braad Andersen 

» Old Ironsides 

Created with a ship 

that Bernie Stafford 

modelled himself 

greenery. Surprisingly, the veteran software 

package is still around, and at $50 from 

VendorNation it would appear a worthy 

alternative. However, like giving a Lada a new 

paint job, it might look shinier, but it’s still pretty 

abject compared to a Jag. And so it is with what’s 

left of the VistaPro franchise. You can buy DEM 

map packs for it that look kind of realistic if you 

squint, but the basic interface is the same as 15 

» Countryroad Slope 

The aim here was to re-create 

the look and feel of a small 

countryside lane in a very hilly 

area of Western Jutland, 

Denmark, in midsummer 

© Susanne Krings 

» Blue System 

Radial lights were used in this 

Bryce scene (of which one has a 

violet tone) to add that additional 

ethereal tint to the mountains on 

the left 

years ago and the results simply don’t stand up to 

any modern alternative. 

Back to the modern world and there’s a brace of 

options for those that like to get their rendering 

fingers dirty. We’re alluding to Planetside’s 

Terragen 2 and Terragen Classic, which is a 

simpler version. Both versions can be downloaded 

and used free for non-commercial use but they do 

have limitations. These include rendering limited 

to 800 x 600 on Terragen 2, lower detail and antialiasing 

quality, a limit to three-object populations 

and no animation. On the plus side, you can get to 

try the products out for free before deciding 

whether to lay out $299 for Terragen 2, $399 with 

the animation module and $699 with XfrogPlants. 

The commercial versions also offer five additional 

render node licences, tutorial videos and no 

restrictions. Terragen Classic can be upgraded for 

commercial use for $99 – pitching it directly 

against Bryce and Vue Frontier. If anything, 

Terragen 2 is the spiritual successor to VistaPro, 

using complex fractal technology to render 

stunningly realistic landscape terrains right from 

© Bernie Stafford 

19

» Twomobo 

Martin Roes specialises in 

alien deserts with lots of detail 

and, of course, it just wouldn’t 

be a MojoWorld without some 

extra planets in the sky 

Realistic 

landscapes 

without hassle 

If there’s one strong point about Terragen it’s 

that anyone, once they figure out what does 

what, can create the most photorealistic terrains 

with the minimum effort. There is a steep 

learning curve just to get to grips with the 

program, and as a rendering engine it isn’t fast 

either, but the textured surfaces have a craggy 

and dirty look to them that makes a Terragen 

landscape distinct. Shots from a high elevation 

look like photos taken from an aeroplane 

window. Mastering the node-based shader 

network is key to creating variety and compelling 

realism in close-up shots. 

the start. The interface, though, is something of a 

horror show for the newcomer, being a nodebased 

system where each element can be 

adjusted and tweaked as it feeds the next. 

The shader tree setup does allow for plenty of 

control and has a similar pipeline and technology 

to traditional 3D software. This is no accident as 

the founder of Planetside worked for awardwinning 

VFX studio Digital Domain, where the 

company developed its own proprietary terraingenerating 

software. Much of that technology 

went into Terragen 2 which was subsequently 

used to create landscapes for films such as The 

Golden Compass and The Wicker Man. It’s 

definitely worth looking at both versions of the 

software before deciding on purchasing either. 

The strong point about the program is the quality 

of the results, the weakest being the heightfield 

editing possibilities. 

© Martin Roes 

As Xfrog Inc was just mentioned as the main 

supplier for a massive set of bundles with 

Terragen 2, it’s worth elaborating at this point 

exactly what the company has to offer. Xfrog Inc 

provides DVDs containing highly realistic plants, 

trees, flowers and grasses as well as a plethora of 

objects suitable for use in landscape CGI. There 

are 29 DVDs of XfrogPlants alone, massive 

bundles and also a separate program – itself 

called Xfrog. This comes as a standalone app or 

as a plug-in for CINEMA 4D or Maya and is used 

for organic modelling and animation so you can 

create your own vegetation. 

Third-party object creation is in fact key to 

expanding your chosen landscape CGI program 

with all manner of flora, transport and 

architecture. As well as the Xfrog material, e-on’s 

Cornucopia3D store sells a massive amount of 

objects for all versions of Vue at a fairly low cost, 

Terragen 2 features industry-leading displacement rendering 

performance and flexibility, allowing realistic detail from orbit to 

centimetre scale. A sophisticated planetary atmosphere model allows 

creation of unlimited cloud types, while a global illumination lighting 

model optimised for large scales contributes to overall cloud and 

atmospheric realism. TG2 is uniquely capable of realistically 

rendering large-scale natural environments, freeing you from the 

limitations of ‘set-oriented’ scenes Oshyan Greene, business manager, Planetside Software 

20

Environment 

The sky’s the limit 

Most of the landscape-creating software can manage great-looking skies, but if you want complete 

control, you need Vue Frontier or upwards with the new Spectral 3 cloud system for layers of clouds. 

In fact, clouds now can even be independent objects that can be resized, rotated and rearranged just 

like any other object. The clouds themselves have their own internal density, which affects how light 

travels through them, detail can be refined for close-up views and cast realistic shadows over the 

ground detail. It means that you have total control over both the look and feel and the actual shape of 

cloud cover in all your outdoor scenes. 

© Rudiger Wacknitz 

Making it 

look real 

Gill Brooks is an established Vue artist. 

Here she gives her insights into what 

makes for a superior CGI landscape 

» Waiting for Grandpa Kopie 

A fairly complex scene requiring accurate object placement and 

use of Vue’s EcoSystem function to populate the foreground 

while DAZ 3D is increasingly supplying more 

material for Bryce. Expect this to ramp up with the 

release of Bryce 7. 

To round things off, how would you like to 

create an entire world and then fly around it? 

That’s the promise made by MojoWorld 3 which 

comes in a variety of flavours from Focus to 

Standard and Pro versions and is compatible with 

both Windows and Mac. 

Focus comes in at just $49 but does little more 

than allow the user to plonk digital photos of 

themselves into strange new worlds. It’s the 

Standard edition ($199) with which you can begin 

to create your own worlds – though the planet 

» Winter Forest 

With temperatures above 

freezing point, fog and mist will 

appear when the relatively warm 

and damp air meets the frozen 

ground. This kind of weather, 

alternating frost and thawing, is 

quite common in Denmark 

© Lars Braad Andersen 

» Der Maierhof 

The Vue EcoSystem tool was 

used to populate the foreground 

with hay and a few poppies 

wizard is recommended when using the software 

the first-time round. There are still limitations here 

though, the most telling of which is that there are 

no trees supplied with this edition. To create trees, 

you’ll need to purchase the MojoTree ($69) add-in 

which can input individual trees or vast procedural 

forests. The Pro version ($479) includes the tree 

support and comes with more animation, 3D 

object file support and the MojoGraph which 

throws in a node-based shader editor similar to 

that which can be found in Terragen 2. Don’t 

expect to master MojoWorld quickly, though. Not 

only is the interface unlike anything you’ve ever 

used, even the author of the program concedes 

that three years after the initial release of the 

program, no one had yet fully exploited the 

possibilities it offered. 

Whichever app you decide to use, there’s little 

doubt that it takes considerable practice and a 

good sense of colour, lighting and composition to 

create something special. When you do, make 

sure you then share it with the world! 

© Steffi Goetz 

Realism 

If you’re trying to get a realistic render, then use 

photographs for reference. If using your own, try 

to create as near to the exact picture as possible. 

Notice how the light reacts with the objects in 

the photo – plants, buildings, people, etc. Try not 

to use any additional lights, but if you really 

must then use as few as possible and make sure 

you only have one shadow. All lights will cast 

shadows so if they are in varying directions 

you’ll get multiple shadows which is unrealistic 

in daylight scenes. 

Plan ahead 

In any type of scene, it’s always best to plan 

beforehand rather than just plopping things 

along the way. If you’re not using photo 

reference, then make a sketch – even the 

roughest sketch will help you plan. 

Trees 

If you plan on using trees close to the camera, 

try to use good-quality models rather than the 

native Vue trees. Even the HD are not really 

close-up quality due to the leaf planes. If you 

don’t own a program such as OnyxTree or Xfrog, 

there are plenty of models for sale at 

Cornucopia3D and other stores. 

Scale 

When you load a Vue terrain, remember it’s 

only 5.375yds high and 28yds wide. Mountains 

are somewhat larger! In any type of scene, make 

sure your objects are scaled to each other. 

Nothing’s worse than a small house with a giant 

standing in front of it – unless it’s a fairy tale. 

Post-work 

Don’t think that rendering is the end. Post-work 

not only enhances your image but also adds a 

personal touch. Even just a little lighting 

correction can go a long way to making an 

ordinary render pop. 

21

Create a 

futuristic city 

Cityscape 2008 

Use Maya to help create buildings in a city layout 

and then use Photoshop to paint in the details 

Marco Bauriedel specialises in shading, lighting, texturing and laying out render passes 

Software used in this piece 

Maya 

Photoshop 

3D artists explain the 

techniques behind 

their amazing artwork 

Artist info 

Marco Bauriedel 


www.marcobauriedel.com 

Country Germany 

Software used 

Maya and Photoshop 

Expertise Marco specialises in 

shading, lighting and texturing, 

laying out and seeing what can 

be created with render passes 

in Photoshop or Nuke 

This tutorial will lead you through the creation of 

a futuristic cityscape in a fantastical setting, as it 

doesn’t exist in reality these days. It depicts what 

can be achieved when technological advancements and 

the imagination are combined. 

Maya was used to create the basic geometry as well as 

some lighting references of a few of the buildings, the 

highway and the bridge. Photoshop was the tool of choice 

for more than 90 per cent of this image. 

The hardest task was to get all the details together and 

make them look integrated in the final piece. Maya helped 

a lot in order to find a starting point and paint on that in 

combination with photographs. 

I will be leading you through the whole creation process 

of Cityscape, but first I will start off by describing how I do 

my concepts. 

22

Environment 

Modelling, 

composition, 

painting 

Concept 

Concepts get your 

imagination going and 

make the process more 

enjoyable than starting 

with little thumbnails and 

photographs on a blank 

canvas from scratch. 

A 

Save yourself some modelling 

time by using the model and 

maps created here 

Cityscape.mb 

wip_03.jpg 

IMG_6300.jpg 

IMG_6784.jpg 

IMG_7611.jpg 

IMG_7245.jpg 

IMG_5911.jpg 

IMG_6143.jpg 

IMG_6145.jpg 

01 Concepts on paper 

Drawing quick boxes with a ballpoint pen and filling it with 

rough lines that mark a composition helps tremendously 

to pick the basic scheme you want to go after. By using a 

ballpoint pen instead of a pencil, you force yourself to just do 

a new sketch when you mess up, which raises the chance of 

even more ideas coming up. Starting with a horizon line (if 

inside the view) and putting focal points or vanishing points 

using the rule of thirds is the best way to go A. 

b 

c 

A These are some raw 

concepts on paper that help to 

find ideas quickly and efficiently 

b Here, grey values start to 

mark depth in an early 

Photoshop sketch 

c This is the final concept with 

a basic atmosphere, which 

frames the idea pretty well 

02 Concepts in Photoshop 

It’s time to bring the chosen composition into Photoshop by 

scanning or just re-creating the sketch by eye with big 

greyscale strokes that start to form shapes. In this phase, it’s 

important to go beyond rough line sketching and define a 

logical lighting situation and basic depth values in the image b. 

03 Finish the concept 

A colour scheme is then added to the sketch to support the 

lighting situation and basic mood. Always remember that the 

colour of the sky tints shadowed areas much more than lit 

areas. The further objects are in z-space, the more they 

seem saturated, coloured and valued like the sky at the 

horizon line. 

With these thoughts in mind, it’s easier to create your 

colour palette. As this project is a personal painting, I kept 

the freedom of developing the colour scheme away from the 

initial concept during the process towards the final piece c. 

3DArtist ● 23

Problems 

and solutions 

I wanted to quickly create 

some streets and a bridge for 

this concept, which would be 

lit and rendered to be even 

usable in a later, more detailed 

and more real version of the 

painting, and just fit in as a 

base. Modelling geometry in 

perspective onto your concept 

is a pretty quick way to add 

basic shapes with basic 

lighting. The hardest task may 

be to get the perspective and 

distance dimensions correct. 

A stretched-out highly 

subdivided ground plane is a 

great help for the perspective 

when adjusted to end on the 

concept’s horizon line. 

For the modelling, lock, key 

or bookmark your camera 

when the perspective is set so 

you don’t lose the settings 

when accidentally changing 

the camera’s view. 

Start modelling with very 

basic shapes that are aligned 

as well as possible, and use 

the power of Physical Sun and 

Sky for really quick render 

results that fit your concept’s 

time of day. 

Some coloured reflections 

may give great details that 

later help a lot to sell rather 

simple geometry or help add 

realism and lighting on top of 

objects placed in Photoshop. 

04 Camera alignment and scene setup 

After creating a simple camera in Maya, a background image 

is added by looking through the newly created camera, 

accessing the Space menu bar and importing the image 

plane as shown in the screenshot. In this case, the standard 

value of 35 in Focal Length works out pretty well, because 

my renders work with pretty rough alignments and no 

additional adjustments of the image plane were needed, as 

the major objects we want to create are in the centre of the 

image. To be sure the whole concept is in the camera view, 

choose Horizontal at Fit Resolution Gate d. 

D 

Modelling the scene 

How the basic scene was arranged in Maya 

05 Set the perspective and modelling 

A stretched-out ground plane marking a clear horizon line is 

a perfect base to get everything in place. The foreground’s 

stairs and two distant buildings are then modelled and 

aligned to fit in the camera’s view, and have a pretty logical 

distance in a perspective view. If this lines up, the other 

simple cube buildings, bridge, the bridge’s piers and spheres 

are created to roughly fit in a perspective view and more 

precisely fit in the camera’s view. For the highways, a cube 

is created and its faces are extruded over and over again 

and later smoothed to form the street’s shape e. 

f 

06 Lighting and shading 

At this stage two mia_materials are defined: one having 

a Glossiness of 1.0 for all spheres that will have sharp 

reflections, and the other shader having a Glossiness of just 

below 0.3 to receive rough reflections, which is also assigned 

to all other objects. 

To have more reflections going on, parts of the city are 

duplicated towards the camera (marked red in the modelling 

screenshot). Then Point lights are positioned and coloured 

differently to have some variation. Additionally, the Physical 

Sun and Sky settings are used to roughly imitate the time 

of day and direction of the sun f. 

g 

e 

24 

d Import the image into the 

scene connected to a new 

render camera 

e This shows the modelled 

city in two perspectives and the 

top view of the streets with an 

extrusion example 

f Position the lights and create 

shaders for a basic composition 

g The final renderings as they 

were used to get the 

imagination going 

07 Render for Photoshop workflow 

For the rendering, the Production render preset is chosen 

and Final Gather is activated with a Filtering of 1. 

In addition to the Beauty render, the Occlusion pass always 

gives more depth. Sometimes it’s needed to tint it to a warm 

colour in postproduction before multiplying onto the Beauty 

pass for better integration into the image. One of the best 

things about 3D renders are masks for any geometry, which 

can be quickly rendered with surface shaders in any colour to 

extract any shape with the Magic Wand tool in Photoshop g.

Environment 

Painting in the main details 

How the concept was developed towards a painting 

08 Add first photographs 

The first step is to add photo material to the image that 

roughly fits the building’s shapes in the concept. The photos 

are stretched and cloned to fill up as much space as possible 

for a good painting base. 

Obvious perspective issues should be erased through 

image distortion as early as possible, and later painted out for 

a more realistic feel h. 

09 How to light the stairs out of a texture 

To create the stairs in Photoshop, a perspective-transformed 

marble texture is used to match the stairs’ shape. Then 

Occlusion-like shadows and core shadows are painted, 

followed by a screened mask for the lit areas that are later 

erased out on the shadow areas of the railings. Finally, the 

reflection of the railings is added to make the marble shiny i. 

10 Roughly integrate the renderings 

The renderings are layered on each other and then imported 

to the Photoshop painting. After that, the layer stack is 

positioned into the painting and the Occlusion is slightly set 

to Multiply on top of the geometry. With the help of the 

masks, separate adjustments are done and the whole 

geometry is cut out. Finally, details and more defined lighting 

are painted on top for rough integration j. 

h 

i 

h The first photo 

material added to fill the 

concept with a rough base 

to start from more detail 

j 

i The process of taking a 

marble texture and creating 

a lit, shiny balcony out of it 

j The rough integration 

of CG elements into 

the painting 

k Grey values start to 

mark depth in an early 

Photoshop sketch 

k 

11 Perspective orientation 

For help on the perspective, it’s great to have perspective lines. 

These are created with paths that stick to the vanishing points, 

and are then filled by choosing a small brush and pressing the 

little button marked in the screenshot below. You can see in 

the background that the balcony is gone for a wider view, 

which gives the whole image a more epic feel k. 

Lighting 

the sky 

It was especially hard to find a 

nice composition for the sky, 

as my intention was to support 

the city with huge beautiful 

clouds that had to fit into the 

lighting scheme at the same 

time. Luckily, halfway 

through the process of the 

image I was on a trip through 

Nepal, where some fantasticlooking 

clouds found their 

way onto my DSLR’s memory 

card (some are included on the 

CD). These had a lot of depth 

and made it easier for me to 

paint and adjust the light on. 

The lighting mood changed 

several times throughout the 

concept, because I tried many 

things. In the end I was most 

happy with a saturated low 

sun lighting, which in my 

opinion supports the sky 

details and gives more 

contrast. For the lighting in the 

city, a lot of painting light on 

top was used to get the overall 

lighting to work. I wanted to 

have both a great sky 

atmosphere and a little light 

from windows and lampposts. 

25

Artist 

Showcase 

Marco Bauriedel 

Born in 1982 in Germany, after starting out digitally in 

Deluxe Paint on an Amiga at the age of 12, I waited to 

discover my passion for art until turning 21. From then 

on, various fields of digital art were parts of my studies, 

covering CGI, animation, digital painting, compositing 

and programming. 

Creating the sky 

How the sky was developed 

in the process of this painting 

l These were clouds added 

early on, which lacked depth, 

integration and detail 

m This shows slightly 

modulated clouds with a more 

detailed mid-ground city 

n The start of the final sky 

composition with another 

concept idea added on top 

of the painting 

Jeep Planets Vue 6, Maya, Photoshop (2007) 

These planets were created for the KNSK agency at Albert Bauer 

Studios to show the versatility of a Jeep on any terrain. I was 

responsible for the CGI creation of the planets. 

l 

Montblanc Minerva Maya, Nuke, Photoshop (2008) 

Montblanc commissioned Albert Bauer Studios to create a 

virtual clockwork of the Minerva Watch to fly through in several 

animations. I was responsible for shading, lighting, rendering 

and compositing. 

12 Basic clouds 

The clouds seen here were the first ones that were added to 

the image. Most of them look like they were cut and pasted 

into the painting and lack depth and integration; however, 

a lot of recolouring and repainting was applied at this stage. 

Some more diffuse clouds at the horizon help to make the 

scenery look more believable, too l. 

13 Modulate the clouds 

Painting highlights gives more depth to these clouds but they 

still seem to be too evenly distanced, with a clear sky behind 

the front line of clouds, which seems quite unrealistic. At this 

stage, the sky and the whole image is tinted in a warmer 

mood. The streets are much more detailed now with a newly 

painted lighting onto the mid-ground buildings m. 

m 

15 minutes 

Render time 

Resolution: 

4,200 x 2,000 

26 

Audi Car Maya, Photoshop (2008) 

This is an Audi Q7 rendered for photo agency MAGROUND at 

Albert Bauer Studios. My job was to do all the CGI and a part of 

the retouching in Photoshop. 

Quickly 

adding detail 

A great technique to add more 

detail to your painting may be 

to search for images with high 

contrast, like lit windows at 

night. Add them to your 

painting, using the Overlay or 

Screen blending mode. This 

way, I saved a lot of time when 

making the lights of the city. 

You can stamp things around 

to be even faster. 

n 

14 The final sky composition 

New photographs were now added, which I shot in Nepal 

(you can find some of these on the CD). As they are taking 

up more space in the sky, they seem much more epic. 

Additionally, gentle colour changes help to create interest. 

The final stages of the sky follow in the final section. In this 

version of the piece, another concept is added on top of the 

half-finished painting. I decided not to use the hangar 

concept either, and kept the undisturbed panoramic view 

later on n.

Environment 

Fine detail and finishing off 

How the finishing process developed the piece towards a better painting 

o 

15 Continue the sky composition 

As the sky’s composition is almost finished in this step, 

the whole image looks a lot less cartoonish and has 

a more realistic feel. 

The lighting and colouring is still too dreamy in this version, 

but the direction starts to work. Details like the harbour piers 

and additional kicked highlights support this 0. 

16 Finalise the sky composition 

In this step, the sky is completely filled up with a new 

composition of clouds that work a lot better. The contrast in 

this version creates a more balanced image, but also a darker 

mood that kills some ambient sky lighting details on the city 

and the effect of depth. The sun seems distractingly bright 

right now, but the overall composition is working p. 

Compositing 

the layers 

Layers were used extensively 

to be as flexible as possible in 

the process. I mostly used 

adjustment layers that I later 

grouped with the changed 

pixels and duplicate. Then the 

duplicated group is merged 

and the old group is turned off 

visually to have a Photoshop 

file that’s easier to handle. 

p 

0 Here, we are starting to get 

somewhere with this painting 

p A high-contrast version of 

the cityscape with a bright sun 

q It’s getting too saturated and 

monochromatic in this rather 

flat version of the painting 

r The final cityscape painting 

with the final touch of colour 

variation and details 

17 Later that day 

When working for too long on a painting without a pause, 

you get that tunnel vision that pushes you further into a 

saturated colour scheme. This red sunset version with too 

few highlights almost looks monochromatic compared to the 

previous version and the final image. The ambient skylight 

painted onto the big clouds gives more depth nonetheless. 

Some little perspective corrections and the mid-ground city 

extension make the panoramic view complete q. 

q 

r 

18 Final cityscape painting 

And here is the finished painting. Opening some parts of 

the sky again gives more colour variation and a more friendly 

mood. One of the most important final tweaks is the 

desaturation of the reds in combination with a bigger variety 

of colours and more ambient skylight details on the buildings’ 

roofs and clouds r. 

27

Step by step: 

Create a 

beautiful 

landscape 

Flying over Crater Lake 2010 

Crater Lake is one of my typical digital 

illustrations purely done for fun, using a 

combination of ZBrush, Vue and Photoshop 

Peter Baustaedter is a digital matte artist/environment designer 

The image Flying over Crater Lake 

was one I did for fun during time 

off from work. I was interested in 

experimenting with some digital sculpting 

software and a friend of mine who owns 

ZBrush let me play with it for a bit. 

I didn’t set out to make this image in 

particular; the idea just came to me while 

playing around. 

When I had a mesh I found interesting, I 

imported it into Vue and started playing 

with different surface and lighting options. 

Initially I wanted to have a mysterious green 

Concepts 

Rough out ideas 

This was basically the starting point 

01 coming out of ZBrush. I had modelled 

this vortex and I wanted to use it to render 

through Vue. Initially I thought I would have a 

biomechanical feel to it or make it something 

quite sinister. But, as I progressed, things 

would turn out differently as you will see. 

Modelling, 

painting 

light shine up from the vortex that I had 

modelled. In the end, though, I went for 

something more realistic and less magical. 

Sometimes, 3D art is all about going with 

your instincts and experimenting. 

Once I had a render I was happy with, I 

jumped into Photoshop to tweak levels and 

colour, fine tune the atmosphere, plus add 

some clouds and some finishing touches. 

Since I need to follow precise instructions 

and direction in my day job as a matte 

painter, I always enjoy creating more 

organic images when doing personal work. 

28 

I didn’t set out to 

make this image in 

particular; the idea just 

came to me while playing 

around. Sometimes it’s all 

about experimenting

Environment 


ZBrush 

Vue 

Photoshop 




Once I had the geo formed in Vue, the fun really started – playing 

around with different lighting and moods. Vue is a great tool and 

provides the artist with many options for environments 

Artist info 

Peter Baustaedter 

Username: baustaedter 


http://fillingthedrywell. 

blogspot.com 

Country New Zealand 

Software used Vue Infinite 8.5, 

ZBrush 3.5, Photoshop CS3 

Expertise Peter specialises in 

environments/matte painting 

Once I had the geo formed in Vue, the fun really 

02 started – playing around with different lighting and 

moods. Vue is a great tool and provides the artist with many 

options for environments. This low-res image was the only 

image I saved during this phase out of many attempts. 

After exploring different lighting situations I 

03 ended up with one of my old favourites – straight 

daylight. This basic shader is based on Vue’s Square Rock 

with simple grass mixed in. I quickly modelled some 

background hills with the Terrain editor and placed some 

water into the bottom of the pit. 

29

Modelling 

How the elements were put together 

5 hours 

render time 

Resolution: 

2,500 x 1,406 

Here I deployed another one of my favourite elements – cloud shadows. They 

04 strengthen the spacial impact and – if placed correctly – help to create a focal 

point for the eye. Volumetric lighting was turned on so that the Spectral 2 clouds cast some 

nice shadows throughout the atmosphere. 

After various tries with procedurally placed 

05 EcoSystems, I decided to paint them by hand. 

Consisting of Vue’s Plum Tree and two other kinds of small 

shrubs, I painted an ecosystem to emphasise the weird 

topography of the crater/vortex. Here you can see my very 

simple setup and the final painted ecosystem. 

I usually like to ‘underexpose’ a bit so no part of 

06 my render gets overexposed. I rendered this with 

Ambient Occlusion with the simple ‘final’ settings. Not very 

spectacular, but I personally like to do a lot of tweaking in 

Photoshop as I find that method much quicker. 

A great thing about Vue is that it can render a layered Photoshop file, containing 

07 useful passes and Alpha channels. This image shows the different layers I used to 

‘mix down’ a version of the render for me to paint on. Left to right show: Diffuse, Shadow, 

Reflection, Indirect Lighting and Atmosphere Gain channels activated step by step. 

A lot of things happened 

08 once I took the image into 

Photoshop. First, I flipped the whole 

render to make the composition 

more readable. I replaced the water 

with a photo I took and cranked up 

the spec of the water surface to 

boost realism. The background was 

cleaned up and trees cloned to break 

it up. Quite severe colour corrections 

and some painted-in atmosphere 

tweaks finished this step. 

30

Environment 

Artist 

Showcase 

Peter Baustaedter 

I have 15 years’ experience as a digital matte painter 

and concept artist. Over the course of my career I’ve 

used countless applications to create digital imagery. I 

started out with Deluxe Paint and Sculpt 3D on a 

Commodore Amiga in the late Eighties. Nowadays I 

mostly use Photoshop, Vue, Maya and Nuke to create 

my professional work. 

My most noteworthy recent project is James 

Cameron’s Avatar, for which I did countless matte 

environments of Pandora at Weta Digital. 

Lighting & rendering 

Applying the final touches 

The matte painter is coming through here I guess. I added a lot of clouds 

09 that I lifted from my own photographs. Vue’s clouds are pretty good, but for 

an illustration like this, photographic elements were the right choice in my opinion. I 

have a photo archive of about 15,000+ photos – many of which are of clouds. Some 

more atmosphere touch-ups finished this stage of the painting. 

Launch! Maya, mental ray, Photoshop (2007) 

Launch! was an image I made for my personal portfolio. It started 

with a freehand sketch. Most of the elements in the final image 

started out in Maya and were rendered through mental ray. None of 

those renders were textured though, so any kind of surface detail 

you see was added afterwards in Photoshop. 

Untitled Vue 7, Photoshop (2009) 

Usually after finishing a movie, I need to get it ‘out of my system’. 

That means quite often I do artwork in the style of the project to try a 

few things I didn’t get to do during my work on it. So this is an Avatarinfluenced 

image – but has nothing to do with the movie – except that 

I used techniques and styles I picked up during production. 

Untitled Photoshop 4.0 (1999) 

I thought I would throw in an old-school illustration of mine. I was 

working on a matte painting that featured a lot of architecture and 

got tired of all the hard edges and surfaces. So I sat down and 

quickly painted this submarine alien – only featuring round and 

curvy shapes and no windows, roofs and doors. 

This is the final image. I added the birds as a foreground element, so now 

10 the flipped image makes sense – it can be nicely read from left to right and 

the birds lead you right into the heart of the image. I added a slight lens distortion 

with a chromatic aberration and some grain and just slightly blurred the background 

to slightly reduce the pixelated edge. 

An overall Vue… 

Flying over Crater Lake was a fun image to work on and it has encouraged me to get a 

ZBrush licence and get into sculpting some extreme environments to take them into 

Vue. I found I had to severely reduce the polygons of the mesh that came out of 

ZBrush. With the high-res model, Vue was just laughing at me – it was quite a few 

million polygons though. Vue’s 8.5 Terrain editor is very capable, but still can’t do 

things that a 3D mesh-sculpting application can do. 

One thing I noticed is that when taking sculpted geo into Vue is that a lot of detail 

seems to get softened. I guess I might have saved time to just sculpt the big features 

and then invested that time to tweak the rock shader some more, as I’m not too happy 

with the look of the rock faces. Hopefully this can be remedied in a future project. 

31

Meny Hilsenrad 

Artist info 

Incredible 3D artists take 

us behind their artwork 

Website 

www.studio-aiko.com 

Country Israel 

Software used 3ds Max, V-Ray, 

Photoshop, After Effects 


3ds Max V-Ray Photoshop After Effects 

32 

Classroom 2010 

Meny Hilsenrad, co-founder of Studio Aiko, a VFX studio specialising in 

CG production for commercials, games, music videos, architecture and 

more, explains how Classroom was created. 

The Classroom scene is part of a video clip, which we wanted to make 

for a long time as an in-house project. I started working on it and, as I 

progressed, things started to go in different directions. The original plan 

was to make only the general camera angle that shows the entire 

classroom, but as I worked with the scene, I started doing more and 

more tests for different camera angles and saw the potential in them. 

That’s how I started working on the desks and the electrical equipment 

area – which eventually became my main concern in the project and took 

the most time to do! 

The lighting setup was a challenge, 

as I wanted it to work in all of the layers. 

The goal was to build the lighting in a 

way that would work for each camera 

angle simultaneously. It required lots of 

camera and lighting adjustments, as 

well as render tests and checking the 

results constantly in each camera

Environment 

Close to the end of 

the lighting setup of the 

daylight version, I started 

doing different lighting tests 

– camera flash, nighttime, 

etc; after investing so much 

time in building the scene, I 

wanted to squeeze the most 

out of it! This extended the 

work much more than I 

expected, since it required 

lots of post-work, eg colour 

correction and extra 

render passes 

The work on the shaders and 

textures was a big challenge as 

most of them were made from 

scratch and some were handpainted, 

like the blackboard. Each 

appliance has a unique texture 

and shader that I made using close 

attention to reference pictures 

The most prominent thing in the scene is the amount 

of detail. To handle this, I divided the scene into three 

different layers of work: the general classroom angle, the 

desk area and the close-ups of the desks 

33

This picture represents a dreamlike, 

yet believable environment, with the 

purpose of leading the viewer to the 

world of fairy tales 

Drea Horvath Freelance digital environment designer 




Creating a magical 

forest lakeElven Lake 2009 

Artist info 

Drea Horvath 

Username: Drea 

Personal portfolio site http:// 

dreahorvath.darkfolio.com/ 


Hardware used Intel Core 2 

Quad 9650, 8GB RAM 

Expertise Drea specialises in 

creating mostly large-scale, 

detailed, natural landscapes 

in e-on Software’s Vue, with 

particular strength in 

atmosphere and lighting 

My inspiration for making this scene came from 

viewing some wonderful oil paintings, and one in 

particular caught my eye. It depicted a lovely forest 

lake in the colours of fall (autumn), and although it was an 

illustration of a real place, it had an ethereal mood. Since I love 

tweaking Vue’s atmosphere engine, I decided to make a 

colourful, scenic, dreamlike, yet believable environment, which 

leads the viewer to the world of fairy tales. This is how Elven 

Lake was born. 

In this tutorial I will show you the step-by-step process of 

how to go about making this scene. You will get an insight into 

the way that I set the basic composition, use Vue’s procedural 

materials, create the ecosystem, and set the most important 

parts of the scene: the atmosphere and the lighting, using 

Global Radiosity. 

I will cover my render settings, I’ll reveal some tips and tricks 

for decreasing your render time, and finally I will show you a few 

steps for how to make your ethereal render look even more 

magical in Photoshop. 

Concept 

The idea was to create a lake 

surrounded by luscious 

woods. With the placement of 

a suitable building it became 

a fantasy environment. 

34

Environment 

EcoSystem, 

materials, 

lighting 

Vue’s default MetaWater, and I deleted the Foam layer. 

Following that, I placed terrains to the middle-ground and 

background; they gave the basic shape of the lake. Finally, 

I placed a smaller terrain to the foreground, right below 

the camera a. 

02 Adding rocks to the lakeside 

If I want to make a lake or a river in Vue, I often use EcoSystem 

Painter to paint rocks or plants to the ground to create the final 

shape of the lake or river. I apply this technique more often than 

painting a terrain map in Photoshop then importing it into Vue, 

because I find it easier, I save time and since I can paint and 

erase instances as I want, I have more control over the shape. 

So I turned the ground to an EcoSystem, added rock, deselected 

Dynamic Population and started painting rocks along the side 

of the terrains b. 

B A top view showing the lake formed by the terrains and the 

painted rocks 


Vue 8 

Infinite 

Photoshop 

CS4 

03 Materials – ground and water 

After making the basic composition, I continued my work with 

setting the materials. First, I modified the water material; in the 

Highlights tab I set Highlight global intensity to 69%, and 

Highlight global size to 76%. Then in the Transparency tab, I set 

Turn reflective with angle to 75%. These steps made the water 

surface more shiny and reflective; more realistic. 

For the ground I picked a soil material. I also changed the 

EcoSystem rocks’ material for a more realistic one I’ve 

purchased from Cornucopia3D c. 

01 The basic concept 

Unlike many 3D artists, I never make a sketch before 

starting to compose a scene. Instead, I just place the 

terrains to the position I imagined, and the rest of the 

ideas come while working on the concept. Since I wanted 

to have a lake in this scene, I started my work by adding 

a The very beginning – a main 

camera view of terrains placed to 

form the basic shape of the lake 

C A main camera view showing progress after the changes 

described in Step 3 

35

Problems and 

solutions 

The EcoSystem Painter had a 

bigger role in shaping the lake, 

because, as I’ve mentioned in 

Step 2, I find it easier and more 

controllable to paint the 

lakeside than to use a large 

terrain and spend more time 

in Photoshop and in the 

terrain editor. I knew exactly 

where I wanted to have the 

edge of the lake, so I painted 

rocks right there, then 

adjusted the smaller terrains 

next to the rocks. This is a 

great and easily applicable 

solution to create lakes, if you 

use similar EcoSystem on the 

surrounding terrains. If you 

use the same, dense-grass 

EcoSystem on each terrain, 

the multiple smaller terrains 

will look like one large terrain. 

Since I used a multilayered 

EcoSystem here with a dense 

grass layer, the terrains’ 

underlying material was not 

too important either. I used 

the same rock material I 

added to the painted rocks, 

but I could have picked some 

soil or mossy rock too. 

Multilayered EcoSystems are 

useful if you want to have 

more control over the overall 

density of the different 

species, and their direction 

from surface. While the 

grasses’ and the bushes’ 

direction is 100% 

perpendicular, the trees 

grow rather vertically. 

Assembling the scene 

Planting the foliage for the EcoSystem 

04 Creating the ecosystem – overview 

Since I wanted to paint the scene in the colours of fall 

(autumn), this season determined my selection of plant 

species for the EcoSystem. The foreground terrain has 

one grass layer, the middle-ground terrains have two 

layers (grass and bush), while the larger, background 

terrains feature a third layer of non-HD fall rural maple 

trees too d. 

05 EcoSystem - grass 

My first step of creating the EcoSystem was adding grass, 

as the first ecosystem layer. A fresh-looking, bright green 

grass wouldn’t fit this autumnal environment, so I chose 

Buffelgrass from the AsileFX Sample Grass Pack. In order 

to increase the brownish look, I added Dead Grass from the 

same pack too. Since I didn’t want the ground to be visible, 

I set the Density to 96%, I deselected Decay near foreign 

objects, I set the Direction from surface to 100% 

perpendicular, and then, to add some realism, I marked 

Shrink at low densities e. 

D A screen capture of the material editor that shows the three 

layers of the EcoSystem 

E A screenshot of the grass layer’s Scaling & 

Orientation settings, and a render that shows 

these settings in practice 

06 EcoSystem – bushes & non-HD trees 

For the bush layer I picked Nadina Domestica from the 

Incredibly Lush Autumn Shrubs collection, and Bush 1 – 

Crawling. To make this bush fit the environment, I went to 

the Materials tab under the preview screen and changed the 

colour of its leaves to something reddish. I set the Density to 

90%, and the Direction from surface to 96% perpendicular. 

I left everything else at default. I added another EcoSystem 

layer to the background terrains, and loaded Scott McEwan’s 

non-HD fall maple trees from his Rural Maple Tree pack. To 

achieve a dense forest feeling, I set the Density to 80, and 

I left everything else at default F. 

F This render shows how the 

scene looked after adding the 

bush layer and the non-HD 

maple trees 

36

Environment 

h 

i 

g This shot shows how the scene looked like after the EcoSystem painting. 

You can see how these plants and colours brought the scene to life 

j 

07 Manually placed HD trees 

While non-HD trees are perfect for filling the background, 

as we are getting closer to the camera, we need to pay more 

attention to details and quality. HD trees are much more 

detailed and elaborate than non-HD trees, so they are a great 

choice for closer views. I placed HD maple trees from the 

same pack to the middle and foreground, creating a 

somewhat dense forest around the lake g. 

08 The centre of attention 

The environment was starting to look pretty nice, although 

when I viewed it I didn’t know where to look, and the middle 

of the scene seemed so empty. When composing a scene, it is 

important to place an object, building, larger plant – something 

prominent – to the spot where you want to attract the viewer’s 

attention. In this composition I followed the Rule of Thirds, and 

placed this tiny elven house with a boat onto a small island 

with a layer of rocks and a layer of grass ecosystem. This 

definitely made the scene more pleasing to the eye h. 

09 Fallen leaves on the water surface 

To add more detail and to increase the autumn feeling, 

I decided to paint some maple leaves to the water surface, 

near the lakeside. I took my water, turned its material into 

an EcoSystem, and added two Autumn maple leaves I’ve 

purchased from Cornucopia3D. To avoid floating leaves, 

I set the Offset from surface to -2cm, I set their maximum 

rotation to 180%, then I started painting the leaves on the 

water. As I was getting farther from the edge of the lake, 

I decreased the brush flow and density i. 

33 hours 

render time 

Resolution: 

3,000 x 1,688 

h In this shot I highlighted 

the focal objects to emphasise 

their position 

i On this screen capture 

you can see how I painted 

a path of fallen leaves to the 

water surface 

j Side view and main camera 

view with the highlighted far 

background terrains 

10 No sky visible 

I wanted to achieve the feeling of being in the middle of 

the forest. For this, I needed to cover the whole sky with 

large, densely populated terrains placed to the far 

background. I used three horizontally stretched terrains 

with a single, dense (87%) layer of non-HD fall maple 

trees. The first terrain added more depth and density to 

the ground level, and the other two, larger terrains were 

rotated to cover the sky j. 

Lighting and rendering 

Atmosphere and lighting are the key elements in this 

scene. The soft, subtle lighting and misty atmosphere give 

the fairy-tale mood of the scene, and make it different 

from an ordinary shot of an autumn forest. You can use 

legendary creatures, buildings or other objects, but 

without the right atmosphere, the scene loses its purpose. 

Although photorealism was not my goal, I wanted to 

make the scene as believable as possible. When it comes 

to lighting, Vue’s Global Radiosity (GR) engine is the key, 

because – using photon calculations – it can mimic real-life 

lighting with reflected light. It is also essential to enable 

Indirect Skylighting to get colour-reflected light, and 

Optimized for outdoor rendering should be enabled if 

making a natural environment. 

There is only one disadvantage to GR: since it uses a lot 

of calculations, it consumes more system resources, thus 

it can increase render time. That’s why I reduced its quality 

to -2 while composing the scene – and to -0.5 for the final 

render, decreasing render time without visible quality loss. 

37

Lighting the scene 

To give depth and make it believable 

Drea Horvath 

I am a 23-year-old self-trained freelance digital 

landscaper living in Budapest, Hungary. I started 

playing with Vue as a hobby about two years ago. 

It took a while to develop my skills to my current 

level, and to find the style that suits me best. 

Mostly I create large, complex environments, with 

powerful, dramatic atmospheres. Recently I joined 

iMU Studios’ THUNDER Throne Wars game project 

as an environment and level designer. 

In Perfect Harmony Vue 8 Infinite, 

Photoshop CS4 (2009) 

This render turned out somewhere between real and surreal, but 

I actually liked the result. The soul of the scene is the atmosphere; 

it’s powerful and dramatic, yet it reflects peace and harmony. 

11 Global Radiosity and shadow softness 

To make the scene look as believable as possible, it was 

clearly best to use Global Radiosity. I used a Gain of 2.0 

to add some reflected light, and I increased the Sky dome 

lighting gain to 0.30 to add some light being reflected 

from the sky itself, just like in real life. Since most of the 

sky is covered by trees, this value of 0.30 was enough. 

Pulling the light balance to Sunlight (70%) decreased 

artificial ambient light, and the ambient light was set to 

come from the sky, instead of being distributed 

throughout the scene. Since the shadows don’t have such 

sharp edges in real life, I set Sunlight softness to 3.00°, 

then I found the best sunlight direction k. 

12 Sky, Fog and Haze 

Sky settings didn’t have a big role in this scene, so I left 

everything at default. Thick forest mist is a key element of 

such scenes. Sometimes it can be achieved by increasing 

Haze density, though in this scene I wanted to keep the 

colours as vivid as possible. So I ended up decreasing Haze 

density to 12%, and increasing Fog to 30%. To keep the 

warm reddish tones, I added a slight red tone to the fog 

colour (RGB 94 90 85). Since I wanted a somewhat 

powerful morning sunlight, I pulled up Glow intensity 

to 100%. For subtle rays, I used volumetric sunlight l. 

13 Adding more depth 

A very nice, mysterious forest mood can be achieved 

by increasing Aerial Perspective. It actually multiplies 

atmospheric values, making the scene look bigger. Here, 

my purpose was to add more depth and misty look, so 

I increased AP to 30, and added a fuzzy metacloud to 

enhance the effect. After global settings, the scene was 

ready to be rendered m. 

Bitmaps and 

procedural 

materials 

Besides using bitmaps to 

create materials, in Vue 

it is possible to apply a 

procedural method to 

create your own materials 

or use and modify presets 

as well, using fractals that 

are literally infinite. 

Procedural materials can 

be dependent on any 

aspect of the world that 

you create, such as 

altitude, slope, or height. 

In my scenes I use 

procedural materials for 

terrains and water, and 

plants have bitmaps. 

k Screen grab of the Sunlight 

softness and Lighting settings 

l Screenshot of Sky, Fog and 

Haze settings 

m The difference is significant 

Sanctuary Vue 8 Infinite, Photoshop CS4 (2009) 

My goal was to create a large jungle scene with realistic 

lighting and ascending morning fog. I populated the rest of the 

terrains with Alder, and for the foreground I used crawling 

bush and AsileFX jungle plants. 

k 

l 

Chasing Heights Vue 8 Infinite, Photoshop CS4 (2010) 

This render is a the result of some experimenting with rock 

materials and functions. The unusual POV, the fog and the subtle 

God rays add some drama to the image. 

m 

38

Rendering and post-production 

Creating and tweaking the final scene 

Environment 

n 

14 Final rendering 

Render settings are based 

on a sensitive balance 

between quality and speed. 

Anti-aliasing: 4/256 rays 

were used for both object 

and texture AA. With a 

quality setting of 45% this 

provided good results and 

reasonably fast render. 

Settings like motion blur, 

DOF and blurred reflection 

were disabled, as they didn’t apply to this scene and 

would have only increased render time. Advanced effects 

were left at the default 46%, as the GR and Atmosphere 

settings were tweaked independently. The scene took 

exactly 33h42’38” to render at 3000×1688 n. 

15 Post-production – corrections 

After finishing a render, my next step is always launching 

Photoshop and making some minor corrections (contrast, 

colour, levels etc) on the final render. It gives me more 

control over the final result, and some clever steps can do 

wonders to the image. My first step was adjusting the 

contrast in the most simple way, by hitting Auto Contrast. 

Then I duplicated the background layer, and applied Auto 

Color and Auto Tone on the copy, then changed its 

Opacity to 65%, where I liked the image the most. After 

merging the layers, I needed to reduce noise a bit o. 

16 Adding more magic 

The following technique is based on one of GeekAtPlay’s 

tutorials, and I apply it in 95% of my work. In a mysterious 

forest scene this method works very well, since it adds 

more magic to the render. 

Basically I duplicated the background layer twice, 

applied Gaussian blur with a 4.2px radius on the two 

copied layers, set the second layer’s blending mode to 

Multiply, and the third layer’s to Overlay. I adjusted their 

opacities to 20-20%, and got the result I wanted. 

I added a very little soft light with brush to the darker 

areas, and finally I added a new layer, rendered clouds 

(with foreground and background colour black and white), 

hit Difference clouds, set the blending mode to Soft light, 

and the opacity to 18%. With this step I added some very 

subtle, soft shadows to the picture p. 

n A screenshot of the custom 

render settings that I used for 

the final render 

o This is how the image looked 

after contrast and colour 

corrections. The changes are 

minor, but the picture looks 

quite different 

p Almost ready. You can see 

how the technique I described 

works on a fairy-tale-like render 

o 

q ...and here is the final image 

after post-work 

p 

17 Final steps 

I was just a few steps away 

from getting the desired 

result. Since the previous 

technique makes the 

colours more saturated, I 

needed to desaturate reds 

a bit. I adjusted Levels, and 

finally I used the Clone tool 

for minor corrections q. 

39

Easy-to-follow guides 

take you from concept 

to the final render 

Artist info 

Dmitriy Glazyrin 

Username: Glazyrin 


http://ujean-glazyrin.com 

Country Russia 

Software used 3ds Max 2009, 

Photoshop CS4 

Expertise Dmitriy specialises in 

environments, 3D modelling, 

concepts and matte painting 

Step by step: Texture 

and paint environments 

Arctic Base 2010 

A symbiosis of 2D and 3D to produce a CG 

wintry landscape which is both technically 

complex and atmospherically evocative 

Dmitriy Glazyrin specialises in CG modelling and matte painting 

This tutorial will be focusing on creating an old arctic base 

from the very beginning: from concept through to 

modelling, texturing, composition and matte painting. 

I’ll show you how to use 2D elements to make the final scene more 

atmospheric and realistic. Additionally, throughout this walkthrough 

there will be an overview of 3ds Max and Photoshop in the 

production of this project, as well as several of the style techniques 

that I employed to develop Arctic Base. 

There is a sample making-of movie file on the CD that shows a 

selection of short video step-by-step clips based on my workflow in 

Photoshop. A major part of the video concentrates on how to mould 

hard landscaping like rocks into the desired shape. 

40

Environment 

Texturing, 

painting 


‘Making of’ video 

3ds Max 

Photoshop 

Concepts 

Inspiration behind the image 

I wanted to create a fast motorcycle, 

01 which rushes through the icy wilderness. A 

powerful jet of snow from under the wheels shows the 

speed of this motorcycle. During the process, the 

emphasis changed to focus more on the base. While 

trying to establish a concept, I made a simple model of 

a motorcycle and pasted it into the photograph of a 

frozen landscape. I then started to paint objects, 

though it was all very sketchy at this stage. 

With an idea for the final image, I made a 

02 simple rider for the bike as he was now a 

secondary character. The model was in need of a 

composition. I experimented with a variety of options 

as to what the base could look like. The best of these 

I rendered and finished with Photoshop. 

Next I thought of a story for the arctic base. I 

03 had the idea it could be an abandoned ship and 

ran with this. For many years great ships sailed ice drifts, 

cast anchor and worked in the frozen land, so it’s 

reasonable such a base might appear. Taking this 

inspiration as a basis for the ship, I made one 

compartment, which provided a guide for the rest. 

41

Artist 

Showcase 

Dmitriy Glazyrin 

I started as a matte painter two years ago. Looking to 

bring something new to my style, I became acquainted 

with 3D and realised that, combined with 2D, it could 

make my work more interesting. I would no longer be 

limited to photographic references; I was now able to 

create whole worlds. Currently I work in the 

advertising field, where it is necessary to create mainly 

contemporary corporate work, but environments 

remain a passion in my free time. 

Modelling the textures 

Giving the scene the right look 

For this work, I 

04 pretty much painted 

wholly in Photoshop and 

textured mainly in 3ds Max. I 

used simple textures such as 

VRayDirt. V-Ray Render 

Elements utilised to enhance 

this piece were Specular, 

Reflections and Lighting, 

among others. I always try to 

include a lot of passes in my 

work for tight, realistic detail. 

Praetorian 3ds Max, Photoshop, Poser, ZBrush (2009) 

This is a personal image in which I was trying to visualise one of my 

favourite themes – the atmosphere of ancient Rome. For the base 

forms and buildings I used 3ds Max. Textures partly were made in 

3ds Max, partly in Photoshop, using some stock photos and custom 

brushes. The Praetorian guard was made using Poser and ZBrush, 

while post-production of the final scene – colour correction etc – 

was completed with Photoshop. 

Tortuga 3ds Max 2009, Photoshop, Poser, V-Ray (2009) 

This image took a lot more time than I intended, but now it’s finally 

done I can say it was great fun to do something piratey and to learn 

a lot of interesting details about that period. I wanted this piece to 

be complex in its composition and details, showing not just a single 

ship, but a busy port. Modelling was done in 3ds Max, rendering in 

V-Ray and post-production in Photoshop. 

Here is an 

05 example of V-Ray 

Render Elements with 

processing in Photoshop for the 

final render. Remember that you 

can make your life easier by 

adjusting the highlights, 

shadows, reflections, etc, 

without wasting time on 

additional renders by taking 

advantage of built-in pass 

effects and layer adjustments. 

A very important 

06 thing when creating 

environments with an aerial 

perspective is to set the right 

depth, in order to add realism 

and to divide the scene along 

the lines of front, middle and 

long-range. To create 

perspective, I use V-Ray’s Z- 

Depth. In Photoshop, I invert 

the image, apply Screen 

blending and adjust Levels to 

obtain the desired result. I also 

play with the transparency of 

the layer to help with depth. 

42 

Persia Photoshop (2010) 

This image was made for a matte painting challenge for a Russian 

art society. The theme was ‘Prince of Persia’. I used pictures of a 

settlement in Morocco as the main inspiration. 

I always spend a lot of time 

07 carefully choosing the texture of the 

sky. A fellow modeller and friend of mine says, 

“The sky is the most important thing in a 

landscape”, and I wholeheartedly agree with 

him. A sky will determine the overall 

atmosphere, where shadows will manifest and 

how light will be distributed. In other words, it 

sets the pace for almost everything. Never rush 

when it comes to the sky. 

Sometimes I render the objects 

08 separately from one another and other 

times I do a scene in one pass; it all depends on 

the composition. For me, it’s a lot easier to work 

with separate objects in Photoshop. It may take 

a little more time in the production stage, but if 

you want to make adjustments at the end, it is 

infinitely easier as you have complete control 

over each and every element. Also, you do not 

have to put the whole scene in jeopardy.

Environment 

Lighting and painting 

Combining 3D and 2D elements 

First I cut elements from photographs in Photoshop, 

09 from the ground up to the sky. These textures were used 

to render and provided the basis for the entire scene, so they were 

approached very carefully. I merged them to form my base matte 

painting; sometimes it can be very difficult to find all the perfect 

textures you require in one stock image. 

Next I added the 

10 building, which was 

already rendered, applying 

elements such as Z-Depth, 

Lighting and Reflections, as 

mentioned earlier. I cloned the 

front rank bases, transformed 

them and added to the rear of 

the scene to bulk out the 

structure. I drew in some snow 

and highlights for the buildings 

too and placed these at the top 

of the layer stack. 

A clear demonstration on 

11 the creation of rocks in the scene 

can be viewed in a short video on the 

disc. I drew natural rocky formations 

and imposed the texture of the ice over 

them. I painted in light, shadows and 

glare from the ice floe to get the 

realistic feel I needed. 

15 hours 

render time 

Resolution: 

3,700 x 1,644 

After all of the 

12 objects had been 

incorporated, I created a light 

source for the picture – namely 

the setting sun. I made this on a 

black background in Photoshop 

and used Screen blending 

mode. The sun is not just a 

white circle; its rays need to 

immerse and bounce off 

objects in the scene. I reduced 

the contrast and saturation of 

these objects. For most of my 

environment works, I tend to 

use VRaySun and few other 

light sources. 

In the final stages, I drew snow in 

13 the air and behind the wheels of the bike, 

which boosted drama and movement. I then 

added some lights to the arctic base, but you 

could also include a flock of birds, more vehicles 

or other details to fill out your scene. Finally I 

performed some all-important colour correction 

and retouching, where I removed defects 

unintentionally created during production. 

43

One evening I was waiting for my good friend from a 

trip. It was dark and a little cold; the air was fresh. 

Looking up at the nearest house, I saw the moon 

showing from behind the house. One of the windows 

glowed with a warm light and I thought it looked 

really attractive. At that moment the idea for this 

picture came to me… 

Insomnia 2010 

Website www.veprikov.deviantart. 

com 

Country Ukraine 

Software used 3ds Max, ZBrush, 

Photoshop 

Nikita Veprikov 

Artist info 



When Displacement 

can’t give me the results I 

want, I use ZBrush – even 

for non-organic objects. It 

takes much longer, but 

gives you full freedom. I 

used it in this work for 

the balconies

To render depth, you need to 

add it on the Render Elements sheet. 

To create volume light you need to 

adjust light sources and volume light 

settings and then apply a black 

material for all objects in the scene 

before you render. The received 

image is worked on in Photoshop in 

Screen mode 

To reduce render 

time and have more 

control, I rendered the 

interior and exterior as 

separate scenes. Later, I 

composed them in 

Photoshop. This step also 

facilitated the lighting 

adjustment. Every scene 

has its own light sources 

and GI settings 

Environment 


The volume light and 

depth I rendered in 

separate passes. This 

gives much more control 

over the haze and air; it 

allows you to make 

changes on the fly 

3ds Max Photoshop ZBrush 

45

This image was made as a 

personal project using models I 

had been making for work 

Stefan Morrell is a content creator and illustrator 


3ds Max ZBrush 3.5 RayFire 

finalRender 

SE 

xNormal 

Photoshop 

CS4 

Model 

environments 

City Ruins 2010 

Artist info 




Stefan Morrell 

Username: stefan-morrell 


stefan-morrell.cgsociety.org 



ZBrush 3.5, RayFire, finalRender 

SE, xNormal, Photoshop CS4 

Expertise Stefan specialises in 

environment design, creation 

and rendering 

This image was a chance to use a few models 

that I’d been creating for my DAZ 3D 

storefront where I sell commercial 3D 

content. I used 3ds Max for all modelling and UV 

mapping, and also used a 3ds Max plug-in written by 

Mir Vadim called RayFire; finalRender was used for 

rendering and Photoshop for postproduction. 

The image only uses three buildings and a UFO 

model; these were instanced throughout the scene to 

build up the environment, proving that dozens of 

buildings are not required to create a cityscape. The 

image came together very quickly due to the models 

already being made for other projects; it was a nice 

deviation from working on a commercial models as I 

often don’t get the chance to use my own models in 

my artwork – sometimes it’s been years between 

creating the models and using them in my own 

imagery. It’s handy having so many models that I can 

call upon at any time; always recycle your work! 

Concept 

I wanted a scene that was easy to read so 

the concept was kept basic: it’s a very 

formal composition using a slight camera 

tilt to work with the crashed UFO. I made 

no concept sketches, but played in 3ds 

Max to find interesting shapes and angles 

that were visually pleasing. 

46

Environment 

Modelling, 

texturing, 

lighting 

a Here we can see the 

composition of the 3D scene 

without textures 

01 Composition 

I’ve always preferred 

compositions that are easy on 

the eye and where the viewer 

can quickly read what is going 

on, often using the ‘golden ratio’ 

or divine proportion to help flesh 

out an image. My initial plan 

was a street of ruined buildings 

with a thick, oppressive 

atmosphere; the UFO being 

more of an afterthought when I 

realised the scene needed a 

focal point. I originally played 

with the idea of a boy looking 

down the street in the 

foreground, but I thought the 

UFO added a kind of lonely 

atmosphere that worked well a. 

47

Problems and 

solutions 

Having made many buildings 

over the years, I’ve come up 

with a workflow that’s both 

efficient and quick. Initially I 

use a simple plane and apply a 

texture to it, and then cut 

around the texture and 

extrude, inset, etc, to add extra 

detailing. This is a unique 

workflow in that my textures 

and modelling occur at the 

same time – most other people 

model first, then UV map and 

then texture. For my own 

work, I find doing everything 

at once is both faster and I can 

achieve more; it may require 

some additional UV mapping 

to tweak extrusions as you 

model, but overall it’s a very 

fast method for creating a 

building based on a photo. 

The major issue I faced in 

creating these ruins was 

keeping the poly count down 

while still allowing for plenty 

of visual detail. Once 

everything was done I spent a 

long night deleting polygon 

faces that the camera would 

never see. If the model was 

only for my own use, I 

wouldn’t have bothered with 

that step, but given these were 

intended to be commercially 

available I had to think of 

people using them on lower 

spec systems. 

c 

Start the modelling 

Build from photo references 

d 

b The first stages of modelling 

involved creating the façade 

02 Cutting based on texture 

Starting from a good photo texture reference, I created a 

plane in 3ds Max and cut out the major shapes of the applied 

texture map. At this early stage a simple Planar UV map is 

the best way to start. Use the Preserve UVs option in Max to 

avoid destroying the UVs as you move edges and vertices 

around the model. 

Once the major cuts were in place around windows, doors 

and other major shapes, I then extruded windows etc to get a 

3D shape. All these extrusions required new UV mapping, as 

the Preserve UVs feature doesn’t work on extrusions b. 

48 

c This is one of the hi-res 

sculpts, as seen in ZBrush 

d A close-up of a destroyed 

concrete wall 

03 High-poly ZBrush modelling – 1 

To go alongside the regular low-poly assets, I also created 

several high-poly ZBrush sculpts of concrete debris. From 

these I generated a series of Displacement maps to be used 

on the final low-poly model. 

After laying out a good set of UVs, I sent the UV template 

to Photoshop and used photo references to get cracks and 

fractures in the right places. This image was then used as a 

Displacement or Alpha mask in ZBrush, and then another 

layer of sculpted detail was added on a new ZBrush layer 

using the original image as a guide. The final Displacement 

map also served as a great starting point for applying the 

coloured textures c. 

04 High-poly ZBrush modelling – 2 

For other high-poly assets such as this destroyed wall, I used 

brushes like HPolish (for chipped edging) and Mallet Fast 

(with very low strength settings). I enhanced the cracks 

using the Standard brush and, as with the previous step, I 

used Alpha maps of concrete cracks to ensure everything 

looked reasonably realistic. The model was subdivided to 

around six million polygons, with displacement generated in 

xNormal (www.xnormal.net) d.

Environment 


Global Illumination by way of Physical Sky controls is my 

most used method for outdoor lighting. It’s a very forgiving 

lighting type and perfect for outdoor scenarios. I also 

added a Direct light that throws a good deal of finalRender 

volumetric lighting into the scene. The Direct light was 

also used as it helped me see where shadows would fall. 

I paid special attention to sun placement so that the 

light cast shadows in an interesting way. finalRender also 

has a great feature called Detail Detection; with this option 

you can pick out all the small details via an Ambient 

Occlusion pass. I usually overdo this part because I like the 

effect so much. In postproduction, I toned it back and 

masked out some areas of occlusion; I also used the Z- 

Depth renders to ensure the AO was only present in 

foreground elements – in this image that meant a subtle 

gradient mask from the foreground to the background. 

The same Direct light was used as a Sun light in the 

Physical Sky palette options. I’ll often use a compass 

helper to aid in positioning the lighting, but for this one it 

was enough to rely only on the single Direct light. This 

simple light setup made for a fairly quick rendering too. 

e 

4 hours 

render time 

Resolution: 

6,000 x 2,396 

e The three final buildings (the 

first two are now available at 

www.daz3d.com) 

f Here we see the model 

broken into its three main 

modular components 

g The UFO rendered with a 

finalRender Dirt shader 

05 Buildings 

Only three buildings were used in the entire image; I used 

instancing to duplicate them around the scene. Instancing is 

a great technique that I use all the time in rendering as it has 

such a low memory footprint. The road sections each 

building sits on were kept modular so I could fit them 

together in various configurations, and the final building was 

given the least amount of detail as it was only going to be 

seen in the distance e. 

06 Think modular 

Keeping things modular is a good idea as you can then create 

variations on the same theme by using one hero model. With 

the hotel building for example, I have four main sections; for 

many renderings I may only want to render the bottom 

section so any extra geometry in the scene is a waste of 

resources. With a modular approach to modelling, I can just 

delete parts of the model that aren’t seen f. 

07 UFO 

Adding a crashed spacecraft gave the image some focus; this 

is a model that I quickly made in a few hours. The UV map 

was projected from the camera view to save time, and I 

applied only one texture map. It was only ever to be seen in 

the distance so I didn’t want to waste too much time on it. 

During postproduction I added small blue lights to give it a bit 

more punch, and during rendering, I focused on getting very 

strong highlights so the viewer would see it as a focal point g. 

g 

f 

49

Let’s break some stuff 

Now we come to the destruction 

Stefan Morrell 

I design and build environment and prop models 

for DAZ 3D, where I’ve been the top-selling artist for 

several years. I also work as a freelance illustrator; 

recent clients include National Geographic 

magazine, where I was tasked with producing 

several pages of space-themed images. 

08 RayFire 

To make these buildings 

ruined I used a lot of manual 

modelling and a plug-in called 

RayFire (www.mirvadim.com), 

widely used in the 

entertainment industry, from 

game cinematics to movies 

such as 2012 – it’s the go-to 

tool for destroying and 

generally wreaking havoc on 

your models! I usually fracture the models first and then 

use RayFire’s PhysX connection to do the simulating; I also 

make use of additional demolition options that allow the 

models to break on impact. For this model I tried to keep 

things very low-poly, but with RayFire you can achieve 

some very detailed destruction H. 

H A before and after of a group 

of bricks randomly placed, 

and then as they appear 

after RayFire simulation 

Shuttle 43 3ds Max, finalRender, Photoshop (2010) 

Just another chance to create a magical environment. The 

character is a great way of framing an image and leading the 

viewer’s eye back into frame. 

i Detail of a manually destroyed 

wall created using basic poly 

modelling techniques 

50 

Flight to the Blue Tower 3ds Max, finalRender, 

Photoshop (2010) 

A still from an animation that I’ve been working on featuring a 

flight through a sci-fi cityscape. 

The Neighbourhood 3ds Max, finalRender, 


Urban environments are always fun to work on and allow plenty 

of room for unique detailing. With this image I received a Master 

award in Ballistic Publishing’s ELEMENTAL book. 

09 Manual destruction 

Along with RayFire, I manually added some destruction; 

this takes a lot of time, but the payoff is some very specific 

destruction and optimised geometry. I used basic poly 

modelling techniques in 3ds Max; because these were to be 

commercial models, keeping everything optimised was 

paramount. I first cut out a basic shape from the textured 

building façade and then duplicated a single brick around 

the broken opening (stopping occasionally only to move 

UVs around to avoid repeating textures). When placing 

these bricks I followed the applied texture map so the 

manually placed bricks lined up correctly. I also added 

many broken bricks that had been fractured in RayFire I. 

10 Rubble piles 

The biggest thing that will help sell a destroyed 

environment is bucketloads of detail. Adding lots of 

rubble piles and other debris is essential. The focus 

with these is creating a good silhouette. My images 

usually have a good amount of atmosphere so I 

know the piles will read better as they recede into 

the distance as long as the shape is interesting. 

Add pipes, steel reinforcing, chunks of concrete 

and brick – whatever you can – to sell the 

destruction, as these will also be seen close up. I 

use displacement for added detail j. 

Textures 

For the most part I use my 

own photo-sourced 

textures that are tweaked 

in Photoshop; working 

from real-world photos is 

essential when doing 

realistic urban 

environments. In addition 

to this, I used a façade 

texture from www. 

cgtextures.com which is a 

fantastic online resource 

for CG artists. 

j This image shows one of the 

final rubble piles

Environment 

Texturing the ruins 

Add a desaturated look to the buildings 

K This is one of the façade textures; a variation of this 

map with burn damage was used for the upper floors 

11 Building façades 

I tried to keep this texture as simple as possible and so the 

windows are just box shaped with a simple trim at the 

base of the map. This fitted in well with the theme and 

overall design of the building. 

Adding the concrete trim around the windows was an 

effective way to avoid matching up the brick pattern as it 

appeared in the inset part of the windows k. 

M Image shows a close-up of the textured UFO; note the simple 

one-colour theme, letting the geometry carry the detail 

13 Texturing the UFO 

In keeping with the ’keep it simple’ mindset, the UFO was 

the simplest of all. The UVs were projected from the 

camera view and textured using a generic concrete image. 

All the glowing blue lights were added in postproduction 

to avoid extra render time and also to allow for more 

flexibility when deciding if I even wanted the lights M. 

14 Decals 

I often use decals to help break up repetition in textures. 

In the ruins, these are single polys representing bullet 

holes. I randomly distributed these across the model, 

initially using the Scatter option, but then using manual 

placement with some rotation etc. Even though they all 

used the same texture, they added a nice sense of 

randomness to the building and also helped to sell the 

idea of a war-torn, battle-damaged city n. 

L This image shows the Color map, Bump map, Opacity 

mask and Reflection mask 

12 Matching textures 

To go with the previous texture, I also used a tiling texture. 

This appeared at ground level and, as such, needed a bit 

more texel density to hold up in close-up shots. I used 

Photoshop Curves adjustments to match the tiling brick 

pattern to the original façade. It’s a good idea to have a 

collection of brick patterns saved in Photoshop that can 

easily be called upon. For every brick texture I’ve saved as 

a Photoshop pattern, I also create a Bump map. This again 

saves time when creating the final texture as the finished 

Bump map is just a Flood Fill away L. 

N Screenshot from 3ds Max showing 

decals applied to the building 

Rendering 

the image 

Rendering was fairly 

straightforward. I tend to 

render out several 

elements (passes) so I 

have a lot of room to move 

in postproduction. Z-Depth 

is an essential ingredient in 

cityscapes and I use this to 

create atmospheric 

perspective, depth of field 

and also to paint in smoke 

behind buildings. 

I rendered the image at 

6,000 polys on a Windows 

7, 64-bit, i7 Quad core with 

12GB RAM. 

51




Paweł has supplied three chair 

models with this tutorial. Add 

them to your model library to 

improve your arc-vis renders 

chair1.max 

chair2.max 

chair3.max 

Artist info 

Paweł Podwojewski 


www.podwojewski.org 


Hardware used 

2 x Xeon quad 2.83 and 

16GB RAM 

Software used 

3ds Max, V-Ray 1.5 SP5, 

Photoshop CS4 

Expertise Paweł specialises in 

environment creation and 

exterior lighting setups, 

particularly for dusk/night 

Modelling, 

texturing 


3ds Max V-Ray Photoshop 

52

Environment 

Creating nature – 

plant modelling 

Wisteria Floribunda 2010 

Focused on environment creation, this scene inspired new solutions in Paweł’s 

workflow to help him create a selection of plants for compelling arc-vis renders 

Paweł Podwojewski is an architect and CG artist 

In this tutorial we are 

going to learn how to 

create highly detailed 

plant models using 3ds 

Max, V-Ray and Photoshop 

as the base tools. I would 

like to show how easy it is to 

transfer the techniques to 

other plants, so you can use 

the skills to build up your very 

own library of models. 

The presented scene is the 

result of a collaboration with 

the Nadau Lavergne studio 

that designed the building. 

My task was to create an 

image that would be able to 

express the ambience 

created by various elements 

of the environment. From the 

very beginning the plants 

were the focal point of the 

scene. Because their type 

and position was clearly 

specified I had to work out 

some new techniques that 

allowed me to complete the 

task with accurate results. I 

wanted to make the scene 

unique – to brand the idea in 

the viewers’ memories. 

This tutorial will explain 

how using reference pictures 

and basic 3ds Max 

techniques can create plant 

models just like those shown 

in the illustrations. We will 

also go through the V-Ray 

rendering engine and 

material options to polish up 

the image for the best results 

in Photoshop. 

A Gather your reference wisely 

The groundwork 

Source reference and create basic models 

B Each component of the model in this scene might require a different 

placement technique 

C These are the main elements that make up the planned object – to 

create a scene heavily populated with Wisteria floribunda 

A 

B 

C 

01 Plan the modelling 

The first thing we need to do is to find reference pictures 

that will allow us to understand the anatomy of a particular 

plant, which in this case is Japanese Wisteria (or Wisteria 

floribunda). Be sure to find pictures showing your focal 

object from different angles and scales; try to find shots that 

will be orthogonal to each specific part of the plant, like the 

leaves or shoots. This process will aid you with the textures 

in the following steps and can also be a great help with the 

modelling process A. 

02 Basic shape definitions 

We are planning to create a pretty large scene including lots 

of plants. We need to think about the polycount in the first 

place to make sure that our workstation can actually 

manage with the size of the scene. It’s important to answer 

the question: which elements need more – and less – detail 

to make them work in regular shots, as well as close-ups? In 

this case we have four main objects: flowers, shoots, leaves 

and branches B. 

03 Choice of modelling techniques 

Once we have defined the necessary elements, it’s time to 

choose the modelling process. Most single components can 

be created using very basic techniques; in this instance, I 

chose Editable Poly. To make the plants more natural we will 

need a few variations of the same elements to make sure 

nothing is repeated. We’ll also need to use some extra tools 

to scatter single elements in a random way C. 

Inspiration & reference 

For this piece, I was quite simply inspired by gardens – 

canopies of Wisteria flowers are amazing! Once I’d seen 

the first reference pictures, I was sure this was going to be a 

very exciting project. 

53

Modelling the Wisteria 

This process is based on simple, efficient solutions 

04 Model the flowers 

In the presented scene we did not use blueprints; we simply 

focused on the reference images and tried to retain the 

general forms. The flower consisted of three elements. 

Create a simple plane object and add new divisions to obtain 

the low-poly shape of the main body. Follow the same 

procedure to prepare the petals and core. In the end, we’ll 

need a shoot that will connect the flower to the stalk. Copy 

the flower twice and change the geometry a little to give it 

more variety D. 

05 Prepare the geometry to multiply 

Once the main elements of the flower are done, apply a 

UVW map to each object. We used a simple box-mapping 

procedure. Create the necessary maps, shaders and apply to 

your models. Next, convert the geometry into Editable Poly 

and attach all the components into one object. Adjust the 

pivot; make sure the Z axis is placed exactly as shown in the 

example – this stage is very important, so take your time E. 

D Create the flowers using 

simple elements with 

Editable Poly techniques 

d 

E Be sure to pay close attention 

as to keep the correct order 

of actions 

e 

f 

F Note that having plants of 

different ages in the scene 

will produce a much more 

realistic finish 

g 

G Play with the general size 

and density in each group 

to achieve a more natural, 

random impression 

g 

g 

Problems & 

solutions 

The main problem when 

creating plants is the 

random impression 

required for all elements. 

We need to make sure 

the flowers, leaves, etc, 

will not appear 

countable in the end. 

Creating the Wisteria 

scene, I also needed 

very dense branches to 

cover the whole 

courtyard and climbers 

on columns. 

Each new model will 

require specific textures 

and mapping, which in 

some cases might be 

difficult to complete 

because of the lack of 

stock textures and the 

unusual geometry. The 

many repetition issues 

might discourage at first 

sight, but remember that 

once you go through the 

process you will gain a 

unique model that can 

be used in future 

projects, and will make 

your artwork distinct. 

Overall the solutions 

are very simple. To 

spread the predefined 

components we will use 

the Advanced Painter 

script developed by 

Herman Saksono; 

branch creation will be 

solved with the Ivy 

Generator plug-in from 

GuruWare; and the rest 

will be covered by basic 

poly modelling and a 

little patience! 

e 

e 

06 Stalk and leaf creation 

In this step we will create the stalk object and some leaves. 

The actions in this step are pretty much the same as in the 

basic flower creation process. First, use a spline to draw the 

stalk and leaf. Copy them twice and tweak the size and 

shape slightly. You can create three different lengths of stalk 

to produce plants in various stages of development. Also, 

take care when adjusting the pivot points here f. 

07 Create groups of plants 

Using the Advanced Painter script spreads the leaves and 

flowers on the stalk. Set Advanced Painter to Randomizer 

mode, and select the correct object to Multiply. Be sure to 

check the Align Up-Direction is set to N, and remember to 

use stalks with different lengths. Once you have created 

similar groups to those shown, convert the objects into 

Editable Poly and attach them into one object. Once again, 

carefully adjust the pivots until it looks right g. 

Advanced 

Painter 

The Advanced Painter script 

is a very powerful tool. 

Among its many options you 

will find the Randomizer, 

Grass and Stone modes. 

Depending on your needs, it 

can be used to arbitrarily 

spread custom objects on a 

mesh surface or to apply 

predefined settings. It is a 

very accurate tool that allows 

you to, in fact, paint with 

objects in real-time – very 

handy when adding finer 

details to your scenes. 

Advanced Painter gives 

you control over the position 

and rotation of distributed 

objects so there are many 

ways to apply them, as 

demonstrated in this scene. 

54

Environment 

H 

J 

J 

i 

H Prepare a fake distribution 

object and set its properties 

to ‘Not renderable’ 

I Painting the proxies, check 

the Bounding Box display 

mode to obtain more FPS 

in the viewport 

J Create some additional 

plants to make the scene 

more complex 

2 hours 

render time 

Resolution: 

4,050 x 2,880 

Ivy Generator 

Ivy Generator is a simple tool 

that can be used in many 

ways. We chose this plug-in 

as it is very efficient: it allows 

you to very quickly and 

easily generate ivy, and also 

gives control over physics, 

like gravity or adhesion. One 

of the top features is the realtime 

preview when ‘growing’ 

the ivy. It’s also possible to 

adjust the level of detail to fit 

with your composition. Use 

this plug-in to create groundcover 

or all manner of 

natural environments. 

08 Branches and their distribution 

Using the great GuruWare plug-in Ivy Generator, we will 

now create the branches. In the scene we have some cables 

in the courtyard that the branches can follow. This might not 

be enough though to cover the whole sky, so we will create a 

fake distribution object. To do so, use the circle from the 

Splines rollout and convert it to Editable Poly. Place the ivy 

seed and use the provided settings. Repeat this action a few 

times until the density is thick enough. Place some branches 

on the ground and columns too. Remember to uncheck the 

leaf option in the ivy settings H. 

09 Establish the scene 

At this point all plants are ready to spread in the scene. Use 

the V-Ray mesh export option and create proxies from the 

predefined groups from Step 7. Once again, we will use 

Advanced Painter. Run the script and choose the flower 

proxies. Select the Instance cloning method and the 

distribution object from Step 8. Paint the flowers; tweak the 

rotation, position and scale in the Advanced Painter settings. 

Once your camera is set up in the scene, add some more 

groups to areas where they will be well exposed I. 

10 Additional details 

We will now add some extra flowers to make the scene 

more complex. We can use the geometry from Step 5. 

Change the shoots into stalks and add small leaves before, 

once again, tweaking the pivots to previous settings. In this 

scene, we’ve created a noisy terrain with the Push/Pull tool 

from Editable Poly rollout. Using Advanced Painter with the 

terrain as the distribution object, multiply the flowers in the 

lower areas. This way you can achieve some ‘flower carpets’, 

which should attract the attention of the viewer. J 

Using the Editable Poly modelling technique 

combined with the Advanced Painter script, it is 

possible to create very different types of plants… to 

build up your own collection of vegetation 

Applying the techniques 

to other models 

Using the Editable Poly modelling technique combined with 

the Advanced Painter script, it is possible to create very 

different types of plants. In this tutorial, we reveal the 

creation process of the Wisteria floribunda. The presented 

scene also contains a very specific moss terrain with 

production steps that were very similar. Once you 

understand how the script 

works, you are able to use it 

in many ways to build up 

your own personal collection 

of vegetation. 

For the moss creation, we 

started with a single blade of 

moss. Once again, using 

many reference pictures, we 

were able to create the 

specific species of moss. 

The single blade with a 

properly adjusted pivot was 

multiplied over a hemisphere 

object. After the textures 

were applied, all 

components were attached 

into one object with a new 

adjusted pivot and exported 

using the V-Ray mesh 

option. The Advanced 

Painter script was used again 

to populate the new plant 

across the terrain. 

55

Textures, shaders and postproduction 

Proper textures and shaders will really bring your plants to life 

Texporter 

Texporter is a 

plug-in that helps 

you to create 

basic templates 

for textures. 

Please remember 

to keep the 

resolution ratio 

(width and 

height) the same 

as in the UVW 

you have applied 

to an object. 

Once the 

template is done, 

save it and paint the 

texture in your favourite 

software. In the end, the 

texture will perfectly fit 

your object. 

Utilise the Texporter 

script to produce masks 

for your textures 

k 

11 Paint the textures 

In the early steps we applied UVW box mapping to the main 

components, such as the flower and stalk. It’s a massive 

help to have reference pictures taken from orthogonal views 

for the elements you are about to texture. There is a great 

plug-in called Texporter (www.cuneytozdas.com), which 

may help when creating texture templates. Once the 

template is ready, you can simply copy a part of the 

reference picture and fit it to the comp. In some cases it’s 

even better to paint the textures from scratch – as this will 

give you more control over the size and placement k. 

12 Create materials 

After your diffuse textures are done, copy the layers and 

desaturate them. Tweak the contrast and brightness to 

prepare the Bump, Reflection and Translucent maps in 

Photoshop. Once all the textures are set, choose the 

VRayMtl and organise the channels as shown. To get more 

control over the shaders’ behaviour, use the ColorCorrect 

parameters with all created textures L. 

Rendering additional 

channels & postproduction 

A standard Direct light with area shadows was used as 

the main light source, clipped with VRaySky in the 

environment and reflection override. In the 

VRayPhysicalCamera, enable the depth-of-field 

checkbox and set the correct focus distance. Add some 

extra channels in the VRay: Frame buffer, as follows: 

Alpha channel, Z-Depth, V-Ray raw reflection and the 

Reflection filter. 

In postproduction, control the reflection amount using 

the ref. filter channel. Apply a Lens Blur filter in 

Photoshop with a Z-Depth map. Finally, tweak the 

setting to achieve an extra stylish bokeh effect. 

Using additional passes, such as Alpha and Z-Depth channels, 

hone the lighting and other effects in postproduction 

k Use the orthogonal reference 

photos for texture creation 

L Control the shader’s 

behaviour using the 

ColorCorrect parameters 

L 

Paweł Podwojewski 

After several years of collaborating with 

architectural studios, in 2008 I decided to 

open MOTYW (MOTIVE). Working with 

clients all over the world, I have become 

very experienced in different types of 

projects. I’m always looking for a 

challenge in my work, to improve myself 

and to evolve. 

Housing in Bordeaux 3ds Max, V-Ray, Photoshop 

(2010) An autumn dusk scene. I love to play with the 

atmosphere of my scenes; nearly every time I am 

surprised by the results. 

Winter in the city 3ds Max, V-Ray, Photoshop 

(2010) An urban environment in the winter. I spent 

some time working on the street textures, painting a lot 

of Displacement maps to achieve this effect. 

56

I made Dawn on the Moon 

based on a rough 2D 

concept artwork by Iwo 

Widulinski. The idea was 

to create a massive 

village drowned in green 

clouds and dust, with 

hundreds of small lights 

as the main light source 

and only sign of life. 

Dawn on the Moon 2010 

The idea was to create an alternative to the original Air Village fantasy 

scene, to show how much you can change in the scene just by changing 

the lighting and adding some details. I made the scene on the base of the 

Air Village model. It took me eight to twelve hours, I think, not including 

the render time, of course. After it was done we decided at Evermotion 

to use it as a promotional image for a training DVD. 

Website 

www.evermotion.org 



Photoshop 

Rafał Waniek 

Username: Edi 

Artist info 

There’s no special lighting with 

this one; moonlight being the only 

source. The atmosphere was made 

using environment fog, not only 

to create a volumetric lighting 

effect, but also because it can hide 

modelling imperfections 

All the base models were originally made 

for different scenes. Using the huts from the Air 

Village image, I added holes and rubble. I also 

tested out the Ivy Generator, which is a specific 

3ds Max script for creating the creeping plant 



For rendering, I usually use V-Ray because 

it is really fast and easy to use. However, it did 

take me about 14 hours to render this on a 16 

core machine, because of the resolution 

displacement (4,000), and lots of details 



57

This character was 

created during beta testing 

for ZBrush 4. The look and 

style came by itself as I was 

exploring the new rendering 

features. I was interested in a 

hand-made, non-slick look – 

similar to stop-motion. This 

was also an attempt to test 

the potential of rendering in 

ZBrush. Modelled and 

rendered in ZBrush, with 

compositing done in Shake 

Yiannis Tyropolis, And how does that 

make you feel, hmm?, 2010 

Artist info 

Yiannis 

Tyropolis 


http://trungpad.cgsociety.org 

Country Greece 

Software used 

ZBrush, Shake 

58 ● 3DArtist

Character 

Character 


Interview: Oliver Ponsonnet ........................ 64 

Painting up a demon image ..........................72 

Texture and light a beautiful girl ..................76 

Creating a savage warrior .............................80 

I made this: Hodong La .................................. 96 

Making of The Sky Fisherman ..................... 98 

Create a sexy fairy woman .......................... 104 

Portrait masterclass ......................................108 

I made this: Iker Cortázar ..............................114 

Model a cute fantasy figure ...........................116 

Build your own monster ...............................120 

Interview: Andrew Hickinbottom ..............124 

Create a futuristic bar scene .........................130 

Create a friendly dragon ................................134 

Add textures and light to objects .................138 

I made this: Martin Ruizl ..............................142 

Create a Lovecraft legend ..............................144 

Create Pixar-style artwork ............................148 

59

This is a personal 

project from a concept I 

created at university. I 

like horror films and 

tried to create a 

character for an 

animation short that I 

am working on in my 

spare time 

A. Martín Puentes Rivera, Crazy 

Zombie, 2010 

Artist info 

A. Martín 

Puentes Rivera 


http://www.maxanimator. 

com and http://www. 

triplekeystudio.com 

Country Spain 

Software used 

Zbrush, 3D Studio Max, 

Mental Ray, Photoshop 

60

Character 

Artist info 

Andrzej Kuziola 


www.kuziola.com 


Software used 

Cinema 4D, ZBrush, Photoshop 

I created this illustration for the “Boiler Room” contest. My 

goal was to achieve a stifling-hot, anxiety filling atmosphere 

and also to refer to the vision of Hell where devils torment sinful 

souls. I was also inspired by human sacrifices made to Têixiptlas 

in ancient Aztec civilization. The idea of Pandemonium and the 

Diabolical Boiler God, hungry for innocent, cuddly teddy bears 

was born 

Andrzej Kuziola, Teddy Bear Snacks 

61

Artist info 

Andrew 

Hickinbottom 


http://andyh.cgsociety.org 

Country UK 

Software used 

3ds Max, V-Ray 


A French friend of mine, Serge 

Birault, does great pinup art that I’ve 

admired for a while. I thought I’d do 

a clichéd French girl as an homage/ 

present to him 

Andrew Hickinbottom, Ooh la la, 2010 

62

Character 

Artist info 

Angel Gabriel 

Diaz Romero 


www.tiflos.com 

Country Spain 

Software used 

3ds Max, ZBrush, Mudbox, 

Photoshop 


Pirate Robot was born from a collaboration of 

ideas between Alicia Pereira and myself for a 

personal illustration. Using a simple robot I’d 

already made, I created an interesting pirate 

from it for a scene based around the idea of a 

universe without humans, just robots looking 

for treasure – and batteries to survive! 

Angel Gabriel Diaz Romero, Pirate Robot, 2010 

63

We talk to Olivier Ponsonnet, a community favourite, who creates videogames 

by day and moonlights as a CGI character portrait artist by night 

Timeless 

beauty 

64 

Name Olivier Ponsonnet 

Job title 3D artist 

Personal website 

http://re1v.free.fr 

Country France 

Software used 3ds Max, 

ZBrush, Photoshop 

Expertise Real-time 

environments and characters 

Current employer 

Asobo Studio 

I try to create timeless illustrations. 

It sounds pretentious but that’s really what 

I try to achieve. I mix many inspirations from 

different eras so that my characters do not 

look too contemporary 

Olivier Ponsonnet specialises in real-time environments and characters 

Olivier Ponsonnet is a renowned 

master of the CG portrait in the 3D 

community. In stark contrast to the 

stunning portraits that don his portfolio, 

when he is not creating intriguingly 

beautiful characters that capture our hearts 

and inspire our own creative pursuits, he is 

working as a 3D artist in the videogames 

industry. By day, he creates real-time 

characters and CG environments, from level 

design to the final visuals and yet, in his 

spare time, he still finds the motivation to 

produce wonderful portraits like these 

featured here. 

Having worked in videogames for around 

four years now, after what may seem an 

unexpected educational background for 

such an aspired 3D creator, Olivier has never 

regretted his decision to become a CG artist. 

He has told 3D Artist that he will never tire 

of creating, and we certainly hope that he 

doesn’t. With an ever-impressive portfolio 

and a work-in-progress underway, Olivier 

will continue to inspire with his unique 

representations. Something of an enigma 

in the CG community, we wanted 

to find out more about the man behind the 

hauntingly beautiful faces… 

Can you tell us a little bit about your 

education and how it helped set the 

foundations for your career? 

Olivier Ponsonnet: I’m actually self-taught. 

Before working in videogames, I studied 

Computer Science at university. While I was 

studying, CG was my passion and I was 

doing it in my spare time. At the end of my 

course, I chose to work as a CG artist and 

continued practising as a hobby in my free 

time. I might not have directly done art or 

CG as part of my degree, but I think my 

studies helped me a lot in understanding 

the basic functions from a technical point of 

view; from how lighting works, to how it’s 

actually simulated and rendered, etc. 

When I was younger, I also had drawing 

lessons for some years, practising with many 

types of media, such as pencil, charcoal, 

acrylic, silk painting and so on – this all 

helped me to develop my artistic skills. 

A Flame 

“The ornamental 

elements provide 

extra narrative 

and encourage the 

viewer to look beyond 

the beauty that 

is portrayed”

Character 

a 

65

c 

b A Fairy World 

“Created for a French contest, A Fairy 

World was inspired by butterflies, 

fireflies, royal clothing and coleopters” 

d 

How exactly did you teach yourself 3D? 

How did it start, where did you get your 

learning resources and how steep was the 

learning curve? 

OP: Well, it was pretty simple. I was 13 years 

old, I liked to draw and I had a computer so 

I just tried to merge these two hobbies 

together. That’s why I bought my first 3D 

software: Voxel3D. It didn’t offer many 

possibilities, but I was really happy with 

it. A couple of years later, I started using 

Amapi. I could create more complex objects, 

but the rendering part of this software 

was extremely limited. That’s why I turned 

to 3ds Max 1.0. In the beginning, I was 

just using it as a renderer with imported 

objects from Amapi, but I ended up using 

3ds Max for nearly all stages of my work. 

To start with, my only resources were 

books. I bought two or three of these huge 

books describing every single 3ds Max 

function. I learned the software from the 

literature and obviously by practising. 

Later, the internet really helped me to 

improve my skills with its CG artist 

communities. My learning curve was pretty 

long: I began 3D quite young but I seriously 

practised for about ten years, accumulating 

both the technical and artistic know-how to 

allow me to create what I do now. 

…even when I create environments, I can’t 

do this without adding a character in the scene; 

I’m not interested in creating a picture without 

any characters 

Your portfolio contains a wealth of stunning 

portraits – realistically rendered, but also 

illustrative in style. Can you talk us through 

the work involved in the creation 

of one of your characters? 

OP: I do these portraits during my spare 

time. My goal is always the same and pretty 

simple: to create a beautiful character. To 

achieve this, I focus on both the technical 

and aesthetic aspects. I work hard at the 

technical part (rendering, lighting, shading, 

etc) to make a believable character. I do like 

to test the latest revisions of 3D software 

with their brand new tools and features to 

get even more possibilities and this 

technical aspect remains a means to 

achieving the aesthetic part. Overall, I’d say 

I pay way more attention to the aesthetic 

aspect than the technical one. 

I always try to create characters with some 

kind of timeless beauty. I avoid an overcontemporary 

look; I usually prefer more 

classical ones. Maybe this is because I just 

hope my artwork won’t look too old too fast. 

What are the tools of your trade in terms of 

hardware and software, and how 

are they important to your workflow and 

content creation? 

OP: I mostly use 3ds Max from the first poly 

to the final render. I sometimes use ZBrush 

when I want to create complicated organic 

objects, but most of the portraits I create are 

modelled with 3ds Max solely, using polygon 

modelling and subdivision surfaces. 

c Vlad 

“Created as a sharp face 

with clean features; 

contrast was given by 

adding a red blood splat 

to the mouth” 

d Obsidian Eyes 

“This character’s beauty 

is deceiving; you are 

pulled in by her stare, 

but the dark elements 

warn you away” 

66

Character 

Opal Child 

1 

When I create a picture, a source of my motivation and 

inspiration also comes from other CG Artists. I saw a 

picture representing a girl with a simple bird by a Korean 

artist. It was just great. That’s what inspired me to create 

this child and his pet. 

I really like this picture because it’s the only portrait 

I’ve done with two characters. It was quite challenging 

for many reasons: the first because the pet is a monkey 

and creating animals with fur is not my speciality. I also 

wanted the monkey to have something in the eyes as 

deep as the main character. Creating a child was also 

challenging. I tried to make a pure face with clean facial 

features, but not something completely smooth; I wanted 

to give her personality. 

67

e 

f 

68 

For texture painting, I use Photoshop with 

a Wacom tablet. I also use this software for 

compositing and postproduction. My 

hardware is quite common: Intel Core i7 

Processor, 6GB RAM, ATI 5850 video card, 

and dual monitor display. 

How long does it generally take to complete 

one of your character portraits, 

from concept to final 3D illustration? 

OP: It varies a lot. I’d say from 

two weeks to a couple of months. It depends 

on many things. It firstly depends on my 

inspiration or motivation. As you know, I 

work as a CG artist in a videogame studio. 

All the portraits I do are non-commercial 

images created during my spare time, so it’s 

not always easy to find motivation after a 

day of work. The duration of the creation 

process also depends a lot on the quantity of 

things to create. Making ten characters is 

always going to take longer than making 

one. That’s also why I like doing portraits. I 

know I don’t have much time to create my 

illustrations, which is why I prefer to focus 

on something specific like a single face, and 

try to improve it as much as I can. 

How long have you been evolving 

your character creation techniques and 

how would you say they have changed 

over time with the various advancements 

in 3D software? 

OP: I’ve been evolving my character 

creation techniques for about eight years. 

Actually, 3D software advancements always 

make character creation easier in terms of 

technique: we now have realistic lighting, 

soft shadows, nice skin aspects with 

Subsurface Scattering – all of these tools 

make the technical part easier. But in my 

humble opinion, the most important part 

remains the artistic one. I think that’s 

what really makes my latest creations 

different from my first ones and partly why, 

I guess, I create better characters now than 

I did eight years ago. The best way to 

improve is quite simple though and not 

really magic: observation and practice. I 

mean a lot of practice! 

When it comes to rendering, what passes do 

you render out and why are 

these so important to the final look of your 

3D illustrations? 

OP: I usually don’t use many passes. I try 

to keep my rendering pipeline as simple as 

I can. I use passes when I don’t have a 

choice. For example, when I create a 

character with hair, I have to use passes. 

I render hair and its shadows using the 3ds 

Max Scanline renderer – because it’s way 

faster than using mental ray primitives and 

gives smoother results. I use mental ray for 

everything else. I then create three passes: 

one for the main render, rendered with 

mental ray, and two for the hair – the hair 

itself and its shadows – rendered using the 

Scanline renderer. 

In terms of postproduction, how much work is 

done on your 3D renders to take them from 

raw render to final illustration? 

OP: I only do pure postproduction in 

Photoshop. I mean, I don’t add any new 

elements, objects or details to my pictures 

at this stage, nor do I paint anything on 

them. I usually apply Color Balance and 

saturation filters to my illustrations to 

adjust the colour scheme and the mood 

of the picture. I also add Noise, Chromatic 

Aberration and Depth of Field (using the 

Z-Depth from 3ds Max) to remove the raw 

look of the 3D render. 

For you, what is the most important part of the 

creative process when producing one of your 

beautiful, elegant characters? 

OP: I think the most important stage is 

modelling the face. I can spend hours

Character 

g 

h 

moving vertices until I get some kind of 

harmony. I try to get a nice looking shape 

even without advanced lighting, with default 

lights in the viewport. I don’t try to push my 

render further until I have an aesthetically 

interesting face. Obviously, nice lighting and 

shading will also help to achieve a nice 

looking character, but the modelling really 

remains essential in my opinion. 

Your characters are all highly unique, 

seeming to pull elements from a variety of 

cultures and stories. Where do you seek your 

inspiration and how important is storytelling 

in your work? 

OP: As I said earlier, I try to create somehow 

timeless illustrations. It sounds slightly 

pretentious but that’s really what I try to 

achieve. I mix many inspirations from 

different eras so that my characters do not 

look too contemporary. As I want to create 

something that is believable, I often use 

classical or traditional clothes from many 

cultures as bases. I usually get this 

inspiration from classical painting books 

or from history of dress books. I also get 

inspiration from contemporary artists, 

from comic books, or simply from people I 

see in the street – everything can be a 

source of inspiration. 

Obviously, nice lighting and shading will 

also help to achieve a nice looking character, 

but the modelling really remains essential in 

my opinion 

Your portfolio also demonstrates great skill 

with environment creation, particularly in the 

context of sci-fi and fantasy. With such a 

strong and varied skill set, why do characters 

capture more of your attention? 

OP: There are many reasons for that. The 

first and the most important is personal 

taste: a portrait talks to me a lot more than 

an environment. Second, even when I 

create environments, I can’t do this 

without adding a character in the scene; 

I’m not interested in creating a picture 

without any characters. As I don’t have 

e The Fall 

“Qualëphantus are 

creatures that travel 

from one galaxy to 

another, feeding on every 

life form they find…” 

f Moon Key 

“Aiming for a charming 

and elegant portrait – not 

realistic – all of Moon 

Key’s textures were hand 

painted in Photoshop” 

much time to create my pictures, I prefer 

to focus on characters. 

Your conventionally beautiful characters are 

often portrayed with a gothic and macabre 

twist, with recent works having turned 

darker. What does this stem from, 

and where do you see future works going? 

OP: Well, I don’t know. I use classical 

paintings as an inspiration. I like the 

aesthetic look of classical works, like 

Tiziano Vecellio’s portraits work with their 

bright skins, dark clothes and black 

g Mr Bone 

“In contrast to my other 

works, Mr Bone started as 

a simple ZBrush test. The 

result was rendered in 

3ds Max” 

h Pink Sugar 

“Pink Sugar was 

something quite different, 

purposely made using a 

different colour scheme 

and blonde hair” 

69

i 

j 

70 

backgrounds. Maybe as I’m getting older, 

I also like more sober colours… I don’t know. 

I just try to make things that I like. And as 

I don’t know how I’ll evolve as time goes on, 

I can’t really say where my future artwork 

is going. But I think that’s what makes the 

journey more interesting. 

Giving life to lifeless digital content 

is a skill all in itself. How do you give your 

characters the souls that we can clearly see 

in any of your illustrations? 

OP: To give them life, I first try to make 

them believable. That’s why I pay a lot of 

attention to clothing design, anatomical 

details, rendering and so on. When I have 

this base, two areas need more attention: 

the eyes and the mouth. Those parts are 

not that difficult to produce – I mean from 

a technical point of view. You just have to 

be careful about topology in these areas, but 

it’s not that hard. The hardest part is to get 

something beautiful and natural. It’s a very 

subtle process and one of the most 

interesting parts of the creation – especially 

in the eye area, where you have to find the 

perfect balance between eyebrow shape, 

the eyes’ curvature, the position of the 

eyelids and so on, in order to create that 

lively and expressive look. 

With constant advancements in technology 

helping more people than ever create realistic 

looking characters, how do you keep an edge 

over them? 

OP: Well, I’m not sure. Maybe it’s just 

experience and practice. I mean, yes, it’s 

easier to create realistic looking characters 

technically, but it’s always difficult to create 

original and unique characters. My aim is 

not exactly to create realistic characters; I 

try to give them something more. I don’t try 

to reproduce what you could actually shoot 

with a camera. 

How different is your professional 

work to your personal portfolio and how 

does this balance out? 

OP: My personal portfolio is completely 

different from my professional work. My 

personal portfolio is mainly composed 

of portraits – simply because that’s what 

I like to make best. My professional work 

includes level building, environment 

creation and, more recently, real-time 

character creation. This is very different 

from my personal creations and how I find 

motivation to create CG after a day’s work. 

Can you tell us what you are currently 

working on at the moment, and if possible 

where the inspiration for the project originally 

came from? 

OP: I’m working on an underwater scene – 

a kind of mermaid portrait. However, I don’t 

want to create a happy mermaid with shiny 

scales and a shell bikini. I’d like to make 

something closer to the original mermaids, 

something more elegant but also darker. 

How about your future plans; what 

can we look forward to seeing next, and what 

projects would you most like to work on? 

OP: I really don’t know. I barely have time 

to create personal work, so I’d just like to 

finish my work on the mermaid, then think 

about what’s next. It will most likely be 

another portrait. I could do portraits for the 

rest of my life and not get tired of them. I 

may also try to create some 2D illustrations. 

I might not always know what the next 

project will be, but one thing that is for 

certain is that I won’t ever stop creating. 

i Inaë 

Made initially as a SSS 

test in 3ds Max, Inaë was 

continued and rendered 

in mental ray 

j Red Opium 

“A vision of a female 

vampire, created in 3ds 

Max 8, with all maps 

hand painted”

Character 

2 

Cold Blue 

The dress is based on a real dress I found 

in paintings representing Anne of Cleves. 

The original dress had more colour 

variety and a different colour scheme. 

I modified it to get something more sober 

and also a little more contemporary. The 

make-up matching the material colours 

is also there to break from the original 

classical look. The eyes are also 

interesting. The reflections are huge – 

completely exaggerated – but it really 

gives her something special, more depth. 

The composition and the pose are 

quite simple and don’t distract; you just 

focus on the character’s face. 

71

Step by step: Painting 

up a demon image 

Trick or Treat 2010 

Discover how to create a painterly image with 

vivid colours on the theme of Halloween 

Andrzej Kuziola specialises in modelling and character creation 

In this tutorial, I will be explaining how 

I created this Halloween-themed illustration. 

I am going to focus more on texturing, materials, 

lighting and postproduction than on modelling. The 

illustration was created mixing both 2D and 3D 

techniques. I feel more comfortable working this 

way as I have greater control over the process. 

My goal was to achieve a mixture of cartoon-like, 

exaggerated characters with a colourful, painterly 

look. I usually work mainly in dark, unsaturated 

colours so working with a new palette was a bit 

of an experiment and I was curious to see how it 

would look in the end. I was working with CINEMA 

4D and ZBrush for modelling and rendering, while 

using Painter and Photoshop for texturing and 

postproduction. I also used UVLayout to unfold 

the model and to create UV maps. 

Design inspirations 

The style for the scene 

72 ● 

I started from a concept created in 

01 ZBrush and Painter inspired by disguised 

children walking from house to house and asking 

for sweets at Halloween. The idea here was to show 

a little girl asking for a treat and a big demon behind 

her who’s ready to play a trick on those who don’t 

provide any goodies. 

It was important to me that the girl 

02 should look sweet and innocent at first 

glance, particularly in comparison to the sinister 

looking demon. Look closer, however, and you realise 

that she is a she-devil – and that out of the pair, she is 

probably the one calling the shots. 

I wanted a very stylised look for the demon. 

03 I was going to try different approaches to 

achieve an interesting painterly effect despite it being 

done in 3D. I wanted to achieve this with lighting and 

hand-painted textures using RealBristle brushes. 

Everything was maintained in warm orange-red hues 

associated with hellfire.

Character 

Texturing, 

lighting, 

painting 




Artist info 


Username: ak666 


www.kuziola.com 

Country United Kingdom 

Hardware used Mac Pro 2.66 

GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon, 

7GB RAM 

Expertise Andrzej specialises 

in modelling and quirky 

character creation 


CINEMA 4D 

ZBrush Photoshop Painter UVLayout 

73

Artist 

Showcase 


I am a self-taught digital artist. I qualified in Dentistry, 

but no longer work in that profession. I am a freelance 

illustrator and 3D modeller now and I really enjoy it. 

Software such as CINEMA 4D, ZBrush and Photoshop 

help me to create realms that would otherwise exist 

only in my mind. 

Parthenogenesis 

CINEMA 4D, ZBrush, 

Painter, Photoshop 

(2009) 

Parthenogenesis is 

an asexual form of 

reproduction where 

growth and development 

of embryos occurs without 

fertilisation by a male. 

This is my dark and twisted 

interpretation of the word 

‘Newborn’, which was the 

theme for a contest. Polish 

artist Zdzislaw Beksinski 

was a great inspiration 

behind this image. 

Materials and lighting 

Adding textures and setting the scene 

I started the texturing process 

04 in ZBrush with PolyPaint. After 

establishing overall colours and painting 

cavities, I moved to Painter where I created 

proper textures mainly with Artists’ Oils before 

exporting them to Photoshop, where I made 

Bump maps by playing with Desaturate and 

Levels. I used this workflow with some 

modifications to texture all of the objects. 

For the girl, I painted a fleshcoloured 

map, which was placed in the 

05 

Color and Diffusion channels of the standard 

CINEMA 4D material along with modified maps 

in the Bump and Specular channels. The most 

time-consuming process was tweaking the 

Luminance channel, which consisted of a 

Subsurface Scattering layer in Dodge mode 

with another colour bitmap beneath. 

Teddy Bear Snacks CINEMA 4D, Photoshop, ZBrush (2008) 

Pandemonium, the diabolical Boiler God, hungry for innocent, 

cuddly teddy bears. I was inspired here by human sacrifices made 

to teixiptlas [cult effigies or impersonators] in ancient Aztec 

civilisation. This is another illustration created for a contest – this 

time with the theme of ‘Boiler room’. It won third place in the 

competition and was published in Expose 7. 

For the demon, I created a few 

06 different colour maps in Painter, which 

I used in the material’s Color channel, modifying 

desaturated versions in the Diffusion, Bump 

and Specular Color channels. I wanted the 

demon to look very stylised so I experimented 

here to achieve a look similar to a portrait that’s 

been painted with thick oil paints. 

To set up lights, I used low-poly 

07 meshes to speed up test renderings. 

I like to accentuate different shapes and surfaces 

so I used quite a lot of lights – mainly warmcoloured 

ones with Area shadows and Inverse 

Square Falloff applied. To illuminate the girl, 

I also used blue lights and placed everything 

inside a sphere as a Floor object so that the light 

bounced off the sides. 

74 

H2O CINEMA 4D, 

Photoshop, ZBrush 

(2009) 

This is my first illustration 

where, instead of the dark 

arts, I started to create nice, 

cute female characters with 

bright colours. This 

illustration was selected by 

MAXON for promotion of 

CINEMA 4D. It was 

published in MAXON’s 2010 

calendar and you can find it 

in the gallery on the website 

www.maxon.net. 

When I was 

08 happy with the 

result, I swapped the models 

with high-poly meshes and 

rendered them in Advanced 

Renderer with Global 

Illumination, Ambient 

Occlusion and a separate 

Alpha channel for each object. 

I made different renders for 

the girl, for the demon and one 

for the background, which I 

filled with Fog material.

Character 

Postproduction painting 

Creating the colours and smoke 

Back in 

12 Photoshop, I looked 

to improve the composition 

and make it more dynamic by 

rotating and deforming the 

demon a little and starting to 

add details to the ground. I 

used custom brushes made 

from photographed 

scaffoldings. I wanted the 

demon to look like he was 

emerging from an abyss, so I 

merged him with the ground – 

with the help of the same 

custom brush and a series of 

layer masks. 

8 hours 

render time 

Resolution: 

2,788 x 3,920 

I combined all the 

09 renders in Photoshop 

and loaded Alpha channels 

into layer masks to separate 

the characters from the 

background. I also reduced 

the size of the girl to make 

the demon look more 

menacing and composed all 

his renders with layer masks 

to create the textured effect 

I was looking for. 

To strengthen 

10 the effect and make 

it even more interesting, I 

exported it to Painter where 

I overpainted the texture. To 

do this, I used the Soft Flat 

Oils brush from the Art Pen 

Brushes menu, Cloners and 

Artists’ Oils. I loaded colours 

sampled from the demon into 

the Mixer palette and used 

them extensively. This palette 

is very handy when you are 

working with Artists’ Oils. 

To clean and 

11 brighten the 

girl’s skin tone, I 

overpainted some 

parts on a separate 

layer set to Lighten 

blending mode with 

Fill at 70%. I painted 

in eyes as well (it was 

much faster for me to 

do it in 2D). When I 

was happy with the 

result, I started to 

detail the background. 

I painted in smoke to 

frame the demon’s 

head and make it a 

focal point. 

Modelling 

the scene 

For both characters, I 

started from my 

standard human base 

mesh created in 

CINEMA 4D. Final 

form and details were 

done in ZBrush. I 

rapidly reshaped the 

base meshes with 

Move and Standard 

brushes and then 

detailed it. My goal was 

to create stylised, 

cartoon-like characters 

– correct anatomy and 

topology were not 

important for me here, 

so the process was 

very fast – particularly 

for the demon. I posed 

the characters with 

ZBrush’s Transpose 

tools and then added 

details with SubTools. 

Clothes and hair were 

made with the 

Retopology tool, while 

the horns, lollipop and 

jack-o’-lantern were 

created with meshes 

imported from 

CINEMA 4D. 

To add more 

13 contrast and rhythm 

to the illustration, I changed 

some colours from selective to 

complementary using a Hue/ 

Saturation adjustment layer 

with a new layer mask. I then 

painted some strands of hair 

and made final tweaks to the 

image. Finally I added more 

smoke with the custom brush. 

This integrated all of the 

elements, created a more 

mysterious atmosphere and 

helped to lead the viewer’s 

eye through the picture. 

75

Step by step: Texture 

and light a beautiful girl 

Girl in Church 2010 

Aiming to create a sense of tranquillity, this 

image features a pretty girl inside a church 

Satoshi Ueda specialises in game graphics and concept art 

The main tool used to model 

and build this scene was 3ds 

Max and it was rendered in 

the standard mental ray. Photoshop 

was used for a final composite of the 

various render layers. The most 

difficult aspect of the image was the 

rendering time. Even though the image 

used the standard Hair and Fur 

options, it took a frighteningly long 

time to render the hi-res version – two 

whole days. In this tutorial we will 

discuss the volumetric lighting for the 

background, and the materials and 

textures used for the girl. The aim of 

the image was to produce a moviequality 

scene with a sense of serenity. 

Concepts 

Inspiration behind the scene 

76 ● 

In terms of modelling the figure, the idea 

01 was to create a sense of innocence. I carefully 

balanced the position of the eyes, nose and mouth to 

make her as attractive as possible. There was a 

tendency to go over the top and give her more animestyle 

features, but I didn’t want the image to become 

unreal. So, I’ve enlarged the eyes as much as possible, 

because that’s the main focal point, but not overdone 

them. As the overall theme is one of purity, the girl’s 

make-up has been kept to a minimum. 

I did practice render passes with mental 

02 ray and the standard Hair and Fur options 

in 3ds Max just to see how well they performed. 

The challenge was to create really long hair that fell 

naturally. The hair itself was made from splines so 

that adjusting the hairstyle was relatively easy. 

To make streams of light work, a dim church 

03 setting was chosen for a background. This 

choice also affects the lighting because the only source of 

light comes from the window. The result is a stream of 

volumetric light positioned behind the girl, which just 

illuminates her face.

Character 




Artist info 

Satoshi Ueda 

Username: Satoshi Ueda 


www.akatuki.biz 

Country Japan 

Hardware used Xeon CPU 

E5430 2.66GHz, 4GB RAM 

Expertise Satoshi specialises 

in game graphics and concept 

art, as well as writing guides 

Texturing, 

lighting 


3ds Max ZBrush Photoshop After Effects 

77

Artist 

Showcase 

Satoshi Ueda 

Satoshi is a 3D artist from Japan. He has worked on 

making models for the movie Resident Evil: The 

Umbrella Chronicles and Resident Evil: The Darkside 

Chronicles, for which he created the CG-illustrated 

packaging too. Satoshi also worked on the art direction 

and packaging for the XBOX 360 game, Bullet Witch. 

Textures and materials 

Creating the skin and clothing textures 

A biped frame 

04 was set to the model 

and posed – this made it easier 

to change the composition. 

The camera was then 

arranged, focusing on the girl’s 

face. Seams were put in the 

parts that you can’t see to 

make it easier when it came 

to the UV unwrapping. 

Because part of the shoulder 

was hidden with clothing, a 

seam was put there as well. 

The UV was then opened. 

Maxbook Girl 3ds Max, 

V-Ray (2004) 

I made this for the cover 

of my book, 3ds Max Super 

Technique. It is a practice 

model for those needing 

an image to use in V-Ray 

for the first time. 

Unwrap UV was guided. The 

05 photograph of the material collection 

was tiled using Photoshop and the texture was 

then created. A white, bright point was used 

on the tone curve to help make everything high 

key. Then in Photoshop, the Bump, Overall 

Diffuse colour, Unscattered Diffuse colour, 

Epidermal Layer Scatter colour, Subdermal 

Layer Scatter colour and Specular textures 

were all established. 

Rain Street Photoshop, RETAS STUDIO (2009) 

This is one still frame from an independent production animation. 

The girl in the centre is the heroine, wandering about a shopping 

area in the rain. Japanese company RETAS STUDIO made the 

animation software that was used for the expression of movement. 

The background was painted using Photoshop. 

The material of 

06 the skin uses SSS 

Fast Skin Material. Six kinds of 

handmade textures were used. 

Because a lighting sphere was 

used to light the environment, 

the Only Reflect Environment 

tab was activated. Also, 

because Exposure Control is 

being used in the scene, the 

Soft Screen compositing check 

was removed. 

78 

Prayer Photoshop (2006) 

Adult woman who is sending 

up a prayer. The painting 

was done using Photoshop. 

Power was put into the 

expression and a solemn 

atmosphere applied 

generally to the scene. 

In the Hair rendering options, I 

07 chose ‘mr prim’. Hairs were copied and 

duplicated and the settings finalised. On a test 

render, the rendering time took far too long, so 

as a compromise, the total number of individual 

hairs was reduced. Even then, it still took two 

days! When the rendering was finally done, a 

black material was applied to the body so it 

would be easy to process. 

The wrinkles and the drapes 

08 in the clothing were modelled inside 

Max. After trial and error, the Arch & Design 

material of mental ray material was selected, 

though I was tempted to use the standard 

material, Oren-Nayar-Blinn. It would have been 

easier to create a red dress because it’s so easy 

to overexpose white fabric, but that wouldn’t 

have fit in with the mood of the image.

Character 

Lighting the girl 

Creating the ambience of the scene 

Three lights were added with ray-traced shadows 

09 using Photometric Light. The lighting was created to give 

a backlit effect. The light in the back left was made the strongest; 

it is an image of the backlight. The two other lights were used to 

brighten up the foreground of the image, as it was too dark 

otherwise. They provide fill-in lighting. 

The camera was 

10 set up inside the 

church model, focusing on the 

girl, with the church window in 

the background. The HDRI 

map was made using 

Panorama Exporter. This map 

was then put on the sphere 

model. This map was also 

used for reflections when 

rendering with mental ray. 

mr Photographic 

11 exposure control was 

used (in Environment and 

Effects). The light and shade of 

the image were adjusted with 

the image control. With backlit 

images, it’s very easy for the 

foreground to become too 

dark. Even though a couple of 

front lights were used, the 

backlit light was permitted to 

blow out the highlights to 

produce a volumetric effect. 

48 hours 

render time 

Resolution: 

4,336 x 3,000 

Four individual 

13 render layers: volume 

light for the background, 

highlights on the fine facial 

hair, the girl and background 

of the image were output and 

composited in Photoshop. The 

final adjustments made to the 

depth of field were output with 

the lens filter using a ZMAP 

file. The background was 

already out of focus because 

it is distant from the viewer. 

The volume light 

12 is set to the backlight. 

Volumetric light is an effective 

means to producing an airy 

feeling. To edit it back in 

Photoshop, the rendering was 

done as a Monochrome map 

file and details tweaked to 

improve the depth of field. 

Modelling 

the figure 

From the start, 

I wanted to base the 

central focus of the 

image around the 

serene girl as much as 

possible. Considerable 

attention was needed to 

create the model’s face, 

as I concentrated on 

getting the balance of 

eyes, nose, mouth and 

even the length of the 

eyelashes, just right. To 

give your character the 

most realistic hair at the 

rendering stage, set the 

Sampling Quality filter 

in mental ray to the 

maximum. If you want 

to shorten the rendering 

time, consider using a 

third-party plug-in, 

though, if you’re happy 

to wait, even the 

standard Hair/Fur 

functions can produce 

impressive results. 

79

Creating a 

savage warrior 

Warrior 2010 

How to create a warrior from a distant land with realistically exaggerated forms and 

brutal weapons, inspired by the style of Frank Frazetta 

John Hayes is a videogame character artist 

Part one: 

Modelling, 

UV layout, 

sculpting 

Often the best looking characters 

comprise not only good modelling, but 

also sound textures and rendering. 

Indeed, the final step can be the most critical, 

though it depends upon a strong base model. 

We will start with the concept and reference 

image collage to help create the personality, 

anatomy and costume detail. Concept art is 

often only used for the inspirational direction of 

the character, but it’s helpful to have lots of 

photo references. A good place to find additional 

The base shape 

Creating the basic torso 

free stock reference images is www.deviantart. 

com. Be sure to get a few anatomy photos as 

they’ll help make the character more convincing. 

The process I will be using is called ‘box 

modelling’, which allows for the overall form of 

the character to be rapidly created and then 

refined by several additional passes. Each 

subsequent pass will develop the overall volume 

and add detail where it is needed. At the same 

time, I will add polygons and edge loops for an 

even quad polygon distribution (except for the 

face and hands, which will consist of a greater 

amount of polygons). 

I will be using modo for much of the tutorial 

since I find its integrated modelling, sculpting 

and UV layout tools essential in speeding up the 

process. Finally I will use ZBrush to create the 

high-resolution detail model that will be used as 

a source for rendered textures. Part two of this 

guide will focus on creating textures and posing 

the model in Maya and modo and will finish with 

lighting and rendering in modo. 

80 ● 

a 

01 The base shape 

The character should face 

along the positive Z with the 

head in the positive Y 

direction. Start with a basic 

cube wider at the top than 

the bottom. It should be 

three polygon rows wide 

and three rows high. The 

middle row should be 

central to the X axis. This 

will form the basic torso A. 

A The side profile should 

suggest the waist and the 

side vertical cube rows are 

thinner in the middle 

B Angle the top and bottom of 

the cube to form the 

shoulder/trapezius and the 

crotch/buttock 

b 

02 Tackle the torso 

Adjust the side poly of the top row; where the arm comes out should be roughly square. The 

leg polygons at the bottom should also be roughly square with a smaller gap for the crotch. 

The arm and leg base polygons should be angled outward between 20-45 degrees B.

Character 

The final non-posed modo 

character model and the final 

ZBrush ZTool. 

Stock images used for 

reference and textures: 

For the body skin texture: 

http://senshistock.deviantart. 

com/journal/12576734/ 

For Anatomy Reference Photos: 

http://mjranum-stock. 

deviantart.com/ 

and http://vishstudio. 

deviantart.com 




Artist info 

John Hayes 

Username: John-Hayes 


http://john-hayes.cghub.com 

Country USA 

Software used 

modo 401, ZBrush 3 

Expertise Videogame 

character artist 


modo 

Maya 

ZBrush 

Photoshop 

81

Artist 

Showcase 

John Hayes 

I am a videogame character artist working in 

PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 development. My 

background includes working at Capcom, Sanzaru 

Games, SEGA and Factor 5, where I have created 

characters for Iron Man, Golden Axe, Final Fight, Maximo, 

among others. Working on console games is exciting as I 

always learn new techniques and skills. 

Crimson Dynamo 

modo, Photoshop 

(2010) 

The Crimson Dynamo 

boss that appears in 

the Iron Man 2 

videogame, developed 

at SEGA for the PS3 

and Xbox 360. The 

model has fully 

articulated weapons 

and tesla coil system, a 

complete cockpit 

interior and swappable 

armour plates. All 

modelling, UV layout, 

textures and rendering 

done in modo. 

03 Create the limbs 

With Symmetry X active, bevel out the arms and legs and scale the end polygons so that 

they taper. The arms should be made at about 45 degrees and the legs made to run straight 

down from the hips. Bevel out the top two middle polygons for forming the head. Using the 

Loop Slice tool, split each limb approximately in half and adjust to form knees, elbows and a 

rounder head shape c. 

c Use Loop Slice and Bevel 

tools to add more poly 

edges to the silhouettes 

d Once the bevels are 

adjusted, add edges at the 

foot bridge and heel, as well 

as the finger joints 

c 

04 Add in the feet 

and hands 

Make the wrist and ankle 

polygons slightly longer 

along the Z axis. Bevel the 

hand out to the fingertips, 

add two loop splits and 

bevel out a thumb at the 

side polygon twice. For the 

foot, bevel to the bottom of 

the heel and bevel out to the 

tips of the toes d. 

e The shoulder edges flow like 

a ‘cape’ from the bottom of 

the pectorals and then over 

the shoulders 

d 

The Twins Maya, modo, ZBrush, Mudbox, XSI (2008) 

The Twins boss characters I created for SEGA’s Golden Axe. The 

characters were modelled in Maya, hi-res sculpt created in ZBrush, 

Normal maps created in Mudbox, Ambient Occlusion in XSI, 

textures edited in Photoshop and modo used for UV unwrapping, 

texture clean-up and rendering. The character is roughly 15,000 

polygons with three 2,048 x 2,048 map sets. 

82 

Halloween Witch modo, 


I made this character using 

modo’s modelling, sculpting, 

UV layout, 3D texture 

painting and rendering tools. 

Photoshop was used to clean 

up the renders, adjust the 

colour values and add 

highlights. I normally use 

several different 3D software 

packages in order complete 

a character, however since 

modo offered all the tools I 

needed, I used this as an 

opportunity to learn more 

about the program. 

e 

05 Round out the form 

Bevel the front polygons to form the face. Create a loop slice along the front arm that should 

flow along the pectorals and finger edges. Add another loop slice along the front leg, with 

the flow going around the back of the leg, over the shoulder and across the face. Add more 

edges around the shoulders so they form polygon loops. Repeat for the hips e.

Character 

Body details 

Honing the body features 

06 Define the 

face structure 

Add another loop to the 

head on either side of the 

centre line; this should give 

you four vertical poly rows 

on which to add facial 

details with four horizontal 

rows. Select two where the 

eyes should be and bevel 

inward. Next split the eye 

horizontally so each eye 

socket is four quad polygons 

and the edges help to form 

the bridge of the nose. For 

the mouth, bevel the centre 

two poly edges and the 

resulting polygons inward to 

form a poly loop f. 

f 

07 Add more facial edge loops 

Add edge loops around the mouth so they flow under the lip 

and over the bridge of the nose. Bevel the eyes in a few more 

times and build the edge loops so they form a ‘mask’ that 

connects both eyes. Once the loops are complete, you can 

add further edges for the smaller details such as nostrils and 

tear ducts g. 

g 

Action Center 

Using the Action Center is an important part of modelling in 

modo. I prefer to use the Action Center set to Selection as 

the axis will often automatically align to an angle for the most 

accurate edits. Sometimes Selection does not meet my 

needs, so instead I align the work plane to Selection and then 

use the Action Center set to Automatic. Although the work 

plane will align to most selections, I get the best results by 

selecting the vertexes. The setting I use most often is Local 

to help me edit several separate elements simultaneously. 

f Bevelled base edge loop 

structure for eyes and 

mouth. The side of the head 

also has a bevel for the ears 

g The ears and nose tip are 

bevelled out. To add nostrils, 

bevel the edge on each side 

of the nose 

h Select a top and bottom and 

top edge on each fingertip 

side and use the Bridge tool 

to fill in. Fill the base 

between each finger by 

double-clicking the edge and 

using the ‘P’ key 

I Make the knee and elbow 

bumps by bevelling out. 

Edge loops in these areas 

are important for good 

deformation of joints 

i 

h 

08 Model the fingers 

To quickly create the fingers, add two edges to create four polygon rows, one for each finger 

up to where the base of each would be. Then make sure there are two edge loops for each 

knuckle row and for the bottom of each finger. When complete, select only the three edges 

between each finger polygon row and bevel the edge and delete the thin middle polygon; do 

not delete the end triangles h. 

09 Smooth the shape 

Add several more edge loops to create an even distribution 

of polygons over the whole body. Continue to add edges to 

minimise any angles as seen in the silhouette. At the same 

time, keep areas that are bony or close to a fold that is sharp 

and defined i. 

83

Half the work 

Make sure to use the 

Symmetry function as 

much as possible to cut 

your workload in half. 

Always have a centre 

polygon edge. If you find 

that it is not working 

properly, you can either 

delete half and use 

Duplicate/Mirror or use 

the Geometry/Symmetry 

tool to get it working again. 

Adding costume details 

The Frazetta style 

10 Exaggerate the muscles 

The Frazetta-like design influence I am attempting has 

exaggerated shoulders, rounded muscles and narrow joints. 

The deltoid muscle is larger than others, including the 

pectorals, giving the body a nice taper. The back latissimus 

and trapezius are large too. Adding crude costume detail 

and brutal weapons helps to complete the look j. 

j Using the sculpting tools 

beyond Vertex, Edge and 

Face Selection really helps to 

create organic forms 

k Once in place, edit the face 

geometry to make sure the 

eye spheres look natural 

with their poles near the 

centre of each opening 

l The feathers are made at 

the origin from a flat oval 

shape, with 35 instances as 

positions out the back 

j 

11 Eyes and hair 

The eyes are spheres, with their poles along the Z axis. A 

ponytail is a short bevel from the back of the head, the 

bevelled faces shaped into a circle, then bevelled straight 

back a few feet. The length is then loop split so that the 

polygons do not become long rectangles k. 

84 

k 

12 Create the headdress 

The bird skull originates from a cube, with two segments on 

the X axis, that’s subdivided once. Next two lower front 

faces are bevelled out for the beak, then the side face 

bevelled inward for the eye sockets. Finally the edges at the 

bottom, beak base and eyeholes are slightly bevelled before 

being subdivided again and finer details applied l. 

m 

m The Slice tool is used to cut 

the boot where straps would 

be on the wrapped leather. 

The edges are bevelled for 

thickness and finally the 

leather in between is 

bevelled out to folds 

n The shield is made from a 

sphere end pole and a few 

poly rows, which have been 

flattened slightly. Detail is 

added afterwards 

n 

l 

13 Fitted details 

The quickest way to add details such as belts, straps, boots, 

etc, is to either duplicate the base geometry and scale it out 

and modify, or just build an edge that defines the details. 

The final step is to remove any geometry not seen (eg feet) 

and to merge all the elements m. 

14 Weapons and 

small details 

Additional belts and a 

necklace are added, first by 

duplicating a polygon loop 

from the area, editing and 

finally using Thicken 

Polygon to create some 

volume. Necklace claws, 

armband spikes and a round 

belt buckle are added to the 

model. I also included 

several smaller buckles and 

detail shapes to the belt. 

This is a chance for you to 

get creative n.

Character 

Preparing for UV mapping 

Mesh subdivision and UV layout 

15 Break down the details 

Edges are bevelled on the cuff and belt. An extra row is added to the spike and claw tips to 

keep them sharp, as well as the various costume details. After defining the edges, each part 

is subdivided. The subdivision method Smooth with default settings is used on the body to 

keep the muscle planes relatively defined. For the other parts, SDS Subdivide is used o. 

p 

o 

Frazetta finish 

17 Use UV Unwrap 

To get clean UVs, any existing UV map textures are deleted. 

The body geometry is then broken up into separate sections 

for unwrapping at the joins of different materials or sections, 

such as the cuff and loincloth leg seam. The edge for UV 

borders is placed in the least visible area (usually at the back 

or other hidden spots). Since the feathers are all instances, 

only the main source feather needs to be unwrapped q. 

To create a Frazetta-style 

warrior, there needs to be 

an exaggeration in the 

muscles that includes 

large shoulders, hands and 

feet. Additionally a 

costume should have 

several layers of detail, 

such as weapons, a 

fearsome mask, belts, 

trophies and, finally, some 

equipment pouches. 

During the process to 

create this warrior, it was 

important to make sure 

the early stages of the 

model were well 

constructed and clean 

since all the other steps 

are built upon them. Good 

polygon placement and 

edge loops help when 

adding finer details, 

sculpting and posing and 

will speed up the process. 

r 

16 Sculpting and 

clean-up 

Using modo’s mesh 

sculpting tools, I add muscle 

and detail definition, as well 

as wrinkles and folds on the 

loincloth, leather belts and 

boots. The purpose of the 

pass is to sharpen detail as 

well as cleaning up the edge 

geometry that might have 

clashing polygons or weird 

polygonal shapes. All the 

metal items such as 

weapons and buckles are 

left smooth p. 

o The body geometry under 

the belts, cuffs and boots is 

removed and the open 

edges merged 

p After using the Inflate tool, I 

use the Tangent Pinch tool 

to define the muscle 

q I use the Unwrap tool mostly 

set to Group Normal, 

followed by the UV Relax 

tool set to Adaptive 

r Scale the UVs evenly with 

the Action Center set to 

Local, Axis Auto 

s The focal areas of the head 

and hand UV shells are 

scaled up slightly to give 

them a better pixel ratio 

q 

18 UV Peeler 

For long, tube-like objects I 

prefer to use the UV Peeler. 

The arm cuffs, belts and 

ropes are all ‘peeled’ and 

then their UVs made flat 

along the U and/or V axis. 

The UVs are then re-packed 

onto a map to use the pixel 

space more efficiently r. 

s 

19 Pack the UVs 

After all the UVs are unwrapped, objects that reuse the 

same UV space are hidden. Next, a simple chequer texture 

is applied and I run Pack UVs. UVs are placed from largest 

to smallest and evenly flat UVs are placed next to each 

other. I keep some space between each shell to account for 

any pixel bleed s. 

85

Sculpting in ZBrush 

Creating a ‘ripped’ body 

20 ZBrush setup 

For export into ZBrush, all parts are centred on the Z axis, 

combined into one mesh layer and its UVs are in 0-1 space. 

The model is saved as an OBJ and imported into ZBrush. 

Before any sculpting, I organise the parts into separate 

SubTools, give them Morph targets and ensure any open 

edges are creased. I also organise the SubTool list with 

names and objects sorted according to their position in 

space, top to bottom t. 

22 Sculpt muscles 

Using the Standard brush with Z Intensity set to 10 and 

Focal Shift to -100, do an overall first pass over the body. I 

only use the Smooth brush to even out the surface, keeping 

the stroke edges and bump that lend to an overall fleshy 

feel. Keeping the brush stroke defined helps to provide the 

‘muscle fibre’ look v. 

t 

21 Overall body patterns 

I like to map out the muscle patterns, bumps and fibres to build 

upon. Using the Slash3 brush set to an intensity of about -30, I 

start by tracing out the edges and creases for muscles and 

tendons, etc. When the first pass is done, I like to use the 

Slash2 and Slash1 brushes to add finer details and bumps u. 

u 

Top tips 

To get much better results, 

faster, I use the Alpha 

palette and masks as I 

work. Alpha is great for 

hiding parts I’m not 

working on and helps to 

speed up my workflow, as 

well as improve general 

application responsiveness 

as I add subdivision layers 

to the SubTool. I find that 

using masks helps me to 

quickly add folds and 

overlapping detail just as in 

real sculpting. Pushing and 

moving the shape together 

helps to get a good flow in 

the model’s form. 

w 

23 Head detail 

For face detailing I like to have some photo references handy 

to help with the smaller, more subtle features. I try to get the 

eye area correct, then move on to the mouth. Lastly I work in 

the ear detail to complete the head w. 

v 

t I prefer to sculpt using the 

MatCap Gray material for its 

wide specular range and the 

fact it’s not translucent, so 

details and flaws are visible 

u Using the Slash3 brush in 

reverse helps to add raised 

details to the flesh 

v Using the Move tool, I adjust 

the muscle shape and flow 

w After overall sculpting I find 

using Alpha masks a very 

quick method for adding in 

wrinkles and folds 

x Hands can be tricky to get 

right. Work from the main 

joints out to the fingertips 

x 

24 Hands 

Hands tend to be somewhat 

bony, so I start with defining 

the major joints on the 

fingers and the tendons on 

the back of the hand. 

Generally it’s good practice 

to get the knuckles looking 

correct and then the area 

around the thumb base. The 

last step is usually defining 

the fingertips x. 

86

Character 

Detailing the costume 

Adding surface properties and clutter 

z 

25 Hair and feathers 

For the ponytail, I first mask off the hair tie-downs and then use the Standard brush with 

Alpha 54 and brush along the length. After, I invert the mask and inflate the tie-downs. The 

feathers are treated in much the same way. Since all the feathers will use the same UVs and 

textures, we only need to sculpt one and duplicate y. 

aa 27 Leather and 

boot detailing 

For most wrinkles, I like to 

use Alpha 54 with the 

Standard brush. The first 

pass is to create the major 

wrinkles and the other 

passes are very light to 

smooth and blend. Finally, 

using Alpha 59 with the 

Brush Tip set to DragRect, I 

add a slightly cracked 

leathery surface aa. 

28 Shield and weapons 

For the weapons, I need to make the surface look like metal 

or wood. For wood I use Alpha 58 to help create the wooden 

grain and planks. The metal needs to feel like crude, beaten 

iron, so I use the tortoiseshell-like Alpha 25 with the Brush 

Tip set to DragRect. To create a beaten look, I mask off any 

non-metal areas and work from large to small bb. 

bb 

y 

y Sculpt the feathers using 

Alpha 54 for a subtle bump 

and then use the Slash brush 

to break up the edges 

z I use the Slash brush to 

quickly incorporate cracks 

and knit marks 

aa The Slash2 brush is used 

to break up the leather to 

simulate patches 

bb I made a mask using 

Alpha 58, inverted it and 

brushed over to create a 

wooden plank effect 

cc Draw simple scrollwork 

onto the surface, invert 

and then inflate 

26 Headdress 

As with the body, I do an overall pass on the headdress to 

rough out the shapes. When complete, I start to add bonelike 

details. The skull should look old and worn, so using the 

Spray stroke with a Standard brush, I add a Bump texture to 

recessed areas and keep raised areas more smooth. Next, to 

add a more fibrous look to the bone, I use Alpha 54 to 

quickly brush in ridges and recesses z. 

Halfway there 

With the first part done, the next step is to show how to 

use the hi-res model to render out Normal and AO maps 

to use as a base for Diffuse and Specular textures. I’ll 

import the model into Maya for some quick rigging and 

posing and back into modo for tweaks and final scene 

setup. Lastly, I’ll use the textures combined with 

advanced shaders to render out the image in a dramatic 

environment to complete this magnificent warrior. 

cc 

29 Final details: war wounds, weathering 

and battle damage 

Using the Slash1 brush, I add several scars and cuts to the 

body and the equipment. To add smaller details such as 

extra bits of wrapping, I mask off the desired location, invert 

and use the Brush tool with Alpha 45 to quickly add depth. 

When complete, I invert the selection and use the Move 

brush to tuck in and tidy the edges cc. 

87

Part two: 

Texturing, 

posing, 

rendering 

Often the best looking images are more than just 

rigid, ambient rendered models or grey ZBrush 

sculpts – they are fully surfaced, posed and 

rendered in their own environment that helps to 

suggest a mood or story. To help complete the savage 

warrior, we will need to create surfaces that look like 

worn metal, hard muscle and weathered bone. Then to 

bring him to life, we will give him an aggressive pose, in 

an unforgiving environment similar to warriors found in 

Frank Frazetta paintings. 

Continuing with the models created in part one, I will 

use the hi-res model in both ZBrush and modo as a 

source to render and transfer highly detailed texture 

bases and masks to the lower-res modo model. 

The rendered maps will then be assembled and 

cleaned up in Photoshop and modo’s 3D Paint, before 

being used to help create several Diffuse, Specular, 

and Surface Shader effect maps. Next the model 

will be roughly posed in Maya before lastly importing 

into modo for composition of the scene, shader setup 

and rendering the final image. All the necessary files 

for this part of the tutorial provided on the CD are 

listed here so you know what you need to be working 

with as you progress. 

The final modo render scene. 

For further images, see below 

Stock images used for 

reference and textures: 

For the body skin texture: 

http://senshistock.deviantart. 

com 

For anatomy reference photos: 

http://mjranum-stock. 


http://vishstudio.deviantart. 

com 

Environmental details: www. 

luxology.com/asset 

Background images: www. 


Rendering maps 

Creating maps from the hi-res model 

a 

01 Cavity maps 

in ZBrush 

I begin by rendering out 

as many detail and effect 

maps as possible. Since 

the hi-res sculpt has the 

same UV set as the 

modo file, I save Cavity 

masks and PolyPaint 

maps for each part to 

help add more refined 

texture detail when recreating 

them later in 

Photoshop. The UV Map 

Size is set to 8,192 and 

each SubTool is 

subdivided enough to 

smoothly capture detail, 

before creating images 

A. 


modo 

ZBrush 

Maya 

Photoshop 

A I used PolyPaint with Cavity 

masks and RGB set to 10 to 

evenly create a series of 

maps of the surface detail 

B A shade sphere created by 

bevelling all the edges and 

deleting in-between faces 

02 Render AO 

maps in modo 

I re-export the Level 1 

geometry and use 

Decimation Master to 

export the hi-res 

geometry into modo. 

The hi-res and lo-res 

geometry parts are 

matched up into nonoverlapping 

sets. The 

render resolution is set 

to 4,096 x 4,096 and 

Render Output set to 

Ambient Occlusion, 

with Occlusion Rays 

raised to 300. All lo-res 

geo is enclosed in a 

quad ball cage with a 

small ground plane with 

no UVs B. 

b 

88 ●

Character 

89

Artist 

Showcase 

Axe Battler 

ZBrush, Maya, modo, XSI, 

Photoshop, Mudbox (2008) 

Tarik the Axe Battler created for 

the SEGA videogame, Golden 

Axe: Beast Rider released on the 

Sony PlayStation 3 and 

Microsoft Xbox 360. The 

character was modelled in 

Maya, hi-res sculpt created in 

ZBrush, Normal maps created 

in Mudbox, Ambient Occlusion 

in XSI, textures edited in 

Photoshop and modo used for 

UV unwrapping, texture cleanup 

and rendering. The character 

is roughly 15,000 polygons with 

three 2,048 x 2,048 map sets. 

03 Render Normal maps in modo 

All lo-res geo has a TextureRender material applied with Smoothing Angle set to 180 as well 

as a 4,096 x 4,096 blank texture with Effect set to Normal. The hi-res geo also has its own 

shader set to 180 to get an even surface. Duplicate Normal maps are rendered out at 

different distances to help patch out errors caused by surfaces crashing into themselves C. 

c 

d 

Ultimo Bust 

modo, Photoshop (2010) 

A close-up of a major boss in the Iron Man 2 videogame. In game, the 

character is about 600 feet tall and is comparable to a full and 

animated level; basically Iron Man is about the same size as two of 

the eyes. This surface of the model is supposed to look massive, with 

many small structures, weapons and details. 

War Boar 

ZBrush GoZ, modo (2010) 

A ‘Boar’ 101st Airborne 

Soldier, created using ZBrush 

GoZ and modo 401. Since 

GoZ really speeds up my 

workflow, I decided to create 

only a test bust before I 

proceeded with a full 

character model. The base 

model and details with UVs 

were created in modo, and 

then exported to ZBrush for 

detailing. I then used GoZ to 

transfer mesh edits and 

updates between modo and 

ZBrush for the hi-res model. 

90 

04 Projecting 

photos in modo 

To help the skin look more 

convincing I use modo’s 

Paint set to Image Ink to 

apply parts of highresolution 

stock photos of 

models to create a colour 

skin texture. This will be 

used to add minor skin 

details and help add subtle 

skin colour variation to the 

final Diffuse, Subsurface 

and Specular maps D. 

05 Map assembly and clean-up 

All the rendered set maps for AO, Normal, ZBrush Cavity and Photo Color are assembled in 

Photoshop, and then the combined images for Color and Ambient Occlusion are reimported 

back into modo for UV seam and rendering error clean-up. Any rendering errors in 

Normal maps are patched with new rendered maps, as clean-up on a 3D surface is not 

possible with Normal maps E. 

e 

D Check that Symmetry is set to X when projecting 

images onto the geometry 

E Use modo’s Paint with Clone Stamp or a brush 

set to Procedural to clean up 

C I make sure that 

there are no 

overlapping UVs 

as they may cause 

Normal map 

rendering errors

Character 

Texture creation 

Making textures in Photoshop and modo 

06 Detailing Ambient Occlusion 

Using Photoshop, I combine the ZBrush PolyPaint and rendered Cavity maps as well as the 

desaturated Photo Color map to add more details to the rendered AO map. I also create 

Alpha channels with copies of the AO, adjusted lighter or darker to provide masks for 

additional detail. I will use the Photoshop Unsharp mask and High Pass filter to add more 

variations of Alpha channels to help emphasise detail areas F. 

f 

F I use Alpha maps as a mask to quickly add in 

highlights and shading to the Ambient 

Occlusion map 

G Using modo’s 3D Paint I add colour details 

such as war paint, fine detail decoration and 

scars/battle damage etc 

H Skin and leather are low in contrast, while 

metal is lighter and has a very high contrast 

I Black areas mask material effects, while white 

areas reveal them 

h 

g 

07 Adding colour 

The Ambient Occlusion is used with the Alpha map 

variations to add to flat base colours for the Diffuse map. 

Each flat colour is a new layer: tan for skin, dark grey for 

metal, brown for wood, and so on. Working dark to light, I 

load alpha selections to add shaded detail using separate 

layers for each pass, then import the flattened map into 

modo for further detail work G. 

08 Creating specular 

I use a copy of the un-flattened Diffuse map as the basis for 

the Specular map, with some shaded parts around the eyes, 

mouth, hands and underarms inverted to increase spec in 

those areas. The overall shading is adjusted for each 

material type; flesh is closer to 50% in Hue with low 

contrast, metal is lighter with high contrast, while wood and 

cloth are darker with high contrast H. 

i 

09 Making material masks 

To apply different materials such as skin, metal, leather, 

wood and bone in modo, I quickly build black-and-white 

masks in Photoshop. Each mask will block out one type of 

material. I then import each into modo for edge clean-up 

and detailing I. 

91

Scene composition 

Laying out the scene 

k 

10 Camera angle and pose 

Frank Frazetta’s painting Death Dealer V provided inspiration for mood and composition, with 

its lower view angle and stark backdrop. I start with simple polygon shapes as proxies to 

help position and pose a copy of the body mesh from Part one. I then use a low camera 

angle and the Deform/Flex tool to block out a pose that feels aggressive and dynamic j. 

j 

11 Create flow 

I use background props to help frame the character and add 

to the mood and atmosphere. Each of the elements is placed 

to help lead the eye to the main point of focus, as well as 

support the model’s pose. All the elements are at angles to 

keep everything dynamic k. 

j A strong, dynamic pose 

helps to lend life and 

purpose to the character 

k The props and camera angle 

are adjusted to best fit the 

pose and composition 

l Creating ivy vines in An Ivy 

Generator on the imported 

pillar base 

m Shapes in modo with several 

preset materials that help to 

quickly establish surfaces 

n Area lights are just enough 

to illuminate the model 

l 

12 Add the props 

With the basic composition established, I start to replace 

the background proxy objects. The rocky base and columns 

have detail added with piles of rocks and clumps of grass. 

Lastly, I import and modify vines ‘grown’ in a freeware 

application called An Ivy Generator (see http://graphics. 

uni-konstanz.de/~luft/ivy_generator/) l. 

m 

13 Set atmosphere 

Using preset materials included with modo, I apply a Skin 

material to the body, Sandstone to the pillars and rocks, plus 

Wrought Steel to the weapons, then I turn to lighting. I 

switch off all lights, turn on Global Illumination, then import 

an HDRI image into the environment to serve as the primary 

light; it works particularly well with metallic reflections m. 

92 

Shader effects 

The shader networks in modo work from bottom to top, 

much like layers in Photoshop. By using layer masks it is easy 

to combine different software shader effects on top of one 

another. When setting up shaders, I like to have a reasonably 

finalised version of the lighting as well as a simple light setup 

with only Ambient Occlusion and the default light set to 

Sunlight, to make sure the shaders look accurate. 

14 Let there be light! 

With the HDRI image set up, I add a few lights to add colour and pick out form. To add dark 

blue to the shadows, I insert a low-angle Directional light that casts no shadow, a blue Rim 

light at the back and an Area light to emphasise and fill in the top half of the body n. 

n

Character 

An aggressive pose 

Posing the warrior 

15 Joint setup 

Bringing the warrior into 

Maya, I place the geo into its 

own layer and set it to 

Template. Next I quickly add 

the spine joint in the 

Orthographic side view up 

to the neck and head. I make 

joints for the legs and join 

them to the hip. In the 

Orthographic top view I 

create arms and join them at 

the shoulder scapula. The 

position of the joints should 

be close to the centre of the 

mass they’re located in o. 

o 

16 Skinning 

I use Bind skin with Max influences set to 1 so I can easily 

find any vertexes that don’t belong and fix appropriately. 

Next I use the Paint Skin Weights tools to quickly blend 

between joints, and adjust the weights slightly, testing the 

deformation by bending the joints p. 

p 

q 

Top tip 

Frank Frazetta’s paintings have lots of action and colour. 

Action shots require a dynamic pose, and I find that when 

deforming or posing geometry in modo, it’s helpful to use 

Morph maps to retain the original shape for additional 

editing or to try other poses. For a painterly look, all the 

textures use saturated colour rather then blacks and whites 

for tone and hue. For the skin, I used a saturated copy of the 

main Diffuse texture applied to Subsurface Color in the 

shader to bring out the skin’s tans, blues, greens and reds. 

17 Posing 

With the base object imported in for reference, I start to 

pose the model, carefully checking from all angles, but 

mostly from the composition’s low camera angle. With the 

pose complete, I detach the skin, and make sure Bake 

History is active, then export both the posed and unposed 

mesh of the warrior as OBJ files q. 

18 Morph setup 

The unposed warrior mesh 

and the posed one are reimported 

into modo. I place 

the posed version in a 

background layer and create 

a Morph map for the 

unposed mesh and use 

Vertex Map/Transfer to 

apply the deformation of the 

background mesh onto the 

morph of the active mesh. 

When posing, ensure the 

Morph map is active R. 

r 

o I make sure the arm and leg 

joints have a bend going into 

positive Z, then add IK 

p Using the Paint Skin 

Weights tool to fix blending 

q Shifting the weight of the 

model to make it a bit 

more dramatic 

r The vertex deform data is 

transferred to the active 

Morph map 

s Using the Flex and Sculpt 

tools, I adjust the final pose 

and deformations 

s 

19 Tweaking 

The posing in Maya was 

rough and joint bends could 

look better. With the Morph 

map active, I adjust the 

deformation at joints and 

hips. I will also slightly ‘bulge 

out’ muscle, position the 

weapons and add a bit of 

variation to the costume 

feathers for a ruffled look s. 

93

Creating the surfaces 

Setting up advanced surface shaders 

20 Add textures 

I begin by adding modo’s preset materials to the character 

and separate each of them with a material group mask. I 

layer the shaders in order of inside to outside, major to 

minor. In order: Skin is first, followed by Leather, Metal, 

Gold, Wood and Bone. I turn off the visibility of any shader 

effects for each material and make sure they are all set to 

180 degrees Smoothing t. 

u 

94 

t 

22 Leather 

Leather is similar to the skin with a more matt finish to the 

surface and without Subsurface Scattering. To help 

emphasise a worn-out look I add the maps for Ambient 

Occlusion set to Roughness, and Diffuse set to Specular 

Color and adjust their values to get twice as much contrast. 

Finally I use a ramp set to Incident angle to get the slight 

‘peach-fuzz’ look to the edges v. 

t The group mask image is 

placed at the top of 

each group 

u A layer mask is applied to 

the base shader to mask out 

Subsurface Scattering for 

the hair and body paint 

v Creating an Incident angle 

ramp to add a slight fuzzy 

look to the leather edges 

v 

w Gold/Bronze metal is added 

over the top of the base 

metal for more variation 

x Using the Diffuse settings to 

control Subsurface 

Scattering colour 

21 The Skin shader 

The skin surface is made up of the modo Skin shader preset with Diffuse, Specular, Normal, 

Subsurface Color and Subsurface Amount textures. When applied, I adjust the high and low 

values and opacity of each layer if needed to get the rugged and colourful Frazetta look I am 

aiming for. Finally to add a bit more shading, an Ambient Occlusion map is put in the top 

layer at 50% Opacity with blending mode set to Multiply u. 

w 

23 Worn metal 

I wanted the metal to look very worn, similar to an old 

copper coin. Using the modo preset for Cast Steel as a base, 

I add the Diffuse, Specular and Normal maps and use them 

to drive other effects as well. The Specular map is also used 

for Roughness and Reflection amount with the high and low 

values to create a high, almost black-and-white contrast. 

The Diffuse map is used to control Specular Color w. 

x 

Use HDRI 

for lighting 

A good way to get 

convincing lighting is to 

illuminate the model with 

an HDRI image, with 

Global Illumination active. 

After a few adjustments, 

the result will provide an 

even, well-lit model. For 

this scene I wanted to add 

more colour and drama, so 

the HDRI image needed to 

have a black base where I 

introduced lights to add 

coloured shadows. 

24 Wood and 

bone textures 

The bone and wood needed 

to look aged. The bone has 

some Subsurface Scattering 

with the effect being much 

more desaturated than the 

skin, making it somewhat 

grey. The wood is not very 

glossy and has a more solid 

diffuse colour, as it needs to 

look hard and jagged x.

Character 

Finishing touches 

Adjusting the light and rendering 

26 Tweaking light and shade 

A couple of additional Directional lights are added to illuminate the silhouette of the 

character and some parts of the background. I also add a couple of small Point lights to fill in 

areas of shadow. With the final lighting in place I do another quick pass on the shaders for 

any elements that are not working well with the light. I also change the contrast of the 

surface shading by adjusting the opacity of the top layer AO maps and setting to Multiply z. 

z 

Highly 

detailed AO 

and masks 

25 Quick adjustments 

It’s now time to make final adjustments to the lights. At this 

stage, to speed up the renders, I hide everything except the 

main areas of focus such as the head, weapons and arms. I 

also use the proxy geometry for background elements to 

help speed up the renders in the Preview window y. 

y Toggling the shaders on and 

off really helps to speed up 

lighting adjustments 

z A Directional light is used to 

add more depth to the rocks 

and pillars 

a a The camera depth is 

matched up with the 

Depth output settings 

b b The final render 

before adjustments 

and colour balance 

c c Finally some minor light 

glow and rim light effects 

are added 

y 

aa 

27 Render settings 

I change the default render 

setting to 0.1 for Refinement 

Shading Rate and 1% for 

Refinement Threshold. I 

check lights have a Spread 

angle of 10%, leaving Depth 

Blur and Bloom to post. To 

help in Photoshop, I include 

outputs for Final Color, 

Alpha, Diffuse Coefficient, 

AO and Depth a a. 

cc 

When creating the warrior, 

it was important to start 

simple and make sure 

each stage was well 

thought out and carefully 

built. The model started as 

a box, and a good 

silhouette shape was 

formed and posed. The 

scene composition was 

roughed out with primitive 

proxy shapes before 

adding rocks, leaves and 

other details. The lighting 

started from one source 

and was tweaked before 

any surfaces were made. 

A good silhouette, clean 

textures and the use of 

various surface materials 

helped to bring this 

magnificent warrior 

inspired by Frank 

Frazetta’s work to life. 

bb 

28 Clean-up and colour balance 

I import all the rendered output into one PSD file. The first thing to do is clean up any rough 

rendering artefacts or edges. Next all images are separated from the black background and 

images of a stormy backdrop and a moon from deviantART are added. I then adjust the 

colour balance and hues to bring the foreground and background elements together b b. 

29 Post-processing and balance 

I use the various other render outputs as either overlays or 

Alpha masks to adjust the lighting and surface detail. I also 

tweak light and colour saturation to help emphasise the 

focal points. I overlay the Diffuse Coefficient pass to balance 

and fix blown-out colour, while AO and Depth are used for 

shading tweaks and to bring out outline details c c. 

95

I believe composition is 

very important, but my 

work doesn’t employ a 

difficult technique: I 

focus on story, message, 

mood and colour. 

When establishing the 

composition, I spend 

most of the time looking 

for the right feeling 

Using mental ray, I rendered all 

elements to start and then made 

separate passes for Specular, Colour, 

Diffuse, Ambient Occlusion and Z- 

Depth. For the Z-Depth layer, I used 

the Lens Blur filter in Photoshop, 

where I also made use of the Color 

Balance tool and corrected the overall 

contrast. Working with an image of 

6,000 pixels, it was a very heavy file! 

Artist info 



Hodong La 

Website www.hodings.com 

Country South Korea 

Software used 3ds Max, Photoshop, 

mental ray 

96

Character 


3ds Max Photoshop mental ray 

Discovery 2010 

This giant humanoid’s name is Roy and his mission is 

to find a way to heal a sick planet Earth. Exploring an 

unknown world, during his expedition, he discovers 

a blue life form on Mars, capturing a photograph of 

it to keep as a record. 

97

98 

Making of The 

Sky Fishermen 

The Sky Fishermen 2008 

The Sky Fishermen is a stylistic character model inspired by an 

evocative piece of concept art by Christopher ‘Stoph’ Green 

Akin Bilgic is a CG/VFX artist 

In this tutorial, we’ll 

take an in-depth look at 

the character modelling 

workflow which I used to 

create The Sky Fishermen. 

Topics covered will include 

translating from 2D 

concept art, poly modelling 

in 3ds Max, digital sculpting 

in ZBrush, as well as final 

integration and tweaks 

using Photoshop. 

The creation of The Sky 

Fishermen was a big 

challenge in my 

development as a CG artist, 

and I’ll attempt to distil the 

successes and errors of the 

process so you can learn 

from my mistakes and 

apply the successful 

techniques to your work. If 

you have any further 

questions after reading this 

making-of, I invite you to 

contact me through my 

website www.cggallery. 

com, and I’ll do my best to 

answer any questions. I 

hope you can use these 

steps to create your own 

concept characters. Enjoy! 

A Stoph’s original 

concept art 

B A reference image 

from iStockphoto 

C A quick paintover to 

gather my thoughts 

Concept 

Ideas and reference 

01 The concept art 

The idea for The Sky Fishermen came from the work of the 

amazing concept artist, Christopher ‘Stoph’ Green. I 

stumbled upon his art one day while browsing www. 

conceptart.org – looking for good concepts to work from 

since I’m not much of a 2D artist myself. I immediately fell in 

love with this concept and knew I wanted to try re-creating 

it in 3D. I contacted Stoph shortly after, asked for his 

permission, and he was more than happy to have me take a 

crack at it. The underlying concept for The Sky Fishermen is a 

story about two boys, Eli and Ardent, who ride the skies on 

their flying turtle, Artoise, hunting a menacing species of 

flying squid that terrorises their skies. 

b 

02 Gather reference 

One of the most important parts of starting any model is to 

take a step back and gather enough reference to help inform 

your decisions as an artist. For this project, I gathered as 

many sea turtle references as I could get my hands on. I 

gathered both real pictures, as well as reference of other 

artistic interpretations of sea turtles like the ones done by 

Pixar for Finding Nemo. For the boys I gathered reference of 

exaggerated children’s facial expressions, and for the hand 

poses, pictures of my own hands. Having the right reference 

is key to achieving good results. 

a 

c 

03 Plan your approach 



ZBrush 

Photoshop 

So now that you’ve got your reference, you might think it’s 

time to get modelling! But not just yet. I can’t express how 

much time you can save from the whole process if you just 

spend a bit of time planning your approach, identifying 

potential problems, and thinking of ways to be efficient. For 

this project, I saw that I had two children that (aside from a 

few pieces of clothing) could be made from the same base 

model – and the front and back flippers of the turtle are very 

similar so I could probably use an alpha to get them detailed 

quickly. Spending an hour to plan your approach can save 

you days of unnecessary work later on.

Character 

Modelling 




Artist info 

Akin Bilgic 


www.cggallery.com 

Country USA 

Software used 

3ds Max, ZBrush, Photoshop 

Expertise 

Akin specialises in 

character modelling and visual 

effects, including lighting/ 

compositing for film 

Name Christopher ‘Stoph’ Green 

Website www.stophdraws.com 

Country Australia 

Project title The Sky Fishermen 

Software Photoshop CS2 

About the concept image 

This was an entry for a character design challenge back in 2005. After being given the title ‘Sky Fishermen’, I 

somehow ended up with this quirky result. To be honest, creating the concept was quite simple in comparison to 

replicating its success, popularity and longevity – even to this day – in the rest of my work. I was honoured with 

Akin’s request to realise my concept in 3D and his faithful treatment of the characters is a true credit to his skill. 

99

Start the modelling 

Once we have our reference and approach – it’s time to model! 

04 Model the turtle base mesh 

I began the modelling process in 3ds Max, as I find its native poly modelling tools are a very 

powerful and quick way to create a clean base mesh for use in ZBrush. I like to keep my base 

meshes fairly low-poly and loose – just enough to give me an idea of the overall form and 

proportions. I constantly referred to the concept art as a guide and made sure the base 

mesh would have just enough to work with once I took it into ZBrush for higher level 

detailing. The turtle base mesh was constructed from basic geometry using a spherical cube 

for the shell and extruded cubes for the fins and neck. 

D 

05 Sculpt the turtle 

Once I had the base mesh ready, it was time to take it into 

ZBrush to really start bringing the turtle to life. I began with 

the turtle’s shell – heavily relying on reference images of sea 

turtles. Even though the concept is strictly fantasy-based, 

having realistic details helps to ground a concept and sell the 

characters’ believability. Most of the sculpting was done by 

hand at this point, using the Standard brush with Lazy 

Mouse to define the large scute edges, and Clay Tubes to 

create the lined ridge texture on the top of the scutes. 

E 

D Starting to add some surface 

detail to the turtle. Take your 

time and experiment 

f Using the alpha on the 

right to lay down detail in 

a controlled and even way 

E Simplicity is the key here – 

add just enough form to block 

in loose proportions 

G The goggles, saddle and 

other prop models created 

in 3ds Max 

100 

06 Turtle Alpha 

map creation 

For the flippers and neck, I approached 

the sculpting a little differently. I took a 

screenshot of the low-poly flipper base 

mesh in ZBrush, took that into 

Photoshop, and used it as a guide to 

hand-paint a black-and-white Alpha 

map. The reason for this was so I could 

use photo references to quickly find a 

way to create the intricate pattern I 

wanted. Once I was reasonably happy 

with the painted pattern, I took the 

image into ZBrush and used it as an 

Alpha map with the drag-rectangle 

stroke to lay the pattern down onto the 

higher-res mesh. Once the pattern was 

down on the flippers, I went back and 

added smaller details and irregularities 

so it didn’t look too flat or uniform, 

boosting realism. I also used the lines 

as a guide to build up bigger folds and 

creases as the appendages merged 

into the shell. The same technique was 

used for the head and neck areas. 

F 

G 

07 Model the props 

For the props, I stayed in 3ds Max to model the high-res 

props that would be attached to the turtle’s body. I felt 

having the props on the turtle’s body early would give me 

some additional features to help judge proportions – and 

would especially help when it came to integrating the 

children. 3ds Max’s poly tools are ideal for creating the 

precise, hard-surface shapes needed for the props. I made 

extensive use of renderable splines for creating ropes and 

trim to give additional detail to objects like the saddle and 

golf bag that holds the harpoons.

Character 

08 Prop integration 

To integrate the modelled props with the turtle, I brought in 

the lowest subdivision level of the sculpted turtle into 3ds 

Max. Then, using the standard Transform tools, I moved the 

props into place – not worrying too much about an exact fit. 

Next I exported the props into ZBrush and made the final 

alignment with Transpose tools and heavily-blurred masking 

to ‘bend’ solid parts like the pipes that hold the golf bag onto 

the shell. Once the props were positioned, the turtle was 

mostly finished and it was time to move on to modelling the 

kids – Eli and Ardent. 

H 

It helps save time and energy 

to keep a library of generic objects 

that you’ve made over time – no 

need to redo work you’ve already 

done! Also I used the same base 

model for both Eli and Ardent 

J 

I 

09 Model the kids base mesh 

I began modelling the children in 3ds Max. I didn’t start from scratch, since I already had a 

generic human base mesh that I had modelled from a previous project. It helps save time 

and energy to keep a library of generic objects that you’ve made over time – no need to redo 

work you’ve already done! Also in the interest of saving time, I decided that since Eli and 

Ardent had very similar anatomy and proportions, that I could use the same base model for 

both of them. Using Max’s basic tools like Soft Selection, I took my generic human base 

mesh and altered the proportions to better fit the look of the boys in the concept art. I then 

modelled the clothing and prop base meshes, taking note that the only differences between 

the two kids were their shirts, shoes and headgear. The same base mesh with a new set of 

clothing and props made them look like two different characters. 

H The props lined up 

against the turtle 

proxy mesh 

I The base mesh is the 

same, but clothes and 

expressions differ 

J The kids sculpted; one of 

the base meshes was made 

and the other duplicated 

10 Sculpt the kids 

Once the single base mesh with the two unique sets of 

clothing and props were ready, I took them into ZBrush and 

began sculpting the higher-res body. The idea was to get the 

high-res body sculpt as close to finished as possible, before 

duplicating the mesh into two unique copies with their 

respective clothing and props. This way I would only have to 

sculpt the high-res anatomy once – saving me countless 

hours. I relied heavily on anatomy reference when sculpting 

the body. I collected images from various sources across the 

internet and took pictures of myself to use as a guide. I knew 

the kids needed to look and feel real in order for the 

audience to connect with them. I sculpted as much detail as 

I could with the character in its symmetrical T-pose, taking 

advantage of ZBrush’s Symmetry stroke to again save time 

and effort. I’m not going too in-depth about the sculpting 

process here, but to be honest, there really is no secret trick 

to this phase – 90 per cent of the workload is being done 

with the Move, Standard, Pinch and Inflate brushes. It just 

takes a lot of time, hard work and tons of reference. 

101

Showcase 

Akin Bilgic 

I’m a modeller/VFX artist currently freelancing and 

living in San Francisco, CA. I’ve been drawn to CG and 

VFX ever since I was a kid, mostly inspired by films like 

Jurassic Park and games like Myst. Since then, the goal 

has been to create the visuals for tomorrow’s great films. 

102 

Artist 

Leftovers Lounge 3ds Max, ZBrush, Photoshop (2010) 

A collaboration with my friend Guillermo Martinez (http:// 

billybobmartinez.blogspot.com/) for a graphic novel anthology. 

Guillermo came up with the concept and I modelled the characters. 

Time Trap 3ds Max, ZBrush, Photoshop (2009) 

A collaboration with Lior Arditi (http://lioration.cgsociety.org). I 

came across his work one day and, like The Sky Fishermen, I fell in love 

with his concepts and asked if I could try modelling some of them. 

Rockstar Self 

Caricature 3ds 

Max, Brazil r/s, 

Photoshop 

(2006) 

I decided to 

create myself as 

a 3D caricature 

back when I was 

19. The image 

was made using 

3ds Max and the 

Brazil rendering 

system. 

K 

11 Pose the kids 

Once the high-res body sculpt was ready, I 

used ZBrush’s Transpose Master toolset to 

put the boys in their respective poses. The 

pose is a very important aspect of a sculpt – 

it says a lot about the character – so I 

wanted to make sure they were just right 

before moving on to other parts. Things to 

look for when posing your character are 

silhouettes, readability from a distance, 

conveying weight and motion, and how you 

can convey that person’s personality 

through their posture. A good way to clearly 

analyse your characters’ silhouettes in 

ZBrush is to switch the shader to Flat Color. 

The facial expressions were also finalised 

during this phase – mostly by using masking 

and the Move brush to change their mouth 

shapes, as their eyes are covered by a 

helmet and goggles. 

K Ardent posed over the proxy turtle shell 

L Consider clothing material dynamics to get 

realistic results 

M 

L 

12 Sculpt the clothing 

After the poses were complete, it was time 

to sculpt the high-res clothing and 

accessories. It’s important that you sculpt 

clothing after the posing phase, because the 

pose will greatly affect how clothes fold and 

wrinkle. Hard-surface objects like the shoes 

were modelled in 3ds Max, while softer 

objects like the shirts, trousers and gloves 

were sculpted in ZBrush. This project was 

only the second time I’d attempted to sculpt 

realistic clothing, so it took a bit of trial and 

error to get a result I felt was believable. It 

helps to give a lot of thought to the specific 

material of the clothing, as that tends to 

dictate how the folds and wrinkles occur. 

For example, for Eli’s trousers, I decided 

they were probably jeans, which are fairly 

heavy and have larger, less frequent 

wrinkles. For Ardent’s shirt, the opposite: a 

thin cotton T-shirt material with lots of 

creases being affected by everything from 

the belt around his waist to the wind. Again, 

lots of time, hard work and references led to 

the final result. 

13 Final integration 

Up to this point, the kids and 

the turtle have been kept in 

separate files for the sake of 

viewport interaction and 

cutting down on saved file 

size. Now it’s time to bring 

them all together and start 

looking at the model as a 

whole, instead of the sum of 

many smaller parts. This 

phase is mostly about 

tweaking proportions and 

making sure the scale of 

details match between all 

the elements. Again I 

heavily rely on ZBrush’s Flat 

Color shader to check my 

silhouette and make sure 

everything reads clearly and 

isn’t visually confusing. 

M Integrating the kids with 

the turtle and the props – 

making sure everything 

works together

Character 

Finalise the model 

Almost there, time to wrap it all up! 

14 Final polish 

With the kids and turtle finished and in place, I gave the entire 

model one final polish pass. During this step, I tweaked 

proportions, slightly altered poses and cleaned up any areas I 

might have overlooked. At this stage it’s no longer about the 

model looking like the concept art – it’s about the model 

feeling and conveying the mood of the concept art – even if 

that means making alterations that deviate from the original 

concept. I pushed Ardent’s pose a little further to really sell 

the mid-throw moment, and arched Eli’s head and posture 

back so it would read better in 3D space. Once it had passed 

this phase, the modelling was finished. 

N 

N Make sure the artwork 

conveys the essence of 

the original concept 

O A few render passes from 

ZBrush composited 

together in Photoshop 

P The 3D print done by 

Offload Studios – it looks 

stunning in real life 

Q The final sculpt 

O 

15 Lighting/rendering/compositing 

To showcase the finished model, I decided to explore 

ZBrush’s material capture system to create the final renders 

and composite them in Photoshop. This phase was really 

just a lot of experimentation and trial and error. I would 

render the model with different MatCaps, bring them into 

Photoshop and layer them atop one another with different 

blending modes to see if any interesting results occurred. I 

got an interesting look that showed off the details by mixing 

a Clay and Copper render. I enhanced it by giving it a soft 

gradient background to simulate a lighting stage and added 

a bit of specular bloom to really make it pop. 

Q 

16 3D printing 

the model 

After the 3D model was 

complete, I had the great 

pleasure of having the 

fantastic Offload Studios 

offer to create an 18-inch tall 

physical 3D print of the 

model. Offload’s team took 

care of everything for me – 

making sure my source files 

worked with its printing 

technology and even baking 

an Ambient Occlusion map 

to help highlight smaller 

details (its printers can print 

textures as well). The 

studio’s work is truly 

amazing and it’s been 

awesome to be able to see 

and touch something I 

created solely on the 

computer. Be sure to check 

out the rest of the 

company’s work at 

www.offloadstudios.com. 

P 

10 minutes 

render time 

Resolution: 

4,000 x 3,600 

Final thoughts 

And there you have it! I’d like to thank 

you for reading, and thank 3D Artist 

magazine for allowing me to share my 

work with you. Once again, if you have 

any further questions about this tutorial 

or any of my work, please feel free to 

contact me through my website (www. 

cggallery.com) and I’ll try my best to 

help out. Happy creating! 

103

Step by step: 

Create a sexy 

fairy woman 

Sexy fairy 2009 



Photoshop 

BodyPaint 

ZBrush 

Mental Ray 

104 ● 3DArtist 

The biggest 

challenge was to give 

a sensual tone to the 

scene and make the 

hair of the character. 

The idea was it would 

be beautiful, flowing 

and sensual, with a 

natural tone 

Kleber Darcio Lorenço Silva 

specialises in modelling, texturing, 

concept art and composition

Character 

Concepts, 

modelling, 

lighting 

Concepts 

The inspiration behind the scene 




Artist info 

The concept for 

01 the fairy was inspired 

by the models of the Victoria’s 

Secret lingerie fashion show. 

The idea was to give the 

character an air of sensuality 

and beauty. Transmitting this 

concept to a virtual character 

was a big challenge. The 

problem is that actual models 

are gorgeous and know how to 

work the camera with their 

eyes and sensuality. The 

virtual character would have 

to convince the viewer without 

any of these advantages. 

Kleber Darcio 

Lorenço Silva 


www.kleber3d.com 

Country Brazil 

Hardware used Intel Core 

i7-860 (2.80 GHz), 4GB DDR3 

Expertise Modelling, texturing, 

concept art, lighting and 

composition 

T 

his tutorial will explain the process I used to 

create this character. The model was made 

from a base mesh of an old character that I’d 

made previously. The technique used was poly by 

poly with added detailing using ZBrush. The model 

was exported to ZBrush, refined, then brought back 

to 3ds Max to continue the process of creation. 

ZBrush wasn’t used to model the character as such, 

more to add the details. The biggest challenge was 

to give a sensual tone to the scene and make the hair 

of the character. The idea was it would be beautiful, 

flowing and sensual, with a natural tone. The 

renderer used for the scene was Mental Ray FG, 

especially in the swimsuit. I used a SSS shader to 

create the skin and various maps were used to create 

layers compositing such as diffuse, specular and 

reflection. Photoshop and BodyPaint were used to 

paint the texture of the fairy, Photoshop did all the 

background work and BodyPaint was used to paint 

the details directly on the character. 

The image was designed to 

02 mix beauty with a nice 3D 

fantasy environment. One of the 

challenges was to make the scene with 

beautiful shades of colours, making it 

visually surreal and highlighting every 

detail of the character. The lighting was 

to simulate a studio light made by a 

photographer. The image had to present 

cold tones mixed with vibrant colours of 

the wing and butterflies. 

The choice of the 

03 background of the 

scene was set to look like the 

fairy was sitting posing for a 

photograph, but with a surreal 

touch. So, this was simulated 

by an artificial forest, with 

a ray of sunshine shining 

through the trees to give an 

air of fantasy. It also created 

volumes of light where the 

butterflies were flying. 

3DArtist ● 105

Artist 

Showcase 

Kleber Darcio Lorenço Silva 

I have been working with 3D for some time, and have 

always focused on quality and detail. I have focused 

primarily on modelling, then renders so I could finish 

a scene completely. I have worked on large projects 

and am very happy to work for the love of 3D. 

Modelling the fairy 

Creating the picture 

04 

The model was made from the 

base mesh of an old character I had 

already made. The technique used was poly 

by poly, refining the model. The character was 

placed in the pose bones so it could be 

manipulated. ZBrush was used to define and 

add details to the mesh of the character. This 

created more definition and subtlety in the 

expression of the character. 

05 

The hair used the technique of 

planes combined with textured hair 

and fur using 3ds Max. The planes had the 

colour and texture of hair and a map in the 

alpha channel opacity of the tips. In the more 

voluminous areas, hair planes were used more. 

The individual hair and fur was mostly used in 

the loosest of threads. 

Wonder Woman 3ds Max, Photoshop, BodyPaint, ZBrush, 

Mental Ray (2009) 

A character created for studies that’s my personal vision about 

Wonder Woman. I hope you like it. Modelled in Max, ZBrush, also 

BodyPaint, Photoshop. Rendered in Mental Ray. The hair was made 

in hairfx combined with textured planes. 

Robot 3ds Max, Photoshop, BodyPaint, ZBrush, V-Ray (2009) 

A character created for the client Potugal. Modelled in 3ds Max 

with help from BodyPaint and Photoshop. Rendered in V-Ray. 

07 

The fairy wings 

were made with the 

same technique that was used 

in the hair. They were planes 

onto which the texture was 

painted. Then the opacity and 

translucence was set in the 

shader. The blue colour 

contrasts with the colour tone 

of the scene, highlighting the 

character and breaking the 

cooler tone of the scene. 

06 

The clothing 

items were created 

to be sensual but not vulgar 

as the fairy would have to be 

sensual. I created the cloth with 

a golden glow that involved the 

lighting of the scene. The 

clothing model was made upon 

the body of the character data 

and the details such as 

deformation and folds were 

added in ZBrush. 

Lady-bird 3ds Max, Photoshop, BodyPaint, ZBrush, 

V-Ray (2009) 

A character created for animation. Modelled in 3ds Max, ZBrush, 

also BodyPaint, Photoshop. Rendered in V-Ray. 

08 

The expression of the character had to be sexy, but 

would have to be pure and delicate, with a more serene, 

beautiful and engaging tone. The structure made in 3ds Max had 

assistance from morphs where various expressions were made by 

adding some expression combinations. So I experimented with 

nervous eyes contracting, her mouth open, eyes closed, but the 

final image was the serene expression you see. 

106

Character 

Volumetric lighting 

Refining the scenery and lighting 

The lighting was done to highlight the curves of the 

09 character and to make the scene more fanciful. For this 

a key light interacts with the ambient light that falls on the trees 

along with the butterflies. The key light is set to let the strongest 

points of light mark the silhouette of the character. The sidelights 

give more depth to the skin tones and the clothing. Colour and light 

are two powerful tools that help enhance the mood of a scene that 

has been established by the composition, camera angles and 

characters. Firstly you see the result of light being reflected from 

a surface up to the eyes. The colour is a quality of light taken from 

a surface, based on the frequency range. 

To generate the 

10 lighting three 

Photometria lights were used: 

the key light, front light and side 

light. These provided the 

ambience for the scene. Each 

light colour was set to match 

the colour palette of the scene. 

The lights had an important 

function because in nature, 

light flows, revealing and 

concealing areas. The light 

shines, reflects, refracts, reacts 

and diffuses into the air. The 

light is warm or cold, high or 

low, near or far, bright or dark, 

strong or mild. In the digital 

world lighting is a matter of 

calculation. Normal alignment, 

G-buffers and Z-buffers 

determine the display of light. 

Where the calculation misses 

the mark, the artist has to 

compensate and correct. The 

temperature of light is a 

technical aspect that can affect 

the emotion of your scene. 

Essentially the temperature of 

light is a physical aspect of the 

light source which affects the 

colour of the light. However, it 

is not the same as using colour 

filters on lights to create colour. 

1 hour 

render time 

Resolution: 

1,800 x 1,013 

The character’s shader was made with the SSS Fast 

11 Skin in Mental Ray. The skin needed to have the exact 

brightness to make 

it both realistic and 

fanciful, then working 

with lighting shader 

to achieve that result. 

Maps were used to 

work together to result 

in uniformity between 

the dermis, epidermis 

and subcutis skin layers 

and the specular and 

reflection aspects. 

The backdrop was all done in 3D. The vegetation 

12 was created in 3ds Max and rendered with Mental Ray. 

Once completed the background image was placed in the 

composition. The layer was designed to merge with a colour 

palette to create a more pleasant scene in accordance with the 

skin tones of the fairy. Making the character was the highlight 

of the scene. 

The lighting plan 

The greatest difficulty in creating the image was deciding 

which technique would be better for the hair. The textures 

were made and painted in Photoshop with an extra touch 

in BodyPaint. The lighting was done with a keylight and 

side lights, with the toning following the colour palette. 

The best option for this was to use Photometria lights 

before rendering the scene with Mental Ray. 

To create the final 

13 image I separated 

z-depth maps for depth and 

occlusion maps to define 

shadows and contacts were 

rendered. These were then 

composited in Photoshop. The 

fairy character was actually 

rendered separately and then 

the two images were 

combined with a colour map 

being used to match the 

ambience between the two. 

107


Modelling, 

painting 

Poser 

DAZ 3D 

Vue Pro 

Studio 

Photoshop 

Apophysis 

This tutorial describes the 

working process behind my 

portrait, Pardon. I used several 

objects and textures from the library in 

DAZ Studio 3. In addition to Photoshop, I 

utilised Photoshop’s virtualPhotographer 

filter and the Rons Pinstriping brushes. For 

editing in Photoshop, I also used a Wacom 

tablet. At the beginning of my art projects, I 

often only have a rough idea of the final 

result, without any exact vision. My policy is 

more intuitive than conceptual. I experiment 

with a range of varied equipment before I 

decide upon a definite procedure. However, in 

the interests of establishing a chronological order 

to my workflow, I will waive some of the 

experimental steps in this guide. As with all of my 

portraits, the gestures and, above all, the facial 

expression and look in the eyes are the most 

important elements for me. From the start, I had 

quite a clear impression of what I was trying to 

achieve with the image, even if the picture itself 

was not already formed in my head – this aspect 

evolved as the project progressed. 

108 

Portrait 

masterclass 

Pardon 2010 

In this portrait, expression and gestures are of 

great importance when it comes to depicting a 

realistic face with a touch of fantasy art 

Majorgaine is a freelance illustrator 




Artist info 

Majorgaine 


www.renderosity.com/mod/ 

gallery/browse.php?user_ 

id=443303 

Country Germany 

Software used 

Poser, DAZ Studio, Vue Pro 

Studio, Bryce, Apophysis, 

Photoshop 

Expertise Majorgaine 

specialises in portraits and 

landscapes, as well as fantasy 

and sci-fi styles

Character 

Building up the portrait 

Arranging the scene in DAZ Studio 

a 

02 Choose your character and 

the textures 

Now you have to pick a character and a texture from your 

library. Proceed as the following: Poses>(choose the 

character you want) Tosca>Farissa>Poser 

MATS>2BrowsBrown. For changing the eye texture, go to 

Poses>Tosca>Farissa>Poser MATS>3Eyes b. 

01 Figure loading and morphing 

The first step is to open DAZ Studio and load Victoria 4. Next you have to load the morphs 

of the figure. For this, we used the Poser library, which you can find in DAZ Studio. When you 

install DAZ Studio, search for all the compatible folders and it should appear in the content 

column. To use the Poser library, go to Figures>DAZ-People>Victoria 4.2. Then go to 

Poses>DAZ-Victoria 4>Morph Injections>INJ Morphs++ V4 A. 

A Load the figure and the 

morphs into DAZ Studio 

b Choose the character and 

the textures of the figure 

c Modify the character of 

the figure 

d Dress the model and add 

hair and jewellery 

Problems and solutions 

C 

To be able to work with DAZ Studio, you have 

to start by equipping the library with objects 

and textures. The figures get loaded morphs 

and, from that point, you can alter the face 

and body. If you have Poser, you can use its 

library within DAZ Studio, which is what we 

did for this piece of work. 

The library contains figures (people, 

clothes, hair, etc) as well as poses and 

textures and lighting scenarios, which can 

be adapted to the particular scene. The main 

job is nevertheless the editing of the 

rendered picture in Photoshop. Because 

we’re not only trying to make the image as 

03 Modify the 

character 

The next step is to remodel 

the face. For this, go to the 

scene and choose the 

figure’s head by opening the 

folder until the head appears 

(or select by clicking on the 

face). Zoom in on the model. 

In the Parameters palette, 

it’s possible to modify 

particular features for 

expressions and visemes 

(facial cues which represent 

speech sounds) c. 

detailed as possible but also give it a touch of 

fantasy, we use a graphics tablet which 

enables us to work in great detail. In 

addition, we use Photoshop’s extensive tools 

such as colour adjustment, the amendment 

of contrast and posterisation, layer options, 

and the different brushes and filters. 

Of special importance is to work with 

transparent layers. It is worth noting that 

this tutorial refers to the particular objects, 

textures or Photoshop plug-ins within our 

library, so you’ll have to use similar items 

from your own libraries and a little intuition 

to complete this exercise. 

B 

04 Add clothing, hair and jewellery 

Next you can choose hair, clothing and accessories from the 

library and adjust to the figure. For the dress, follow: 

Figures>V4 Morphing Clothes>Fantasy Dress>Fit to 

blMilWom_v4b, 2. For the hair: Figures>AprilAoife>Aoife> 

Victoria4>Fit to blMilWom_v4b, 3. For the jewellery: 

Figures>DAZ’s Victoria Clothing>V4_FantasyCollarBig>Fit 

to blMilWom_v4b, 4. And finally, for the crown and earrings 

(first choose the figure’s head), then go to: 

Props>Chex>Psyche Jewels>Crown and Earring L d. 

d 

3DArtist ● 109

Objects and 

textures used 

We used the following 

objects and textures 

within the scene. 

From DAZ 3D: Victoria 4.2 

Base, Victoria 4.2 

Morphs++, V4 Morphing 

Fantasy Dress, V4 Fantasy 

Collar, Aoife Hair, V3 

Fantasy Collar Set, Once 

Upon A Time: Camelot, 

Farissa for V4 

From Renderosity: 

Psyche Jewels 

Finalise the scene 

Pose and light your model 

05 Texture clothing, hair and collar 

Now take the textures for the dress, the hair and the 

jewellery from the library. Beforehand, make sure you have 

clicked on the particular object you want to texture. For the 

dress: Poses>V3MorphingFantasyDress>Camelot 

Guenivere. For the hair: Poses>AprilAoife>2M Blonde and for 

the collar: Poses>V3FantasyCollarSet e. 

F 

06 Pose the model 

Before posing the model, choose a camera perspective for 

the final scene with the default camera. Select a pose from 

the library which is as close as possible to what you have in 

mind, then adjust the pose until it fits your scene. If you can’t 

find one that’s appropriate, pose the figure yourself. For this, 

use the controller on the Parameters palette. You’ll find that 

for every part of the model there are the options: Twist, 

Front-Back, Up-Down or Bend, Twist, Side-Side f. 

e Changing textures of the 

clothing, hair and collar 

f Change the camera 

justification and pose the model 

g Choose and edit lighting for 

the scene 

h The render setup for the 

final render image 

07 Choose and edit the lighting 

The basic lighting for this image was reused from an earlier 

project. For this portrait, we modified the lighting until the 

face was best illuminated. Now you have to choose each and 

every light in the scene layer and modify it in the Parameters 

palette for Intensity, Color and Shadow Type (note the Deep 

Shadow Map has a much shorter rendering time). You can 

also adjust the distance and rotation of the 

light. To check the lighting effects, do 

several trial renders g. 

E 

08 Render Settings and rendering 

After posing the figure, choosing the camera perspective and 

finishing the lighting, the image can be rendered. For the 

rendering options, go to Render>Render Settings. Here you 

can adjust the format and size of the picture. For this portrait, 

we choose 3,000 x 3,000 pixels. Check New Window to 

render the picture in its own window. We also switched the 

rendering option from Fast-Time Renderer to Software 

Renderer for the final rendering. All other adjustments can be 

seen on the screenshot h. 

h 

G 

110

Character 

Painting in the details 

Start to edit with Photoshop 

09 Load the basic render 

into Photoshop 

The basic render you just completed 

in DAZ Studio and saved as a PNG 

file, has to be loaded in Photoshop 

(File>File open>Folder>Image 

(Pardon basic render)>Open. Next 

you need to cut the image with the 

Crop tool. Create a new layer and 

name it ‘Background layer’. Now you 

have to pull this layer with the cursor 

under the Layers palette, before 

choosing the colour for the 

Background layer and fill using the 

Paint Bucket tool I. 

i 

11 Paint the hair 

One of the most complex and 

detailed steps is editing the hair. To 

manage a look that is as natural as 

possible, you have to draw single 

wisps of hair on special layers. For 

this, initially use a brush size of 3- 

5px, and after choose the basic 

colour of the existing hair with the 

Eyedropper tool. Now you have to 

draw several wisps of hair line by 

line. Afterwards, add shadows and 

then highlights to the hair with a 

brush size of between 1-2px. At 

the end of the process, hair which 

is not needed can be erased on the 

basic layer with the Eraser tool k. 

10 Adjust the contrast 

The next step is to increase the contrast to give the 

portrait more brilliance in colour. At first, you’re only 

doing this for the basic layer – the one that the portrait 

is on – so select this layer again. Proceed as follows: 

Image>Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast and increase 

Contrast to 17 j. 

Where to find the objects 

and other equipment 

Objects and textures for the DAZ Studio or Poser 

library can be downloaded from www.daz3d.com, 

www.runtimedna.com, www.renderosity.com or 

www.xurge3d.com. DAZ Studio itself is a freeware 

program and can be downloaded from its website. 

Rons Pinstriping can be bought from the 

MarketPlace at Renderosity. 

J 

K 

12 Edit the eyes and lips 

Now you can edit the eyes and the lips. For this, make three 

separate layers (using the process described in Step 9). On 

the first two layers, change the eye colour, for example, from 

green to blue – for this, use a hard brush with a small 

diameter. Choose a colour and an in-keeping blending mode 

(in this case, Hard Light). The same steps can be performed 

for the lips layer, but this time with Soft Light blending l. 

i Create a new layer and tint it 

j Adjust the Contrast for 

greater colour intensity 

k Paint more detailed hair on a 

separate layer 

l Edit lips and eyes on 

different layers 

m Create a new layer to 

paint shadows for the dress 

and jewellery 

L 

m 

13 Separate layer for shadows 

To gain a greater 3D effect, make a separate layer for 

the small shadows, which are cast on the skin by 

jewellery and clothes. With the airbrush (Diameter 

approximately 200), you have to hem the jewellery and 

the clothes on this layer. For this, choose a colour which 

is similar in shade to the figure’s skin, but darker in tone. 

Then, add a Hard Light blending mode. Colour which 

was accidentally drawn over the edges of the clothes 

can now be removed carefully using the Eraser with a 

low-diameter brush m. 

111

Artist 

Showcase 

Keep on painting 

Continue to add painted details 

Majorgaine 

Born in 1962 and raised in East Berlin, I acquired all my 

artistic knowledge and skills through self-study since I 

refused to study arts because I opposed the ruling 

regime. Today, I’m a freelance illustrator and graphic 

designer. Since 2004, I’ve delved into the digital arts, 

especially renderings. 

112 

Porcelaine Poser, 


This portrait is made 

with Poser 7 and 

edited with 

Photoshop. It shows 

the contrast of skin 

shining like chinaware 

and the various violet 

colour tones. 

Can’t Fight This 

Feeling Poser, 


This is an image made 

with Poser 7 and 

edited with 

Photoshop, showing 

the DAZ Michael 4 

figure. The tattoo is 

completely made with 

brushes in Photoshop. 

White Elf DAZ Studio, Photoshop (2008) 

This is a simple render with DAZ Studio 2. The whitening effect was 

achieved in Photoshop with the Levels Eyedropper option. 

n 

15 Paint the glove 

Now create a new layer for drawing 

the glove. First of all, choose a basic 

colour for the foreground of the 

glove. The Opacity of the glove layer 

should be made approximately 75% 

to let the edges of the hand shine 

through – that way you avoid 

drawing over the edges. It’s 

convenient to make the Background 

layer invisible during this step. With 

lighter and darker tones and the 

airbrush, you can add depth and 

light afterwards o. 

p 

17 Merge layers and 

adjust colour 

To be able to work any further on 

the image, you have to merge all 

the layers together now. It’s 

advisable to make a copy 

beforehand to save any previous 

work for a possible re-edit. To 

merge the layers, go to: Layer> 

Merge Visible and keep on 

working with the one layer. Next 

decrease the yellow tones of the 

picture by 40% (Image> 

Adjustments>Hue/ 

Saturation>Edit>Yellows) q. 

14 Edit the shoulders 

Since DAZ Victoria 4’s armpits are set too high, they 

have to be edited to increase realism. For this, use the 

following tools: Healing Brush (Diameter around 100) 

and airbrush (Diameter around 300). First of all create 

a new layer. With the Healing Brush, hit Opt/Alt and a 

relevant part of the skin, then draw over the parts that 

need correction. With the airbrush, you can level the 

differences in the colour n. 

q 

o 

n Edit the model’s 

shoulders and armpits 

with the Healing Brush 

o Create a new layer 

for painting the glove 

p Editing the eyes 

and lips and painting 

the lashes on another 

new layer 

q Combine all the 

layers and adjust the 

yellow tones 

16 Re-editing 

the eyes 

Before the next step, change 

the background colour once 

again. Now create a new layer 

to give the eyelashes more 

density. The colour should be 

nearly black and the Diameter 

of the hard brush 1-2px. Also 

add shadow and light effects 

to the eyes and lips on the 

basic portrait layer using the 

Dodge and Burn tools p.

Character 

Refining the portrait 

Add finishing touches to your image 

18 Use the 

virtualPhotographer filter 

For the next step, we use the 

virtualPhotographer filter, which is not 

a basic inclusive of Photoshop but a 

third-party plug-in from optikVerve 

Labs. With this, we achieve a soft 

shine effect and a higher brilliance of 

colours. To keep the sharpness of the 

face, you have to double the layer 

beforehand (Layer>Layer Duplicate). 

After using the filter, the face can be 

erased to make the unfiltered layer 

shine through r. 

r 

19 Hem the image with 

the airbrush 

The next step is to hem the whole image with a soft 

airbrush. The Diameter of the brush should be about 

1,000 and the colour the same as the background. 

By choosing the soft airbrush, you’ll gain a covering 

effect on the outer edges of the picture, but a 

transparent effect on the inner edges. You can do 

this step on a separate layer and merge this later 

with the one below s. 

T 

21 Layer for applications 

One of the last steps is to add some applications. We use Rons 

Pinstriping, which has to be installed additionally to the included brush 

presets. From those, we choose the Fitting Brush application and firstly 

put them on separate layers to individually resize and erase what’s not 

needed. After this, all are merged in one layer (make the basic layer 

invisible for this). In Layers, apply an Exclusion blending mode u. 

20 Readjust the colour 

and light 

After this, decrease the yellows 

again by about 40% to make it less 

dominant (see Step 17). Afterwards 

re-illuminate the whole picture with 

the rendering filter: Filters> 

Rendering Filters>Lighting Effects> 

Flashlight. Make the diameter larger 

than the picture, the centre as the 

middle of the face, all colours white, 

Intensity 13, Gloss -33, Material 100, 

Exposure 0 and Ambience 18 t. 

27 minutes 

Render time 

Resolution: 

3,000 x 3,000 

S 

22 Frame and signature 

Next, delineate with the Rectangle Marquee tool on 

a new layer. To make a thin frame, use the Subtract 

from Selection option. This way, you’re able to 

delineate a second rectangle inside the first and 

then colour the space in between with the Brush 

tool. Lastly create another layer to add your 

signature with the graphics pen v. 

U 

r Use the 

virtualPhotographer plug-in 

for a soft shine effect 

s Hemming the image with 

a large airbrush in the 

background colour 

t Colour adjusting once 

again and more lighting 

effects with Flashlight 

u Create a new layer and 

use Rons Pinstriping brushes 

v Create a thin frame and 

write the signature 

v 

113




Artist info 

Carlos Ortega 

Elizalde 

Username: carlosortega3d 


http://stroggtank.cgsociety.org 

Country Mexico 

Hardware used Intel Core i7 

920, 6GB RAM 

Expertise Carlos specialises 

in 3D modelling, UV mapping 

and texturing 

Supplied on the disc is the 

model of the bow with UVs 

in OBJ format. 

tesalia_bow_3da.obj 


Maya Photoshop mental ray 

116

Character 

Step by step: Model 

a cute fantasy figure 

Tesalia 2010 

A young female centaur visiting the ruins of her 

birthplace Arkadhia, an ancient mystical city 

Carlos Ortega Elizalde specialises in modelling and texturing 

Modelling 

T 

esalia was created from scratch in Maya and 

rendered in mental ray. I created her as one of 

the two main characters for an animated story 

which I’m still developing. I went for keep-all elements in 

a stylised fashion, keeping cartoony proportions without 

being too childish. One thing I took a lot of care with was 

the modelling. As this is a female character, the 

silhouette had to be thin and delicate, but balanced and 

solid at the same time. The armour, weapon proportions, 

facial expressions and colour palette had to reflect the 

attitude of the character: cute, pure and delicate, yet 

dangerous, agile and strong. The final rigging was one 

of the most difficult tasks, as it was tricky to manage 

extreme positions in face and body and avoid a harsh 

look at the same time. At the end of the project, the rig 

could have used a bit more cleaning, but that stage was 

enough for the still images purpose. 

Concepts 


I created the original model about six 

01 years ago in Carrara 2, as one of my first 3D 

works since centaurs are one of my favourite fantasy 

characters. Back then, my skills were pretty low, 

so this year I decided to model the character again 

with more style and detail. 

I changed some things from my original 

02 concept like thinner proportions and a 

different hairstyle. I did a quick sketch in Photoshop to 

block the main proportions of the body and the zones 

the armour would cover, as well as the basic colour 

palette, which consists of a dark magenta and white. 

Most of the inspiration I had for the armour 

03 ornaments were the beautiful floral graphics 

created in the Arts and Crafts movement and, in a 

special way, one of the pages of The Centaur, which has 

beautiful decoration. This helped me to enforce the 

pure and elegant nature I wanted for my character. 

3DArtist ● 117

Artist 

Showcase 

Creating the model 

How the centaur girl was created 

Carlos Ortega Elizalde 

I’m a graphic designer and 3D artist from Guanajuato, 

Mexico. I currently work as a tutor in the media 

department in Guanajuato University, focusing on 

Motion Graphics and 3D art most of the time. I’m also a 

freelance 3D modeller although I often find that personal 

3D design work is almost a full-time job in itself. 

Using my sketch as reference, 

04 I imported it into Maya as an image 

plane to maintain proportions. Since this was a 

new version of my character and not a different 

one, I used only my old model’s head as a 

reference, though many of the details were 

refined later to suit the new style. 

The human torso was probably 

05 the part on which I spent the most 

time. It had to have nice topology and decent 

anatomy, but still be recognisable as part of 

a stylised, cartoony character. I went for an 

athletic and slender body, trying to mix it with 

an elegant, cute and attractive look. 

In the Ice Zone Maya, Photoshop, mental ray (2010) 

The Echidna, all-terrain vehicle in a mission through the Ice Zone. 

This model was created for an online speed modelling contest. 

4 hours 

render time 

Resolution: 

3,150 x 4,200 

Fulgencius the Wise 

Maya, Photoshop (2009) 

Fulgencius, aka The Wise. 

He might be wise, but he 

has a terrible memory. 

Tonight is this 200-year-old 

wizard’s birthday party, but 

he can’t remember where 

it’s taking place! 

The legs were modelled extruding from the waist edges 

06 of the torso. I modelled the whole horse body almost as an 

animal counterpart of the human torso, aiming to produce delicate 

but athletic legs. I created the horse body so it could be recognised 

as ‘female’ just from looking at the animal part. 

End of the Year Maya, Photoshop (2009) 

This images shows a weird New Year’s party taking place in a 

space-based environment, attended by just a robot and an octopus. 

118 

The hair consists of flat polygonal 

07 planes. I started using a cylinder to 

recreate the mane and tail’s volume, then 

I extracted several strands to get a nice density 

of thin planes. I sculpted them by moving 

vertices by hand and using modifiers like 

Bend and Twist on each strand. 

To refine the detail in the hair, 

08 I inserted several edge loops in each 

stripe of hair, then moved some of the new 

edges outwards and others inwards, to 

reinforce the simulation of the hair density 

in each strand and the flow of each stripe.

Character 

Refining details 

Finishing touches and the environment 

The last step for this character was to model the 

09 armour and bow. I started with all the armour plates, 

most of which consisted of extracted geometry from the 

body, then tweaked and refined them to fit the way I needed. 

I modelled several pieces of ornamentation to use later as 

accessories for the armour. 

The basic bow shape was created from a cylinder, 

10 extracting the top face and tweaking the verts as I 

progressed. The bow’s decoration was added later as separate 

geometry, using some of the pieces I’d previously created. The 

rest of the accessories consist of earrings, an arm bracelet and 

a diadem for the head. 

Colours and 

materials 

I painted all textures by 

hand. I didn’t want to 

create realistic skin or 

hair (just personal taste), 

so I only painted different 

skin tones and very 

subtle moles in the skin 

map, while for the hair, I 

painted colour variations 

as well as an Alpha map 

for the tips of the hair. I 

used the misss_fast_skin 

shader for the skin, an 

Anisotropic shader for 

the hair and a Blinn 

shader for the armour. I 

kept my palette to a few 

colours – the dark 

magenta with gold hints 

to suggest royalty, but 

included some wear in 

the armour to prove this 

girl knows how to handle 

herself in battle. 

I created a rig for the face 

11 and body to get several 

expressions and poses, from which 

I picked a couple to render inside an 

environment as still images. The 

environment which I decided to 

create was the ruins of the main city 

where the whole story plays out, 

adding a more ‘solid’ context for the 

viewer from a still image. 

Taking inspiration from some Ancient Greek ruins, 

12 I modelled a series of arches and columns, in which I 

sculpted some damage using Subdivision surfaces. I duplicated 

the arches section to get a decent set of architecture that could 

resemble the ruins of a once powerful ancient city. 

The final touches 

13 regarding the modelling 

of the whole scene was the 

addition of plants and flowers. 

The ground is a simple plane 

deformed with Maya’s Sculpt 

tool. The grass, plants and 

flowers were created using 

Paint Effects and then 

converted to polygons. 

119

Step by step: Build 

your own monster 

Frankenstein’s Monster 2009 

My primary goal was to create a portrait that 

would have some sort of impact on the viewer 

Anto Juricic specialises in character modelling and texturing 

T 

he saying ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ was 

my primary guideline on this project and I hope this 

image can say a few words. It was a big challenge for 

me at that time to overcome technical challenges because 

this was one of my first Maya projects, but even more 

challenging was to create something that would touch the 

viewer. I have always wanted to model Frankenstein’s monster 

because he’s a classic character with such a strong story, so 

this was a great opportunity. Many great artists have done 

their versions of this subject and they did great work, which 

makes my job more difficult. I thought the best way to reach 

the viewer was through facial expression and the look of his 

eyes that would tell the story about a sad, lonely monster. 

With that in mind, I planned how to achieve my goal. The first 

thing was to split all the work into different tasks: sculpting a 

base mesh, retopology, making a high-definition sculpt with 

new clean topology, making clothes, posing, unwrapping, 

texturing, lighting, rendering and, finally, compositing. 

Concepts 


With every personal project I do, 

01 I am trying to learn something new through 

creation rather than using the same workflow over 

again. This time I decided to take a more artistic 

approach and use digital sculpting as much as 

I could. The quickest way for me was to make 

a simple ZSphere bust model in ZBrush. 

After extending a few spheres from the 

02 central one to shape the shoulders, neck and 

face, I converted the ZSpheres to geometry. This 

made my first base mesh, which I would use for 

sculpting a generic human bust. The best tool for 

shaping geometry at this stage is the Move brush, and 

for higher levels I mostly used the Clay Tubes brush. 

After making the basic bust shape, the next 

03 task was to make a new topology that I could 

use later for texturing and rendering in Maya. I used 

ZBrush retopology tools for the task and reshaped the 

new topology to create the overall monster shape. 

120

Character 


time by using the ZBrush 

model and maps. 

Franky posed.ZTL 




Artist info 

Anto Juricic 

Sculpting, 

modelling, 

lighting 

Maya 


anto-toni.cgsociety.org 

Country Bosnia and 

Herzegovina 

Hardware used Dual core 

2.21GHz, 2GB RAM 

Expertise Anto specialises 

in character modelling 

and texturing 


ZBrush 

Silo Photoshop UVLayout 

121

Modelling the monster 

Bringing out the details 

The best advice I can give regarding sculpting is to 

04 not rush in too soon with the details. Overall shape and 

form is more important than skin pores and a few wrinkles, so 

make sure that you have used every polygon before stepping up 

to next SDiv level. Again, for this step I used the Move brush, Clay 

brush and custom Standard brush. 

Shave and Haircut is also powerful 

07 for simulating dynamics, so first I 

simulated some freefall of hair over the head 

geometry. Combing hair was really fun with the 

many brushes integrated in this tool and I found 

that using the Translate and Puff Hairs Up 

brushes alternately worked best for me. 

After a couple hours of sculpting, I was happy with 

05 the results and I added some clothes which I modelled in 

Silo. Making the facial expression really gave life to this work and 

for that task I mostly used Move and Nudge brushes and 

Transpose tools for posing. I also added some simple geometry 

for the eyes and metal parts on the neck. 

I have tried a few different solutions 

06 for hair and the one that works best for 

me is the Shave and Haircut plug-in for Maya. 

If you are working in 3ds Max, that plug-in is 

already implemented as the hair and fur system. 

Basically, workflow is simple: I made a scalp 

geometry which I populated with hairs. 

Artist 

Showcase 

Anto Juricic 

I am a self-taught and highly 

motivated 3D artist 

specialising in modelling and 

texturing. I’m very passionate 

about modelling and 

texturing characters and 

creatures. I currently live in 

Bosnia and Herzegovina and 

I work in the Prime Time 

production studio in Sarajevo 

as a character modeller. 

The Incredible Hulk 

ZBrush, 3ds Max, 


This was one of my first 

fully completed 3D 

renders and I still like it 

today. The main goal 

was to test and set up 

a pipeline and workflow 

for future works. I made 

the base mesh in 3ds 

Max, sculpted in ZBrush 

and rendered back in 

3ds Max. 

Rendering of hair was a bit difficult and after much 

08 trial and error I decided to render hair with Maya 

software render, which is quite fast for this task. I also rendered 

one additional pass to improve the overall look of the hair, by 

adding ambient occlusion rendered with mental ray. 

Obama Maya, ZBrush, Photoshop 

(2008) 

This was my first Maya render. I chose 

Mr Obama because of his characteristic 

facial features. I’m fairly happy with the 

likeness, but mostly I am satisfied by the 

overall look, especially the lighting and 

shading. I reused this lighting later on the 

Frankenstein’s Monster image. 

The Greatest ZBrush (2009) 

This is a digital sculpture, made entirely 

in ZBrush, which served as a great 

opportunity for practising the anatomy 

of the male torso. I also tested some new 

features in ZBrush 3.5 R2 on this project 

and it was great fun. 

122

Character 

Textures and lighting 

Getting the right look and feel 

After completing all the geometry, 

09 the next step was to make clean UV 

coordinates. For that task I used the headus 

UVLayout application, which is great for making 

fast and clean UVs on organic models. This task 

is important because texture relies on the model 

using these coordinates. 

To achieve a realistic kind of look, I planned to use 

11 mental ray for rendering, and its great Fast Skin shader. 

This shader comes with many slots for textures that need to be 

fed in, in order to create real-looking skin; but I decided to use only 

the main ones such as overall colour, front and back scatter, 

specular and bump. 

My goal was to make the monster 

10 look more alive. To do so, I used a few 

different face photographs and projected them 

directly onto the geometry inside ZBrush using 

the ZApp Link plug-in. After that, I hand-painted 

some missing details in Photoshop. I repeated 

the whole process for the clothes. 

Biggest challenges 

Among all the technical challenges that I came across 

in this project, making the facial expression was the most 

difficult since I did not do any concepts or previsualisation. 

To make this image look realistic I needed 

a good understanding of how human skin reacts to light 

and to translate this to the mental ray skin material. Also, 

different light types react differently with this material and 

I recommend area lighting as the best solution. For 

creating hair I used the Shave and Haircut plug-in. For 

rendering hair I used Maya, which does so really fast. 

Basically, I imagine lighting as painting 

12 the image with light, so every light in my 

scene has some colour and purpose. Most of the 

lights in this scene were area lights, because they 

can produce very accurate shadows and a soft 

feel. Also, area lights react with the specular 

component of the Fast Skin material; so the bigger 

the light, the wider specular reflections, giving you 

great control over the final look of the skin. 

45 minutes 

render time 

Resolution: 

3,000 x 3,000 

After numerous 

13 render tests, I 

rendered a few different 

passes: main beauty pass, 

extra reflection pass and 

ambient occlusion. The most 

important thing about 

compositing different passes is 

to understand that everything 

that emits or reflects light 

should be layered over diffuse 

in additive or screen mode; and 

passes that subtract light, like 

shadows and occlusion, should 

be multiplied. 

123

a 

124 

I enjoyed modelling characters much 

more than environments or props, and I 

gradually improved to go on to be a 

character specialist at everywhere I 

have worked since

Character 

We talk to Andrew Hickinbottom, a lucky-in-freelance character modeller 

currently getting creative under the bright city lights of London 

b 

Perfect 

pinups 

My predominantly pinup-themed personal work is an 

outlet for when I want to create something easy on the eye 

and different to most of the work I get paid to do 

Andrew Hickinbottom is a freelance character modeller 

Name 

Andrew Hickinbottom 

Job title Character modeller 

Personal website 

http://andyh.cgsociety.org 

http://andyh.cghub.com 

Location UK 

Expertise Characters 

Software 3ds Max 

Client list Coca-Cola, 

International Olympic 

Committee, Comcast, 

Panasonic, SEAT, 

Imagination Games, 

Actimel, Haven Holidays 

All images 

© Andrew Hickinbottom 

A Suzie Kickin’ Back is an 

illustration of my Suzie 

character lazing about 

b Bunny Girl is one of my 

most successful personal 

pieces to date 

Andrew Hickinbottom recently 

made the big move to London, and 

things are looking up. With so 

many major production companies in the 

big city, he’s always bumping into people 

who’ve been working on high-profile 

projects that he’s long admired, which 

makes life a lot more exciting and has, in 

turn, given his art a new lease of life. With a 

lot more work going around in London 

compared to back in his hometown in the 

Midlands, he is currently freelancing as a 

character modeller for regular clients, such 

as Nexus Productions, where he models, 

UVs and occasionally textures characters. 

Before, he worked remotely from 

Birmingham – the move means he can now 

work on site, and be inspired by all the 

capital has to offer the 3D artist! 

How did the contract at Nexus come about – 

can you tell us more about the projects you’ve 

been involved with there? 

Andrew Hickinbottom: One of the 3D leads 

had been trying to get me to work with them 

for some time after seeing my stuff on the 

internet. I did some character modelling on 

a Coca-Cola advert a few years ago, then an 

Olympic Committee ad, and now they are 

regular clients. Nexus does work for 

advertising mainly, but has done title 

sequences for TV and film, music videos and 

short films as well. The company has a large 

collective of award-winning directors and 

can produce content in differing styles: 3D, 

2D, live action, stop motion, etc. 

You worked on a high-profile project at the 

London-based Superfad in December. Can 

you tell us more about that? 

AH: They needed me to create a stylised 

likeness of Shakira for a SEAT car advert. 

Getting Shakira’s likeness, and the overall 

level of stylisation approved was tricky. I 

liked the end result, but after all that work, 

you only saw her for a few seconds, and 

somewhat small on the screen – I guess it’s 

because there was just so much crammed 

into the advert and my character was just a 

small part of it. 

Have you worked in any other cities, either 

here in the UK or abroad? 

AH: I did a small job in Valencia for a month 

in January, which was nice – that’s the 

farthest I’ve travelled for a job. Some work 

in Japan would be good though! 

As a freelance artist, how do you find work? 

Do you find it or does it come to you? 

AH: I’m quite fortunate: virtually every 

freelance job I have done has landed in my 

lap. I have yet to chase down ideal clients. 

It’s something I intend to do in the future. 

b 

125

d 

e 

c 

126 

What was the pivotal moment when you 

knew that character modelling was your 

thing? How did it all start? 

AH: At the first studio I worked at many 

years ago I was the texture specialist, then I 

gradually found out that modelling was my 

most useful skill, having been doing it as a 

hobby since my late teens. I enjoyed 

modelling characters much more than 

environments or props, and I gradually 

improved to go on to be a character 

specialist at everywhere I have worked 

since. I’ve always admired aspects of 

character design – ever since I watched 

cartoons as a kid. 

What software have you mastered in your 

career so far as a character modeller, and why 

have they been your tools of choice? 

AH: 3ds Max, pretty much. I’ve used Maya, 

Softimage and LightWave in various 

capacities during my many years at 

different studios, but I’ve been 

using Max the longest, and I can’t 

really imagine using anything else 

at the moment. It’s nicely laid out, 

quick, easy to understand and has 

some great modelling tools – 

especially the new graphite modelling 

tools in Max 10. 

You’ve also recently started using ZBrush 

and V-Ray. How’s that going and what 

kind of new possibilities are they bringing 

to your work? 

AH: It took me a while to get used to 

ZBrush’s unusual interface and I have only 

learnt the basic tools so far, but it’s certainly 

a powerful program. It’s all too tempting to 

go nuts and ramp up the detail, creating a 

clichéd dragon monster or old man, but I’m 

going to strive to keep my simplistic style 

Once I have started and got past the 

difficult “Is it going to work?” part, I get swept 

away and won’t stop until it’s finished! 

and take advantage of ZBrush’s mesh 

manipulation and refining tools, rather 

than going down the realistic route. 

Sculptris is a good alternative to ZBrush, 

and it’s free. V-Ray is great – especially for 

lighting – although I’m still pretty new to it 

right now. 

Your pinup characters are possibly what 

the 3D community know and love you most 

for. Would you be happy to tell us a bit 

about your workflow when creating a 3D 

character illustration? 

AH: My predominantly pinup-themed 

personal work is mostly an outlet for 

inspirations that gather in my head, and for 

when I want to create something easy on 

the eye and different to most of the work I 

get paid to do. If I see some artwork that I 

admire, or if I see things in real life that 

inspire me, I try to create an illustration or

Character 

Trixie is a kinky 

character 

inspired by 

Shane Glines’ 

retro pinup 

cartoon girls 

Trixie 

I wanted to make a character in a similar style to Shane 

Glines’ or Bill Presing’s pinup work: nice and simple, 

quite shapely, and in a retro kind of way. Some retrostyled 

cartoon art doesn’t really translate well to 3D as 

the shapes are abstracted depending on the camera 

angle, pose and composition. 

I built the model fairly quickly without much detail, 

focusing on the simplicity of the shapes and the appeal. 

The lighting was very ordinary: just a Key light, a Back 

light and an Ambient light to flatten the scene. Her PVC 

clothes used a simple raytraced shader to reflect a 

bright white plane I positioned off-shot to get the white, 

shiny areas. 

I’m really pleased with the results, and I think it’s my 

best work so far. It reflects what I’d like to see in CG 

more: more innovation with the look and style of 3D 

characters. No super-realistic lighting, dynamic hair or 

advanced shaders, just nice, simple characters. Getting 

a flat, illustrative look without cheap use of a cel-shader 

is quite fun and can be approached in so many ways. 

1 

character based on these different 

influences. I have to act quickly, though, 

because I sometimes lose the drive to do 

unpaid personal work when the initial 

spark has gone from my mind. However, 

once I have started and got past the difficult 

“Is it going to work?” part, I tend to get swept 

away and won’t stop until it’s finished! 

How do you keep yourself motivated until that 

point? Any tips for those struggling to see a 

project through to completion? 

AH: I find it useful to keep a note of ideas 

that spring into my head wherever I am – a 

text file on my phone usually does the job. I 

add things to it if I get sudden ideas. Taking 

pictures can be useful for reference if I see 

anything that can help, such as 

composition, interesting people or lighting 

schemes. Keeping inspired is definitely the 

key! I’m always looking around on sites like 

CGTalk and CGHub for new and exciting 

artists to be inspired by. 

The dynamic poses of your cartoons are what 

bring them to life. What kind of research do 

you have to do and references do you need in 

order to pull this off? 

AH: Looking at the posing and construction 

theories of good old cartoons – Tom & Jerry, 

Bugs Bunny, etc – help you understand how 

they simplify the forms of the characters to 

create clear poses. Model sheets for 

animated films are good reference as they 

show varying poses and expressions. Pinup, 

glamour and adult photography/art in 

general is good reference, too – having some 

dodgy pics can genuinely be ‘reference’, 

despite the old joke! 

Your work is popular with CG publications, 

like the Ballistic Publishing titles. Can you 

tell us what kind of benefits having your 

work printed in the likes of EXPOSÉ can 

bring about? 

AH: Surprisingly, as far as I’m aware, I have 

not had any job offers directly connected to 

my work being in print yet. Nevertheless, 

it’s cool seeing your work on paper, 

especially when you are among so many 

great artists in the same book. I suppose 

having your work in books and magazines 

can only be good for exposure and getting 

your work circulated and known among 

potential clients. 

Are you working on any new personal 

projects at the moment? Can you tease us 

with any info on these? 

AH: Since moving to London I have had 

quite a few ideas for personal work, but I 

don’t have much time to work 

on anything. I recently 

made a new character 

that was inspired by 

random girls who 

I’ve seen around 

London in nice 

weather. It’s a bit 

more of an ordinary, 

slice-of-life piece rather 

than a pinup. 

As far as future projects go, I 

would like to do a very simplistic, 

flat, illustrative piece that pushes 

the look that I adopted for my 

Trixie character. I would also be keen 

to do something that encourages me to be 

bolder and more daring when it comes 

to my proportions, compositions and 

colour choices, and of course, I have my 

long un-worked short film. I’m not sure 

if I want to pick up the pieces and carry on 

with it or not. 

c Grannies was my 

honourably mentioned 

entry for the CGTalk 

‘Spectacular’ 

competition 

d Family characters made 

for the board game Beat 

the Parents 

f 

E Suzie & the Lil Nipper is 

a Gil Elvgren-inspired 

illustration of my 

ongoing Suzie character 

f This figure was created 

as a collectible vinyl toystyle 

soldier design 

127

Thom Yorke 

2 

A website of which I’m a member (www.b3ta.com) 

does weekly challenges where you are given a subject, 

and invites people to Photoshop them in creative ways. 

One week the theme was: ‘Photoshop Thom Yorke from 

Radiohead’. I thought I’d enter and try my hand at 

caricature for the first time. 

As the image challenge only runs for a week, I had to 

work fast. It was quite fun to do as I was only creating 

this one image – no body was modelled, no morph 

targets or rig, just quick, dirty modelling and plenty of 

cutting corners. I experimented with mental ray for the 

first time on this image and tried using Final Gathering 

and Subsurface Scattering. 

I’m pleased with the results, and it was a special 

project for me as I had to work quickly, didn’t have time 

to obsess over every detail like I usually do, and it was 

my first attempt at a caricature. 

made are about five years old now – I’m 

worried that they may look quite dated. 

Maybe it’s time to do something new. 

This was my first attempt 

at a caricature: Thom 

Yorke from Radiohead 

We would love to know more about the 

short film – can you tell us how this 

started, where you’re at, and how you’d 

like to see it go in the future? 

AH: I had an idea for a simple short film 

featuring my office girl, bunny girl and 

office nerd characters shortly after I 

made them. I had the whole thing 

storyboarded, laid out, modelled, lit 

and ready to go about three years ago. I 

fine-tuned the composition, pacing 

and story through animatics and 

storyboards. When I got to the 

animation stage, I realised I lacked 

the experience to make it look as good 

as I wanted. I would have liked to do 

the whole thing myself as a challenge, 

but it’s an impossibility. I may revisit 

it, but I would have to find an 

animator who is motivated, talented 

and, above all, someone I know well 

and trust. The three characters I 

What kind of resolution do you work in, and 

how does your hardware handle the job? Can 

you tell us a bit about your current setup? 

AH: To be honest, due to the non-realistic 

nature of my work, and the fact that I don’t 

use advanced rendering and shading much, 

I don’t really need a very powerful 

hardware setup. However, I recently 

replaced my four-year-old computer, so now 

things are a lot faster to work with, and it 

encourages me to use V-Ray more as the 

render times are drastically reduced. My 

output resolution varies, but I usually make 

my images big enough for print, should they 

ever appear in a book or magazine at some 

point. I rendered my Trixie character out in 

a huge resolution, though, as I intend to do 

some large posters, canvases or prints for 

sale in the future. 

At the end of last year you went travelling 

around Japan and then spent some time in 

Valencia. How important is it as a visual 

creative to experience the world? 

AH: Well, I was in Valencia to work, not for a 

holiday, but yeah, it’s important to take a 

break and recharge your creativity if it gets 

in a bit of a slump, as mine often does. You 

see a lot of interesting things travelling, and 

sometimes you get ideas. Being away from 

computers for a while also helps! 

Can you tell us about your inspirations and 

what influence can you see in your own work? 

AH: I love the work of Shane Glines. I find 

the streamlined construction, retro stylings 

g 

g Maid with Love was 

inspired by visits to 

maid cafés in Tokyo 

h Tokyo Girl was 

inspired by Harajuku 

teen fashion 

i Debbie was inspired by 

random girls that I’ve seen 

around London this summer 

128

Character 

h 

Taking pictures can be useful for reference if I see anything that 

can help, such as composition, interesting people or lighting schemes. 

Keeping inspired is definitely the key! 

and the flow of the shapes on his characters 

really fascinating. Bill Presing, Dean Yeagle 

and oldies such as Dan DeCarlo and Gil 

Elvgren are some of my main influences too. 

I have many influences and a number of 

favourite artists. 

Your main inspirations are 2D, so how about 

3D art inspirations – who do you tend to 

follow/admire most in the 3D community? 

AH: Although a lot of my design 

sensibilities and inspirations stem from 2D 

art and illustration, I do admire some 3D art. 

Like most 3D artists, I find Pixar a big 

influence – especially its human characters, 

as seen in films like The Incredibles. Certain 

films click with me design-wise, eg Cloudy 

with a Chance of Meatballs. I loved the loose, 

rubbery and cartoony look of that – they 

really pushed it and made it stand out. 

Generally, though, I tend to follow a handful 

of 3D artists in the community – the majority 

of stuff I like is from random artists. 

What’s next for you – or what would you like 

to see on the cards for 2011? 

AH: More illustration/print work. I find it 

more satisfying being in creative control 

over the character, the composition, the 

theme and the overall design treatment. It’s 

less technically minded and meticulous 

than making characters for animation too; 

if it looks good for the purpose of a still 

image you can cut corners and generally 

work faster. I intend to improve my 

drawing as I feel it would make me a better 

artist. I’ve been attending the great Dr 

Sketchy burlesque life drawing classes in 

London because they’re a bit more 

relevant to my pinup work, and just 

because they’re fun! 

I would like to get my website back 

online, and perhaps put some prints/ 

posters up for sale. After seeing the results 

of a recent 3D print of my Trixie character I 

had made, I would love to get a collectible 

figure/sculpture made for sale at some 

point in the distant future. Generally, I 

can see things being more exciting and 

fulfilling in the future now I have moved 

to London. I’ve just got to focus and 

stay productive! 

i 

129

Step by step: Create 

a futuristic bar scene 

Space Drink 2009 

This image was originally created for the 

competition called Uplift Universe, organised by 

CGSociety.org. I wanted to make a cheerful and 

humorous picture with humans and aliens 

Michal Suchánek specialises in character modelling 

Nobody can doubt my inspiration for this picture. When I was creating 

the first concept I was thinking about old pin-up pictures and the light 

humour of retro-futurism. I’d had enough of classic tough women in 

rough poses; I wanted to do something more light and, more importantly, 

something funny. I started work on this picture because of an ongoing 

competition on CGSociety website. About a year later I did a makeover for this 

image. I made it modern and the dress of the waitress more detailed, and I 

added some new details like poker chips. From the beginning I tried to figure 

out an overall colour for the picture and a light composition. Sometimes it was 

not easy. When I was creating the image I was working primarily with 3ds Max 

and ZBrush, and the final scene was rendered in V-Ray. An important part of 

my work was also Photoshop. I adjusted the colour shades, cleared small 

imperfections and, for a greater sense of authenticity, I added the effect of 

chromatic aberration in some parts of the image. 

Concepts 


130 ● 

I wanted to evoke the atmosphere of a 

01 familiar environment despite the fact that the 

image’s story takes place in space. There are no hightech 

machines, but I placed some classic cigarettes 

and traditional paper playing cards. I like the fun idea 

of smoking aliens playing poker. 

An inspiration for the waitress in Space 

02 Drink were the images of pin-up girls from 

the Fifties. I like their funny atmosphere. One of the 

best illustrators for me is Gil Elvgreen. It was important 

to me that the girl should create a pin-up feeling, 

despite the fact that she is not a typical pin-up girl. 

I wanted to make aliens on the scene with 

03 their own characters. Most of my time spent on 

the piece was to create an appearance of the three small 

aliens. I tried to make them funny; each of them has its 

own part in the picture. No more slimy, scary monsters 

that the entire internet is full of.


Character 


V-Ray 

ZBrush 

Photoshop 




Artist info 

Modelling, 

styling, 

lighting 

Michal Suchánek 


www.michalsuchanek.cz 

Country Czech Republic 

Hardware used Intel Pentium 4 

CPU 3.4GHz, 2GB RAM 

Expertise Michal specialises 

in character modelling 

131

Artist 

Showcase 

Michal Suchánek 

I started working with 3D when I was about 17 years old. 

I liked the whole technique, which was something 

completely new for me. Back then 3D art was not so well 

known in the Czech Republic. What I know now I got 

from books, tutorials, the internet and many, many 

hours of hard work. 

Modelling the figures 

Creating the aliens and girl 

Mountain Patrol 3ds Max 

2009, ZBrush 3.5, 


The story behind Mountain 

Patrol is: “The two longtime 

companions patrol the border 

of Windy Mountains. They are 

looking out for their enemy, but 

nobody has shown up for a very 

long time.” The truth is that I 

was little bit tired of making 

girls. I wanted to do something 

different, but I still didn’t want 

to make some dull depressive 

fantasy picture. I tried to make 

it realistic and funny. 

Rocket Girl 3ds Max 

2009, ZBrush 3.5, 


After I finished Space Drink 

I wanted to make another 

picture with a pin-up girl 

theme. My inspiration for 

this picture was a comic 

Rocketeer and the classic 

style and humour of pin-up 

girls. There is not as much 

stylisation as you can see 

on the Space Drink waitress, 

but I think there is a 

humorous retro feeling. 

04 

First of all I started modelling the 

girl. I used an old head model for her 

face, that I modified according to the needs of 

the new image. This old base mesh was 

creating with the Box Modelling method. For 

making the best expression in the face I used 

reference photos from the internet. 

05 

The girl’s body is modelled in 

standard “Da Vinci pose”. I prefer to 

pose models inside of ZBrush after years of 

modelling and rigging in Max. I think this is a 

faster way than rigging the whole mesh. I 

unwrapped the UVs of models (head and 

body) in Max and then I imported them to 

ZBrush where they were ready for creating 

normal maps. 

8 

hours 

render time 

Resolution: 

2,786 x 3,744 

06 

Let’s see our 

first alien called 

Bob. I started preparing a low 

polygon head and body. This 

alien was the funniest for me, 

because I love his expression. 

Closer 3ds Max 2009, ZBrush 2, V-Ray, Photoshop 7 (2006) 

An older image where I first tested the ZBrush. A lot of people tell 

me the main character looks like Angelina Jolie. Well, they are right, 

but it was probably more of a coincidence than deliberate. 

132 

07 

I modelled only Bob’s hands and 

upper body; the rest of the body is not 

visible. The posed low poly mesh from ZBrush 

was exported back to 3ds Max. 

08 

The other two aliens were 

created through the same method as 

Bob. Drunken Lou and Pink Greedo also have 

only the upper half of the body. I unwrapped 

the UVs in Max and then I posed models in 

ZBrush. After that I modelled props, such as 

cards and cigarettes.

Character 

Adding fine details 

Refining the models and setting the light 

09 

In this part 

I modelled basic 

meshes representing the 

background of the image. 

I made some stuff like bottles 

and glasses, and then I 

started experimenting with 

locations for the props, light 

direction and colours. I also 

tested different sizes of the 

characters’ meshes. After 

I decided on a final 

composition and a setup, 

I started work on textures. 

11 

At the beginning of sculpting it is important to focus 

only on the shape. Details can be added later. An accurate 

silhouette and natural shapes are important for a natural look of 

characters. A stylisation, expressions of all characters and their 

colours are important for the overall feeling of the picture. 

10 

Time for adding some details! Every character 

has three textures. I used the ZBrush’s Zmapper tool for 

normal maps. Diffuse and specular maps was hand-painted in 

Photoshop. Their resolution is about 4,000 pixels. The hair of 

the girl is also textured planes. This solution was easier for 

me than using the Hair and Fur modifier. 

12 

Skin imperfections, wrinkles and skin pores are aspects of realistic and believable 

characters. Originally I wanted the pink alien Greedo to just have one eye, but during the 

process of making the picture I started to add other eyes. Now he has five! I like the idea that 

every eye looks elsewhere. 

Retro colours 

and lighting 

13 

After refining the models I exported all 

the normal and displacement maps from 

ZBrush. I used V-Ray SSS shader with a combination 

of 3ds Max’s standard Oren-Nayar-Blinn material for 

the skin of the aliens and the girl. The view in space 

and the smoke in the background were both matte 

painted in Photoshop. 

Space Drink was rendered in 

V-Ray, and I used a V-Ray Light 

with V-Ray shadows for the main 

light source. There are two 

coloured additional V-Ray lights 

with less intensity and one strong 

back light. I like to use coloured 

boards to help light the scene by 

the appropriate colour. There are 

two boards in this scene: the blue 

one is on the left-hand side and 

the yellow one is placed on the 

ground. The whole scene was then 

rendered into two layers – the first 

one is the foreground which holds 

the aliens and the girl, and the 

second layer is simply the 

background of the interior. A 

composition of the layers and a 

final retouching – which included a 

colour saturation, a bloom effect 

and increasing highlights – was all 

done in Photoshop. 

133


a friendly dragon 

The Final Warning 2009 

Blending attitude and kindness with a menacing 

and powerful appearance in a stylised character 

Carlos Ortega Elizalde specialises in 3D modelling, UV mapping and texturing 

T 

his tutorial focuses in the creation of a stylised 

dragon character. I like to retain the personality of 

the character if I’m happy with the original concept 

in the first place and I always try to emphasise clean 

modelling, although good skills like texturing, UV mapping, 

and a basic colour and lighting theory are very helpful if not 

essential to achieve a solid result. One of the main 

difficulties in the process was the rendering; it was intended 

to be in mental ray directly in Maya, but after many poor 

results I decided to compose the final image in Photoshop 

from different ZBrush renders. This was also a good choice, 

since I was able to retain full detail from the sculpting, 

avoiding the use of displacement maps. The original 

purpose of the image was just creating a plain model for an 

online forum challenge, but after more dedication it led me 

to the creation of a more solid character with some untold 

story behind the final piece. 

Concepts 


134 

I always start my personal projects with 

01 some quick sketches (in digital or on paper), 

to block overall proportions of characters in this case. 

I try different complexions, attitudes, expressions and 

poses. I decided in this case to go for a roguish-looking 

dragon, menacing but appealing in some way. 

My original idea was to put the dragon 

02 at a cliff’s edge, about to commit some kind 

of prank, maybe steal some sheep or burn an old 

village just for fun. I focused more on the facial 

expression to re-create the dragon’s intention, along 

with his hands and legs in a position that could 

suggest he was planning something. 

I love to work and experiment with different 

03 colour palettes, even more when I’m working 

with fantasy or stylised scenes. I often try to avoid the 

colours I frequently expect in a determined situation (a 

green dragon, for example) when sometimes it isn’t the 

best solution; other times it leads to a very unique result 

even nowadays, when it’s pretty impossible to create 

something 100% original.

Character 


time by using the posed 

dragon character in OBJ with 

UVs created here. 

the_final_warning.obj 

Modelling, 

sculpting 




Artist info 

Carlos Ortega 

Elizalde 

Username: carlosortega3d 


Maya ZBrush Photoshop UVLayout CrazyBump 


http://stroggtank.cgsociety.org 



Duo, 2GB RAM 

Expertise Carlos specialises 

in 3D modelling, UV mapping 

and texturing 

135

Artist 

Showcase 

Carlos Ortega Elizalde 

I’m a graphic designer from Guanajuato, Mexico. 

I started working with 3D about 6 years ago, using 

Carrara Studio and now Maya for the last two years. 

I currently work in the media department in the 

Guanajuato University, Mexico, doing motion graphics 

and 3D art. I’m also a freelance 3D modeller, although 

3D is almost a full-time hobby. 

Modelling the dragon 

Working on the creature’s body shape 

Fulgencius The Wise 

Maya, Photoshop, mental 

ray, UVLayout (2009) 

Fulgencius, also known as 

‘The Wise’, is actually not 

that wise – he is a 200- 

year-old wizard with a 

poor memory. 

When it comes to personal 3D 

04 work, I rarely create reference images; 

I prefer to use the original concept or even 

nothing at all, since I already know what I want 

him to look like in 3D space. I often start from a 

2x2x2 polygon cube and from the nose area, 

moving the existing vertices to match the 

concept I have. 

Hands, wings and legs were made 

07 the same way, starting from a six-sided 

cylinder and then sewn to the main mesh. 

Dorsal spikes were created by extracting the 

matching faces and then extruded outwards. 

Fangs and horns were modelled from a cube. 

Once I’ve blocked the main 

05 shapes, I start to add and tweak 

more geometry using the following Maya 

tools: InsertEdgeLoop, SplitPolygon, Extrude, 

SlideEdge and MoveComponent, among 

others. I kept using the Extrude tool over the 

neck edges, moving the resulting vertices over 

the torso, and then extruding and tweaking 

again until the tip of the tail. 

Right from the 

06 planning stage, 

the character was never 

intended for animation. So, 

to avoid the use of 

BlendShapes or a face rig to 

achieve the desired expression 

later at the posing stage, I 

modelled the face as I wanted 

in the final image directly as 

I was moving forward. 

The Zcuintli aka ‘Yellow Dog’ 

Carrara 5 Pro, Maya, Photoshop (2008) 

Autonomous racing vehicles modified to watch the city limits and 

the military facility’s boundaries. They were also modified to carry 

a human pilot, but their free will caused many accidents. The 

machines still do their job by themselves. Workers only ride them 

for maintenance purposes. 

136 

Back To The Past Maya, 

mental ray, Photoshop 

(2009) 

Started as a speed modeling 

exercise as an homage to one 

of my favourite sci-fi 

machines, but after adding 

the rest of the details I ended 

up with this stylized version 

of the famous time machine. 

Once the model was finished, I did 

08 the UV unfolding in UVLayout. In this 

case I tried to keep as few shells as possible. 

The whole process didn’t take much time; even 

with tricky parts such as the armpits, the 

distortion was pretty low. Final touches like the 

shells layout and UV mirroring were made back 

in Maya´s UV editor.

Character 

Lighting and colour 

Getting the right look and feel 

4 hours 

render time 

Resolution: 

3,000 x 4,000 

I imported the 

09 model into ZBrush 

for detailing. Although the 

topology wasn´t that even, the 

result was satisfying. I only 

used the Standard brush to add 

wrinkles and folds. Most of the 

scales were created using 

custom alphas, keeping them 

exaggerated in some parts and 

subtle in key zones like the face. 

Once done, I exported a 4k 

displacement map. 

Normal 

mapping 

Due to some hardware 

limitations, I wasn’t 

able to render a proper 

normal map from 

ZBrush, so I used 

CrazyBump to quickly 

generate one from the 

displacement map. 

I extracted the blue 

channel to simulate 

a cavity map over my 

main texture and 

enhance the contrast of 

the scales and wrinkles. 

As for the lighting, the 

fact I rendered three 

different light sources 

in ZBrush helped in the 

composition to 

simulate a key, rim and 

fill light. The final touch 

was to correct colour 

with Curves to gain a 

warm tone, levelling up 

the blue in the shadows 

and an orange/yellow 

in midtones. 

Using an UV template from Maya 

10 as a guide, I painted the base colours in 

Photoshop, using a basic round brush to create 

different tones while staying in my chosen 

palette. The displacement map helps in many 

ways to shade specific areas in the body. The 

stripes, eyes and extra scales are hand-painted. 

I posed the character inside Maya to match my sketch, but the dragon 

11 looked kind of weak, so I decided to pose him into a gallant flying position. 

The result was this roguish dragon leaving his crime scene with a satisfied attitude. 

The posed OBJ was imported as a 3D layer into ZBrush at the lowest level. 

Back in ZBrush 

12 I exported several 

renders from ZBrush using 

different MatCaps, various 

light sources, a ZDepth and 

a flat colour pass, previously 

setting my canvas to a pretty 

high resolution. All those 

renders gave me full control 

over the final image 

composition later in Photoshop. 

In Photoshop, 

13 I composited the 

ZBrush renders, masking the 

proper areas of the different 

layers to gain the desired 

volume. I wanted a warm 

atmosphere ,but also a 

painting-like mood. I painted 

extra shadows and put smoke 

from stock brushes. Finally I 

added subtle motion blur in 

the wings and depth of field in 

the completed scene. 

137

Step by step: 

Add textures and light 

to objects Flight of the Raven 2010 

Jade Raven was originally designed to be a subject in my 

book, 3D Modeling in Silo, which came out in October 2010 

Antony Ward is a game developer and animation expert 

W 

hen designing Jade Raven, the 

Rocket Girl, I had to find a 

concept that fit in with what had 

to be covered in the book. She needed to be 

both organic and have hard surface elements, 

plus I didn’t want to go down the route of the 

cyborg, or mutant hybrid, which has been 

done many times before. Instead I wanted 

the character to be almost normal in 

appearance, but with an added something. 

In the end I decided to take inspiration from 

the past, rather than the future and give 

her everyday clothing and a powerful 

rocket pack, all styled with a retro twist. 

Once the main model was complete, I 

only had a short amount of time to get 

her ready for the cover, so I opted to 

output a quick Maya render and add in 

most of the details in Photoshop during 

postproduction. It’s this process, and 

the shortcuts I used, which I will share in 

this tutorial. 

Designing the Raven 

Retro Fifties inspiration 

138 

Because the purpose of this character’s creation is for a 

01 tutorial, her initial design has to cover both organic modelling 

and hard surface modelling. She also has to be visually appealing so 

the reader would actually want to recreate her. 

To cover organic 

02 modelling we make 

sure we first create a full figure, 

which can be reused on 

numerous future projects. We 

then strip her down and dress 

her in loose clothing, which will 

initially be modelled, and then 

have more refined cloth details 

sculpted in later. 

So the reader also experiences Silo’s hard surface 

03 modelling tools, we add a simple rocket pack to her back, a 

helmet and also a pistol for her to hold.

Character 

Modelling, 

rendering, 

lighting 




Artist info 

Antony Ward 

Username: Anchuvi 


www.ant-online.co.uk 

Country UK 

Hardware used 

Core 2 Duo 3.16GHz 

8GB RAM 

Expertise Antony has expertise 

in game artwork and animation, 

character and vehicle modelling, 

and rigging 


Silo Maya Photoshop 

139

Artist 

Showcase 

Antony Ward 

I’ve been working in the games industry for close to 16 

years now and have been freelance for the last three. 

During this time, I have worked for some of the biggest 

companies in the industry and have experienced 

nearly all areas of game development, with character 

modelling, animation, MEL scripting and rigging 

being my areas of choice. 

04 

Materials and textures 

Giving the character the right look 

Before starting work, 

mock up a background image 

plane so you can get a proper feel for the 

scene, and how it should be lit. We know 

we want her to be up in the air, which 

means a bright scene, with plenty of 

clouds and blue sky behind her. 

The next job is to nail the 

05 lighting and the camera position. 

Having these and the background in place will 

help dictate the final look and feel of the 

image. It’s also important to add lights to the 

base of the rocket as we will later be painting in 

the flames, which naturally emit light. 

Athria Silo, Maya, 


I decided to brush up on my 

game art skills and create a 

real-time character from the 

ground up. I wanted to 

create someone with a 

futuristic feel; Athria was 

born. She was built in Silo 

and then made ‘game ready’ 

in Maya with all texturing 

done in Photoshop. 

Red Sonja 

3ds Max, Silo, Maya, 


For this image, I took an 

existing 2D concept and 

brought her kicking and 

screaming into 3D, using 

similar methods I adopted 

for Flight of the Raven. I was 

looking to develop my highresolution 

modelling skills 

and this seemed like a 

natural step forward. 

06 

Next, set to work on the main 

colours for each element. Her body will 

be the trickiest part as we’re looking to create 

more natural skin tones, so we’ll work on these 

first. We opt to use Maya’s misss_fast_skin_ 

maya shader to achieve a subtle Subsurface 

Scattering effect. 

07 

Now move on to the rest of her 

clothing, first blocking in the main 

colours you want before adding subtle 

reflections to her visor and metallic areas. To 

add more detail, we also apply basic tileable 

Texture and Bump maps to her jeans and 

jacket, to give them more of a denim and 

leather appearance. 

Kila Maya, 


Kila is one of the characters I created in my first book, Game 

Character Development with Maya. This was back before Normal 

maps and sculpting became commonplace in the games industry 

meaning the model and textures were among some of the key areas 

to focus on. 

140 

08 

The final step is to apply a rim 

lighting layer to the materials. As this 

scene is shot in the sky, you want to add lots of 

ambient lighting, which the Rim light does 

perfectly. It also helps to pick out details 

previously lost in the shadows.

Character 

Lighting plans and rendering 

Apply the finishing touches 

3D Modeling In Silo shows in detail how to 

create Jade Raven from concept to final 

model. The book is published by 

Elsevier and is out now. 

8 hours 

render time 

Resolution: 

2,480 x 3,508 

Next we render a 

10 full-scene Ambient 

Occlusion pass, also including 

the main lighting from her 

rockets. Because she’s in flight, 

we place a basic Polygon plane, 

which isn’t rendered, beneath 

her so the photons can reflect 

back up onto her lower half. 

This adds much needed depth 

and detail to the render. 

Rather than try to achieve a final render in Maya, we wanted to have complete 

09 control over how each element looked. To do this, render out various layers of the image, 

which you can then combine in Photoshop and tweak as much as you like. 

Postproduction work 

Once all the layers are in Photoshop, it’s time to start work refining and tweaking the 

colours, as well as painting in more detail. We focus on the hair first, almost completely 

redoing it, as the 3D model is too flat. This also enables you to add more depth and 

highlights around the edges. Next, move on to her body and clothing, repainting her lips 

and eyes before adding the seams into her jeans and jacket. The final steps are to 

enhance the background and tweak the overall shading and lighting. 

Once applied, the 

11 Ambient Occlusion 

pass will darken the existing 

rim lighting, so you need to 

next render a rim lighting layer 

which will brighten everything 

back up. To do this, simply 

make the existing Rim light 

white and turn the materials 

black, using the resulting 

image as a mask. 

Finally you have to decide on which areas you need to mask off and create masks for 

12 these. The whole body is an obvious choice and enables you to isolate the character renders 

from the background, but you can also add a mask for her skin so you can work on it separately. 

With all the layers rendered, it’s time to bring them 

13 into Photoshop and organise them into separate layers. 

The character’s now ready for final editing adjustments. 

141

Martin Ruizl 

Artist info 



Website 

www.martinruizl.com 

Country Czech Republic 

Software used Maya, ZBrush, 

Photoshop 

The main Area light acts 

as a kitchen window in this 

scene, along with some extra 

Rim lights. I also used an 

HDR environment for 

reflections and lighting 

One of the most important things in this image is the octopus’s 

skin. I have tried to create a wet, fleshy and jelly-like skin by painting 

the main colour texture in ZBrush and sending this texture – with a 

slight colour temperature offset – to the Epidermal, Subdermal and 

Color slots of the mental ray Skin shader 

Bon Appétit 2010 

The idea behind the image was quite simple: to create an interesting and 

simple render, and then print it out on the canvas to give the picture to my 

girlfriend’s mother. She has a whole new kitchen, and since she really likes 

seafood I wanted to create something that she could look at while she is 

enjoying her meal! 


Maya Photoshop ZBrush 

142

Character 

I chose to use mental ray’s 

Bokeh shader for the depth of 

field effect – I like it, but the 

render time was hell! 

143


ZBrush Maya Photoshop 




Artist info 

Modelling, 

sculpting, 

texturing 

Chris Nichols 


www.porkpiesamurai.com 

Country Canada 

Hardware used Intel Core i7 

920, 6GB RAM 

Expertise Chris specialises 

in characters and creatures 

144

Character 


a Lovecraft legend 

Cthulhu 2009 

I wanted to create something squid-inspired 

because I like the texture and to play with scale and 

colours to make a dynamic image 

Chris Nichols specialises in modelling characters and creatures 

I 

n November of 2009 I was asked by Pixologic to 

present at the Vancouver ZBrush User Event and had 

some ideas to make my own version of HP Lovecraft’s 

Cthulhu. I had done a sketch a while ago and dug it up to 

consider modelling it. I wanted to show off some of the 

strengths of the latest version of ZBrush, namely a few of 

the brushes and tools and the amount of polygons it can 

handle. I had about three weeks in all to model/texture and 

render the scene ready for the event and wanted to try out 

some things I hadn’t indulged in before, such as ZBrush’s 

Polypaint for texturing and Decimation Master for 

exporting hi-res meshes that have been modified to retain 

their high level of detail while being under a million 

polygons. All in all I was presented with some interesting 

challenges, but enjoyed the project thoroughly. 

Concepts 


To get a good idea of the design 

01 possibilities I collected as much reference 

material as possible, firstly of artists’ interpretations 

of Cthulhu, as I wanted to see what had been done 

already. Next I collected pictures of squid and various 

other cephalopods to give me some ideas for shapes 

and textures. 

Starting with simple sketches, my 

02 version of Cthulhu begins to take shape until 

I’m happy with the overall look of the design. I’m not 

too concerned about the colours or surface textures 

as this point, but just want a good idea of what I’m 

about to model. 

I started out by quickly modelling a head and 

03 body that I was going to use in ZBrush. I could 

have used a generic base mesh, but wanted to make sure 

I had edge loops in the right places so I could get the 

necessary details into the face. 

145

Artist 

Showcase 

Chris Nichols 

Growing up in Australia, I began 3D back in 2004 after 

completing graphic design school, and worked on 

short films and TV shows locally. In 2007 I moved to 

Vancouver and have worked as a modeller/texture 

artist at such studios as Bardel Entertainment, Spin 

VFX and CIS Vancouver. 

Creaturing the creature 

Cthulhu starts to take shape 

Exporting the geometry to 

04 ZBrush to start the sculpting, I got 

the head to a point where I felt there was a 

sense of completeness without getting into 

too much detail with the face. Next I imported 

the body base mesh and started fleshing out 

the main forms just I like did with head, keeping 

everything symmetrical. 

The Merc Maya, ZBrush, Photoshop, mental ray (2009) 

I made this as a model/texture study and to test out Shave and a 

Haircut, a hair plug-in for Maya. I modelled all the geo out in Maya 

first, UV’d the meshes and sculpted the face expression and the 

skin details in ZBrush. Rendered in mental ray. 

When I had a complete mesh I 

05 exported the model back to Maya and 

rebuilt the animation mesh over the top. This can 

take a bit of time to refine the edge loops, but in 

case I wanted to animate it later I went ahead and 

retopologised the mesh then UV’d it. 

Rock Lizard Maya, ZBrush, Photoshop, mental ray (2009) 

I made this as a texturing exercise inspired by photographs of 

Galapagos iguanas. I spent a long time painstakingly laying out each 

scale much of the time, but learned a lot about texturing and setting 

up shaders. 

146 

Gunslinger Maya , 

ZBrush , Photoshop, 

mental ray (2008) 

This is the first character 

I modelled. It was really 

used as a learning project, 

that began back in 2006, to 

understand the modelling 

and texturing process. I kept 

going back and redoing 

parts of him until I finally 

finished it off in 2008. 

I exported the new base mesh into 

06 ZBrush and accepted the option to 

transfer the details from the old ZBrush model to 

the new animation mesh. So I then had my UV’d 

animation mesh with all the levels of detail from 

my ZTool transferred across so I could continue 

refining the model. 

Using Transpose in ZBrush, 

07 I started to manipulate the model into a 

menacing pose and commenced sculpting all the 

fine details into the skin surface. I sculpted a lot of 

the rough bump details using the clay brush and 

went over with alphas for the finer detail. 

Beginning with 

08 Polypaint in ZBrush, 

I used different alphas to build 

up my colours and surface 

texture, referring back to 

my various references of 

cephalopods. Starting with 

the head, I worked out the 

patterns and colours that 

would cover Cthulhu. 

Screenshots, colour-corrected 

in Photoshop, helped decide 

the scheme.

Character 

Refining the detail 

Making the monster come alive 

Once the 

09 creature was 

painted to a certain level 

of detail, I started using 

ZAppLink to export 

screenshots into Photoshop. 

Using photos and different 

brushes, I refined the surface, 

giving it a higher res of detail 

using the Polypaint work as a 

guide. ZAppLink exported the 

changes back to ZBrush. 

After the creature 

10 was complete, I began 

texturing the eyes using the 

same technique as before. The 

fingers, toenails and rocks were 

mostly painted with Polypaint 

and ZAppLink, and the texture 

maps were refined further in 

Photoshop with numerous rock 

and stone overlays. 

2 hours 

render time 

Resolution: 

2,000 x 2,554 

Now that the creature 

11 was modelled and 

textured, it was time to set up 

a render in Maya. I exported 

out the posed model, base and 

anything else at a high 

resolution using ZBrush’s plugin, 

Decimation Master. This 

condenses the creature mesh 

from 17 million polygons to 

500k for export. 

In Maya I set up the scene, imported the decimated 

12 meshes and creating shaders for all the geo. I used a simple 

rig of about three area lights and one spotlight, an IBL node with an 

HDRI mapped to it, and three colour cards for reflections. 

UV map 

details 

Cthulhu UVs were all in 

one map for this project 

as I wanted to do 80 per 

cent of the painting 

inside ZBrush. To get 

crisp enough details I 

recommend blocking out 

the main colours with 

Polypaint, but this leaves 

you with a fairly low-res 

texture. I set my 

document size to 

4,480x3,360 and 

zoomed right into the 

area I wanted to refine. 

Clicking ZAppLink will 

export the screenshot to 

Photoshop where it can 

be edited at high res and, 

once saved, project 

those details onto the 

mesh. This way you’re 

only limited in detail to 

whatever your UV map 

is set up as. 

The skin 

13 material 

was set up using 

mental ray’s SSS 

shader and the colour 

map was converted 

into multiple skin layers 

such as epidermal, 

subdermal and overall, 

which were used to 

create a translucent 

slimy skin. I then 

rendered out six 

passes, diffuse, 

reflection and multiple 

speculars and then 

comped them all 

together using 

Photoshop. 

147




Modelling, 

lighting, 

texturing 

Artist info 


Daniel Schmid 

3ds Max mental ray Photoshop 

ZBrush 

Username: DanielVFX 


http://danielvfx.cgsociety.org 


Hardware used 

Dual Xeon quad-core 

2.33GHz 8G RAM 

Expertise Daniel’s work 

includes shading, texturing and 

rendering. He is a co-founder of 

Exodo Digital Workshop

Character 

Step by step: 

Create Pixar-style 

artwork Well Done 2010 

Create a cartoony character with vivid colours, which is both 

charming and visually appealing to the viewer 

Daniel Schmid specialises in lighting, rendering, shading and texturing 

T 

his is a quick tutorial based on the 

creation of the image Well Done. The idea 

came from our concept artist at the 

company, Salvador Ramirez (http://www. 

reevolver.deviantart.com). The minute I saw the 

concept drawing I started to visualise it in 3D. 

Designing the girl 


Soon I had fellow workmate, Omar Sealtiel (http:// 

omarsealtiel.blogspot.com), interested in 

modelling the character so I could work on the 

textures, shading, lighting and rendering. 

My main focus was to experiment with lighting 

techniques I hadn’t previously tried. I wanted to 

achieve a Pixar look, and also to give the viewer a 

pleasant image full of bright colours and with a 

good composition. I dedicated a lot of time to the 

smallest details such as lighting tone, texture 

quality and overall mood so the image could 

ultimately exude a warm feeling. 

On a visit to the school where my sister 

01 teaches, I notice how nice it is to see the kids at 

play and enjoying themselves. It makes me think to 

myself, “If this works for real life, it could make for a fun 

digital painting as well!” Once back home, I draw this 

little girl from memory. 

I use primary colours and funny 

02 proportions to enhance the cuteness of the 

character. I also search for references that I correct later 

to give me a nice guide so that I can paint the textures as 

clearly as possible. The overall aim is to make her look 

interesting and mischievous. 

I end up with this beautiful girl with pigtails 

03 who I feel is reminiscent of Pixar-like 

characters. All she needs is to be given a few articles 

that will tell us something about her and make her look 

more natural – hence the star on her forehead and those 

yellow rubber boots. Concept complete! 

149

Artist 

Showcase 

Daniel Schmid 

I have worked as a 3D artist for nine years in several 

animation studios in Mexico. In the last few years, I 

have specialised in lighting, shading and rendering. 

Now I work as CG leader giving the final look to work at 

Exodo Digital Workshop of which I’m a co-founder. 

Creating the model 

How the figure was created 

Character model by Omar Sealtiel 

For the hair, I use planes to 

05 define the primary locks. After this, I 

add smaller planes ready to start populating, 

repeating this process over and over until the 

point in which I use renderable splines to add 

finer details to certain areas, eg the pigtails. 

04 

To properly define volume, I 

model from general to specific; this 

way, I can draft the main attributes of the 

character. As the goal is to produce a still 

image, I model the character in her final pose. 

The downside of this is that this makes the 

texturing process more complicated. 

La Hacienda 3ds Max, V-Ray, Photoshop (2004) 

The inspiration for this scene came from stepping into Guillermo 

Fernandez de Castro’s lithography shop one day, and thinking it 

would make a nice render. This scene took about two months to 

complete, because I was only using my free time to work on it. 

The Barren Citadel 3ds Max, Photoshop, mental ray (2008) 

This was the result of an eight-week matte painting workshop I took 

with David Luong. All the city was modelled and roughly textured in 

3ds Max. The final matte has four passes: Global Illumination, 

Ambient Occlusion, Z-Depth and Volumetrics. 

06 

After I’ve polished the loops of the 

basic model topology and creases in 

the cloth, I export the character to ZBrush. There, 

I minimise the perfection by reducing the model’s 

symmetry, giving a more organic look. I export 

from ZBrush with three subdivisions. 

07 

The model of the background 

needs to be simple yet visually 

appealing. My colleagues and I think through 

the elements of the scene for a good 

composition. After a few tests, we decide to go 

with a wooden floor, a simple wall, a bureau 

and a make-up box. 

Magma Memories Photoshop (2010) 

This is the first from a series of three matte paintings I have to 

complete this year. I’m trying to experiment in natural landscapes 

and then hope to move on to urban landscapes. This is my first 

matte painting in which no 3D was used at all, just pictures. 

150 

08 

The background 

is quite easy to 

model as the furniture topology 

is fairly simple. The model is 

made using primitives. For the 

edges, I use a Bevel profile, and 

likewise for the make-up box. 

As for the concertina supports 

of the box’s lid, I use a shape 

with an extruded spline.

Character 

Finishing the design 

Giving the character the Pixar look 

My main goal in this image is to work with the skin 

09 shader and this is what I dedicate most of my time to. 

I’ve discovered from previous projects that there must be wellestablished 

lighting before testing the shaders. This is why I build 

a rough lighting setup before anything else. 

I always thought the lighting of the piece should be subtly 

10 contrasted; this way I can get delicate light bouncing in parts 

where visual attention is critical. The lighting setup is the basic threepoint 

light formula: a light simulating the sun, a Fill light in the left side 

and a Back light simulating the reflection off the wall. 

3 hours 

render time 

Resolution: 

2,688 x 3,500 

After I define the 

11 scene’s mood with a 

basic lighting setup, I focus on 

the skin shader. I use the SSS 

Fast Skin shader, which can be 

found on Zap Andersson’s 

blog (http://mentalraytips. 

blogspot.com). This shader 

gives you more control over 

reflections and also the 

material specularity. 

When I’m happy with the overall look of the shader, I 

12 proceed to texture the most complicated elements of the 

scene such as the sweater, the bag and the skirt. This means I can 

get a rough idea of how all the elements are working together and 

also check if some tweaking is needed in the texture values or the 

lighting setup. 

Colours and 

materials 

After I texture the background, I work on the paintbrush in her hand. For this I create a new file so I can 

13 control the lighting and rendering parameters properly. The last step is to gather everything in Photoshop in three 

layers: the character, the background and the brush. With a few final tweaks, I have the result I want. 

The biggest challenge for me in 

this image is to achieve the look I 

have visualised with the combined 

effects of the lighting, skin shader 

and the character’s clothes. If we 

look at the original concept art, 

one of the main characteristics of 

the little girl is her multicoloured 

sweater. As a result, its modelling 

turns out to be a significant 

element as I don’t want it to look 

too rigid or heavy. This is why I 

decide to go to town with the 

knitting texture. I achieve this with 

a good Bump map and some fine 

tweaking in the Diffuse channel. 

151

Artist info 

Murea Radu Iuliu 


www.sensestudio.tk 

Country Romania 

Software used 

3ds Max 2009, Vray 1.5, 

Photoshop CS5 

Artist bio 

The goal of this rendering was to 

relate to the viewer and also to 

express movement. This is 

gained through the use of the 

sky that gives a lack of balance 

to the image therefore 

accentuating the feeling of 

movement and also throw the 

beam of red light representing 

the traffic that shifts the centre 

of attention onto the building. 

Image name Concert Hall 

152

Architecture 

Architecture 

Grand designs .................................................158 

Texturing and lighting architecture ..........164 

Creating a stylish museum building ..........168 

I made this: Viktor Fretyán ...........................172 

Interview: Kuan Studio .................................174 

I made this: Anton Cherenko .......................179 

Creating a mansion ........................................180 

I made this: Luis Tejeda .................................186 

Interview: F10 Studios ....................................188 

I made this: Arkin Esref .................................193

Artist info 

Adam Grania 


http://eden-3d.cgsociety.org 


Software used 

3ds max 2010, Vray, Photoshop 

Artist bio 

While browsing the internet, I 

came across a photo of a temple 

in Chicago. It was a marvellous 

harmony of composition that 

immediately got my attention. 

Being aware that modelling such 

a beautiful temple wouldn’t be 

an easy task, I decided to give it 

a try. It turned out to be a 

tremendous adventure, a trial of 

skill and patience which was 

worth all the time and effort. 

Image name Bahai Temple 

154

Architecture 

Artist info 

Dennis Kaya 

Iversholt 


http://latter.cgsociety.org 

Country Denmark 

Software used 

3ds Max 10, Vray and 

Photoshop 

Artist bio 

Since I have always been 

fascinated by New York I 

decided to create the 43rd street 

with a view towards the Chrysler 

building and Grand Central. 

Image name NYC 43rd Street 

155

A project I’ve been working on for some time, 

which I modelled using tourist photos 

Rudolf Herczog, 

Fisherman’s Bastion, 2010 

Artist info 

Rudolf Herczog 


www.rochr.com 

Country Sweden 

Software used 

CINEMA 4D, Maxwell Render, 

Photoshop 

156

Architecture 

Artist info 

Derek Jackson 


www.djillustration.com 

Country UK 

Software used 

formZ, Maxwell Render, 

Photoshop 

I wanted a vertical composition to give a sense of height and 

stacking, hence the portrait format. I also placed the pivot axis of 

the building centrally in the image to enforce the sense of 

mathematical geometry. Maxwell’s Shift Lens was used to reduce 

the amount of foreground yet keep the vertical lines parallel 

Derek Jackson, 

Hover Competition, 2010 

157

Grand 

designs 

158 

Wholey Building 

© Desmone & Associates Architects

Architecture 

Disregarded by 3D purists as being feature-light, 

Google’s SketchUp Pro is taking swathes of new 

creatives into the 3D world. Poz Watson discovers why 

architects and interior designers are leading the charge 

As everyone reading this magazine knows, 3D 

software is incredibly complex and can take years to 

really master. And that’s fine if you’re a modeller or an 

animator, you work full-time in one program and you have the 

opportunity to learn all of its little software tricks at the same 

time as you learn your craft. But what if you’re a creative that 

doesn’t work full-time in the 3D space, but instead needs to 

dabble in it to serve the needs of your wider job? What if you’re 

an architect? Or an interior designer? The complexity of 3D 

software slowed the migration of these types of creative 

profession to computer design for many years, despite the fact 

that doing things digitally was obviously going to have major 

advantages. But as well as the years of study it took them to 

learn how to create buildings, they often didn’t have the 

time to master the likes of 3ds Max too. But then 

came SketchUp… and everything changed. 

SketchUp is designed for 3D modelling 

just like 3ds Max, Maya or Blender, but it’s 

mainly used by interior designers and 

architectural illustrators, as well as set 

designers and hobbyists, rather than 

animators. It is extremely scalable, so it’s 

just as good at redesigning your kitchen 

as it would be to plan an extension, a 

small local development or even to model 

an entire city. But most interestingly, 

SketchUp, despite its power and 

potential, is not a 3D program aimed at 

3D experts. Instead, it’s designed to be used by those who 

want to model as a means to an end, and who don’t have the 

time to truly conquer NURBS and polygons. Architect and 

illustrator Lewis Wadsworth (http://lewiswadsworth.net) 

puts it simply: SketchUp has “an utterly transparent interface.” 

And that being the case, its users are free to concentrate on 

what they want to design and build. 

SketchUp began life as a general-purpose 3D creation 

package, with the USP that it was easier to learn and start 

using than any of the others. It was created by @Last Software, 

but when the developer released a plug-in that enabled it to 

work with Google Earth, the attention of the giant search 

engine was well and truly grabbed. Google bought the package 

in 2006, and released the current version – SketchUp 7 – in 

2008. It comes in both Pro and free varieties, and the former 

retails for £354/$495. It also comes with LayOut, which allows 

you to create 2D documents and presentation, and Style 

Builder, which enables you to customise your display styles 

within the program. There are many other differences between 

the two versions, including Pro’s ability to generate reports and 

export models in a greater range of file formats, but the free 

version remains a great package for students or those just 

getting started. 

But despite SketchUp Pro’s high-end features, its users 

continue to be impressed by its straightforwardness. “There 

are only a little over two-dozen primary modelling tools,” 

explains Wadsworth, “Draw an edge, endpoint to endpoint, 

with a tool that looks like a pencil; connect three or more 

159

Thiel Chapel 

© Desmone & Associates Architects 

Go global with 

Google Earth 

Being part of the Google family means that 

SketchUp integrates happily with Google Earth, 

allowing you to utilise a world of data into your 

own projects. Architect Lewis Wadsworth 

explains that the combination is “very useful 

for conceptual work. It’s simple to import a bit 

of the virtual globe, terrain and satellite-photo 

texture into SketchUp, if I don’t have enough 

survey information for a project or if I need a 

site model fast.” 

Wadsworth made use of Google Earth on a 

project he calls Stormhouse, which won the 

2009 BSA Unbuilt Architecture Award. As a 

structure located on Deception Island, just off 

the coast of Antarctica, Wadsworth obviously 

couldn’t visit himself and “could only find some 

dated surveys of the site, so the immediate 

local terrain you see in the rendering is in fact 

largely imported from Google Earth into 

SketchUp.” Alternatively, as with 3D 

Warehouse, you can turn your hand to a bit of 

geo-modelling, and use SketchUp to create 

elements to be included in Google Earth. The 

world is your oyster after all… 

edges, and bang, you get a surface! Hit that 

surface with the Push-Pull tool and you turn it into 

a volume… Draw an edge on a surface in 

SketchUp and it splits it into two surfaces… Push 

two objects up against each other and they 

become one object.” 

Argentine Ricardo Cossoli is a partner in Three 

Dimensions (http://threedimensionsarg. 

blogspot.com), a company set up in 2008 to 

provide high-end architectural images for real 

Larger projects always start with SketchUp, 

are pushed to SketchUp’s polygon limitations, 

and are then taken into a program like 3ds Max 

to add some of the more CPU-intensive items 

such as vegetation, cars and high-poly items 

Stormhouse 

© Lewis Wadsworth 

estate and construction. He is a big fan of 

SketchUp too, and says, “We always try to make 

the best quality images possible, regardless of the 

size of the project, whether a small cottage or a 

large apartment building… and we use SketchUp 

for everything from design to modelling an entire 

project, not using any other modelling program.” 

Using SketchUp end-to-end isn’t an option for 

everyone though, and many companies and 

individuals use it as one component part in their 

workflow. For instance, Adam Warner, a freelance 

Palazetto 

© Lewis Wadsworth 

designer who 

specialises in 

architectural 

illustration, explains, “Larger projects always start 

with SketchUp, are pushed to SketchUp’s polygon 

limitations, and are then taken into a program like 

3ds Max to add some of the more CPU-intensive 

items such as vegetation, cars and other highpoly-count 

items. At times, I also use Rhino to 

make more organic-looking elements.” 

So why is SketchUp so loved, given that most of 

its users admit that they have to use other 

programs as well to get their work done? Greg 

McHugh, from a home furnishings and interior 

design firm in Washington state (www.ksfhome. 

com), says simply: “I hate changing software – but 

the first date with SketchUp won me over. It was 

so easy to learn and very intuitive.” Tim Sloat, 

senior designer at Lowney Architecture, tells a 

similar story: “We began playing with it four years 

ago when looking for an alternative to Revit’s 

clunky concept design tools and it quickly became 

the concept and schematic design tool of choice.” 

But simplicity alone is not enough to account 

for the app’s success. As Wadsworth notes, 

SketchUp backs this up with “a sort of intelligent 

second-guessing. The application only presents 

you with the tools that are applicable to the job at 

hand.” And of course, in a depressed economy, 

ease of use equals speed of use, which means it 

160

Architecture 

costs less. McHugh’s firm is a small one, and it 

recently partnered with a medium-sized 

architectural firm on the pitch for the $13 million 

expansion of the Lucky Eagle Hotel. “We 

participated in a competitive design contest 

against a much larger architectural firm. I 

produced interior room designs with SketchUp 

and Artlantis. I collaborated with another designer 

at the architectural firm which had just introduced 

its staff to SketchUp. He primarily focused on the 

building exterior. We produced some very 

impressive presentation materials in a three-week 

period.” Needless to say, they won the bid. 

Of course, the great thing about working with a 

program like SketchUp is that you can tailor it 

precisely to your needs by making use of all its 

Ruby Scripts and plug-ins. “If you combine the 

native tools with several of the great scripts 

written by talented developers on the SketchUp 

forum, you have a pretty powerful arsenal of 

modelling tools at your disposal,” notes Warner. 

But perhaps the real reason that SketchUp has 

become the de facto tool of architects and set 

designers alike is that by being first and foremost 

3700 Bigelow Blvd 

© Adam Warner/Desmone & Associates Architects 

an intuitive program, its users can forget about 

how they create things, and concentrate solely on 

creating them. Wadsworth says, “If I have an 

architectural project in mind, the first thing I do is 

open up SketchUp on a PC and start modelling 

stuff. I almost said ‘sketching stuff’, but really with 

SketchUp the one is the other. The software’s 

name is not inappropriate.” Sloat adds that the 

program is “unbounded by the need for constant 

technical input (like most BIM programs require) 

for free-flowing idea generation. 

“It’s powerful enough to do professional work 

but not so powerful that it bogs down one’s ability 

to get fast and ‘friendly-looking’ results.” 

SketchUp on the job 

Architectural firm Lowney explains how it used SketchUp to 

design a new Safeway store in Oakland, California 

Oakland Safeway 

© Tim Sloat/Lowney 

Architecture 

Lowney Architecture (www.lowneyarch.com) is a full-service architectural 

company based in Oakland, California. Senior designer Tim Sloat has been 

with the firm for five years, and works closely with the boss Ken Lowney, and 

the architects to “tackle the concept and schematic design” of their projects. 

The firm specialises in commercial and mixed use projects, as well as 

restaurants, and one of its largest clients is the grocery retailer Safeway Inc, 

which has employed them to “design new stores and expansion/remodels in 

more urban areas and in communities especially sensitive to the need for 

creating architecture that relates directly to the community.” 

Oakland Safeway 

© Tim Sloat/Lowney Architecture 

The design for the new Oakland Safeway (pictured) was primarily created 

in SketchUp. Expressing his views on the app, Sloat says, “It allows us to 

quickly experiment, explore and experience design possibilities in three 

dimensions, almost as easily as drawing by hand. The intuitive and immediate 

connection between the tip of a pen and one’s mind is something that CAD 

technology has been striving towards for years for the every-day architectural 

designer; SketchUp has come the closest yet to re-creating that experience.” 

And that ease of use was needed, given that Lowney “not only constructed the 

proposed project in SketchUp, but also used surveys, aerial imagery and site 

visits to construct the immediate surrounding context.” 

Lowney also uses Revit for site plans “and for studying the complicated 

grade and floor level changes as they related to the project along its block-long 

length. Sloat admits, “Workflow is a challenge between Revit and SketchUp 

[since] we can easily export 3D information from one into the other, the state 

of that information is not always ideal.” The team also made use of 3ds Max 

and Google Earth. 

The creation of images to show the community was vital throughout the 

project, and Sloat notes, “Our SketchUp-generated walk-through movies are 

our most powerful presentation tool when it comes to communicating the 

experiential aspects of our designs to clients or the public.” The proposed 

design has been well received and is currently “in the process of being entitled 

for construction by the city.” 

161

Office Interior © Tim Sloat/Lowney Architecture 

And what Sloat calls “friendly-looking” results are 

crucial in a situation where you’re showing your 

designs to a wide variety of people – the clients, 

the planning officers, the public – not all of whom 

may be familiar with the process. “When I worked 

for other architects,” says Wadsworth, “I found 

clients could be intimidated by utterly realistic 

images. They became agitated over carpet 

colours or curtain patterns, and couldn’t see past 

such triviality to the more important design 

considerations. That doesn’t seem to happen with 

SketchUp’s more ‘painterly’ images.” 

And as well as being easy to design with, 

SketchUp is also easy to present with, so those 

friendly images can be produced on a regular 

basis. Sloat adds, “With easy-to-apply and edit 

textures, simple but effective ‘face me’ 

components and seemingly unlimited 

combinations of ‘styles’ that we can tailor 

to the project and client, it’s easy to go 

straight from designing to presenting. 

The scene tabs facilitate easy 3D 

presentations to clients, with the ability 

to manually explore the model in 

perspective 3D during meetings.” 

And this ease has meant that some 

users don’t even follow the usual 

model of rendering their sketches 

into ‘finished’ 3D models. 

Sloat explains, “SketchUp uses lines as a means 

of expressing edges and design compositions 

much the same way one might use lines drawn 

with a pen. However, once transferred to a true 

rendering program, all these lines, and the design 

information they might have been suggesting are 

invisible and only the faces matter. So suddenly, a 

building design that relied on lines as a shorthand 

for window mullions or expansion joints in plaster, 

etc, becomes a muddy mess. “The lighting might 

be more realistic and the glass might actually 

reflect like real glass, but the building must be 

modelled to a much more detailed level at this 

stage if it is to achieve legibility.” 

Of course, once you have put the detail in, your 

SketchUp designs can be rendered in the 

3D Warehouse 

Beach Hut © Adam Warner 

162 

Victoria © Greg McHugh 

Cork Factory Restaurant 

© Adam Warner 

The world is a big old place, isn’t it? And if you 

don’t have the time or inclination to model all 

the buildings that surround the building you’re 

designing, for instance, then just head on over 

to Google’s 3D Warehouse. There you’ll find 

thousands of 3D models that you can 

download and use in your work – everything 

from detailed real-world landmarks to more 

generic components to all the trees, waterfalls 

and scenery decoration that your heart could 

possibly desire. 

3D Warehouse was designed for the 

purposes of collaboration, so if you’ve created 

something you’re proud of then you can also 

upload your own models to share with other 

people. And if Google deems them good 

enough, your models could be included on the 

3D building layer of Google Earth. So, whether 

you want to search or upload, http://sketchup. 

google.com/3dwarehouse is the place to go.

Architecture 

Concert Hall 

© Ricardo Cossoli 

Delahouse 

© Ricardo Cossoli 

Savoy Restaurant 

© Chuck Sanders, John 

Bettis and Luca Paganico 

traditional way and some fantastic results created, 

which is what most users do. Arc-vis pro Cossoli 

says, “To render all of our images we now use 

V-Ray but started working with a free program 

called Kerkythea and, briefly, Twilight Render (for 

beta testers), but we decided to stay with V-Ray 

because of the successful integration between the 

programs, when you need SketchUp to be the end 

software.” Warner is a fan of V-Ray (www.vray. 

com/vray_for_sketchup) too: “I use V-Ray for all 

of my rendering. I couldn’t be happier with the 

results I get from it.” Other users opt for 

Shaderlight (www.artvps.com) or LumenRT 

(www.e-onsoftware.com/products/lumenRT). 

Become a SketchUp Pro 

If you want to learn more about SketchUp, the first place to head is http:// 

sketchup.google.com. If you don’t already have the program, you can easily 

download the free version here, and there’s all the information you need to get 

started, although it’s fairly self-explanatory. Once you’re up and running, you 

can find out more about the app from the official site’s blog (http:// 

sketchupdate.blogspot.com), including its training information. If you then 

Despite the affection the architectural 

community clearly feels for SketchUp, there are 

features that many wish it had. McHugh admits, 

“It’s still difficult to create more organic 3D items, 

such as rocks, plants, sculpted, free-flowing 

items,” and Cossoli concurs with this, noting that 

if there were “more modelling tools then you could 

avoid having to use so many plug-ins, though this 

is just personal taste.” Warner echoes this plea, 

and also adds, “Support for proxies, better 

animation controls, higher polygon count and 

particle systems” to the wish list. 

For Wadsworth, there is another problem: 

“SketchUp was the first program I used that had 

Despite the affection the architectural 

community clearly feels for SketchUp, there 

are features that many wish it had. McHugh 

admits, ‘It’s still difficult to create more 

organic 3D items, such as rocks, plants, 

sculpted, free-flowing items, etc’ 

real-time shadows – in other words, you could 

take lighting into consideration while developing 

your design, and instantly see the results in the 

application window. But the SketchUp developers 

haven’t really updated the function since I first 

learnt the program, eight years ago.” Other 

programs have pushed this technology 

dramatically forward, and Wadsworth wishes 

“Google would deal with this, or dump the whole 

‘real-time’ shadow idea in favour of a quick 

rendering system that would generate shadows 

from multiple light sources. For my work, I really 

don’t need reflections, raytracing, global 

illumination or anything like that. I just want to be 

able to place some light sources in my SketchUp 

model to see how the lighting affects my design 

and where the shadows fall.” 

So while some programs may hungrily add 

features with every new release, SketchUp’s 

appeal to the architectural audience seems to lie 

in its continued simplicity. And with rendering 

tools, connection to Google Earth and Warehouse 

3D and the vast array of scripts available online – 

might its charms begin to appeal to the wider 3D 

community? Perhaps. 

want to venture further afield, http://sketchucation.com has plenty of info, 

and www.pushpullbar.com is a more general architectural forum that has 

some keen SketchUp users. More of those keen users, as well as some great 

tutorials, can also be located at www.sketchupartists.org. If you’re tutorialmad, 

then more can be found at www.googlesketchuptutorials.com, www. 

architectionary.com/SketchupTutorials and www.sketchuptuts.com. 

163




Artist info 

Viktor Fretyán 

Username: Radic 


radicjoe.cgsociety.org 


Hardware used 

Intel Core 2 q9550, 8GB RAM 

Intel i7-860, 8GB RAM 

Expertise I mainly work on 

architectural visualisations 


Materials, 

lighting 

3ds Max Photoshop After Effects 

V-Ray 

164

Architecture 

Step by step: Texturing 

and lighting architecture 

Normafa House 2009 

It’s an interesting challenge to make an image 

that shows off a building’s interior and exterior 

Viktor Fretyán has experimented with 3D art since 

school and specialises in architectural visualisation 

T 

his image is part of a set of renders on a 

detached house in Budapest, Hungary. It is 

designed by Satoshi Okada and is under 

construction at the moment. Since this was an 

assignment, it means I had a deadline and had to follow 

certain requests and guidelines. Consequently, the end 

result was not satisfying enough for my taste and I 

decided to make my own version of the rendering. In this 

tutorial, I will explain how the materials for the surfaces 

were applied and how the lighting was set up. I think it is 

always an interesting challenge to make a successful 

image of a place that shows off both an interior and 

exterior at the same time. The composition, the lighting 

and the materials are quite dramatic. I’m looking for this 

kind of drama in most of my work. I love to play with light 

and shadow, as well as with the colour of the light. 



Satoshi Okada is a Japanese architect 

01 who designed the Forest Refuge known by 

almost everyone thanks to Alex Roman’s 

interpretation. I was really excited when I got the 

chance to work on his new design. As an architect, the 

topic is always important; I have to like the design too 

in order to make nice renders. 

As I said before, this image is not part of 

02 the renders I delivered to the client. As often 

happens, clients prefer a more generic, less dramatic 

look regarding lighting and composition. Clients always 

seem to have a different taste in renders and, trying to 

figure out what it is, I can rarely satisfy my own 

expectations for the project. 

This project was anything but subtle. 

03 I mean, since the architecture was so pure, 

I decided to make the greenery as spectacular as possible. 

Every little spot of the image has something on it. There 

are no clean or empty surfaces in the scene. I wanted 

every image to be really vivid. 

165

Artist 

Showcase 


I am a 26-year-old architect from Budapest, Hungary. 

I started using 3D many, many years ago when I was 

in elementary school. I experimented with small 

animations, effects and building primitive models. 

Years later, while studying at university, I found it was 

actually a good way of making money so I started to dig 

deeper into arc-vis territory. 

Material surfaces 

Adding textures and materials 

There are no 

04 complex materials 

in the scene. I used only one 

concrete material, although it 

appears as if there are more, 

but those scratches were done 

externally in Photoshop. It has 

a VRayDirt map in the Diffuse 

slot which has a Radius of 3 

metres. The same map was 

used for Reflection and Bump 

in greyscale too. 

Row House 3ds Max, 

V-Ray, Photoshop (2009) 

This is a small, personal 

practice piece I made over 

a weekend and it included 

four renders of Tadao 

Ando’s first realised project 

in Azuma, Japan. I love the 

raw concrete material and 

it features everywhere on 

these renders. I enjoyed 

working on this project 

especially because I did it 

in only a few days. 

The floor was 

05 made in the same 

way. It has a slightly higher 

IOR setting to get more 

reflections and the VRayDirt 

is only set to 1.5 metres. The 

same bitmap is used again 

for all slots. I used colour 

correction to adjust the map. 

In waiting... 3ds Max, V- 

Ray, Photoshop (2009) 

This is one of my favourite 

renders. It is the main aula 

[atrium] of the Exchange 

Palace of Budapest. I was 

working on that project for 

quite some time. The 

modelling part was insane 

as you can see on the render. 

This altered version of the 

original render tried to 

capture the feeling of a child 

dragged through a museum. 

KUMU Art Museum of 

Estonia 3ds Max, V-Ray, 

Photoshop, After Effects 

(2010) 

This is the project I am 

currently working on. I 

started months ago, but I 

just can’t seem to finish it 

because the building has so 

many great views. This will 

be my most grandiose work 

once it’s finished. I would 

like to render daylight and 

night shots as well as 

interiors and exteriors with 

different seasons. 

A typical dirt map is set like 

06 this. I added the dirt map to every 

material’s Diffuse slot. I used to render a 

separate ambient occlusion layer, but that 

meant every object had the same radius 

of dirt; this way, I can control each one 

individually. Obviously, a 6m-high plane 

wall needs a completely different radius 

to a 15cm-high vase on a shelf. 

The curtain is 

07 made from a 

translucent material. It is set 

in the simplest way it can be: 

using Hard Wax mode. It is 

similar to using a two-sided V- 

Ray material. It isn’t as nice, 

but much faster and, for these 

purposes, it is perfect. 

My final advice 

08 regarding materials 

is always use Fresnel 

Reflections. If you do just a 

little research into everyday 

objects around you, you’ll 

figure that nothing has a 

constant reflection but 

depends on the angle you 

look at it. And I don’t only 

mean water or glass, but even 

plaster walls or fabric. 

166

Architecture 


Balancing the interior and exterior 

First, we need 

09 a global diffuse light 

(sky light). That was achieved 

by simply adding a map to our 

environmental override in the V- 

Ray render window. It’s a simple 

bitmap I downloaded from 

CGtextures.com. Note that this 

is not a light source, so it doesn’t 

produce any shadows. 

Now put in the main light source that 

10 stands in for our sky here. It is going to be 

a VRayPlane positioned above our scene facing 

down and tilted a bit towards the camera. 

Attached to it, there is a VRaySky which is put 

in the Reflection/Refraction override. 

12 hours 

render time 

Resolution: 

2,250 x 3,000 

Modelling 

the scene 

As you can see, there are 

no complicated models 

in the scene (except for 

the trees which are not 

modelled by me). I am 

really bad at this and 

everything you see in 

this image is made from 

primitives with the 

fewest and most basic 

of tools. Even the leaves 

on the ground were 

scattered manually 

instead of using the 

Scatter tool. I always 

want to get over this part 

as soon as possible. This 

is probably one of the 

main reasons I stick to 

architectural renders: the 

geometry is always the 

least complicated, as 

opposed to a car or 

anything more organic. 

The three lamps on the ceiling will provide the main light in the room. 

11 For these, I used VRaySpheres as lightbulbs. We need some supporting light 

sources from each side. I used small VRaySpheres with a Radius of 0.1 metres. I also 

needed three VRayPlanes to light the ceiling around the wooden walls on the left. 

And here is the result of the lighting. It’s a bit bright, but that’s okay since 

12 the override material is white so, once it’s all textured up, it will be balanced 

out. I particularly love the night shots because of this ambivalent lighting: the blueish 

outside colours complementing the warm colours of the interior and vice versa. 

This shot of the house from another angle provides an alternative 

13 perspective and is a good example of the balance between the two colours 

– the warm and the cold – and how well they can work together. 

167

Step by step: 

Creating a stylish 

museum building 

KUMU Art Museum 2010 

I was 

mesmerised by 

this museum 

some years ago 

and, ever since, 

I knew I had to do 

my own version 

of it in 3D 

Viktor Fretyán specialises 

in architectural rendering 

168

Architecture 




Artist info 



Modelling 




radicjoe.cgsociety.org 


Hardware used 

2 x Intel q9550, 8GB RAM 

1 x Intel i7-860, 8GB RAM 

Expertise Viktor’s passion is 

architectural rendering. That’s 

more or less the only part of 

3D he considers himself good at 

The first step is always to do some 

01 research: I gathered every photo that I 

could find of the building from the internet. Some 

of them were quite influential, but most of them 

were just to gain a sense of the building’s 

geometry. In the end, out of about 150 photos, 

only a few were useful. 


3ds Max Photoshop After Effects 

V-Ray 

I 

think a major change has happened over the 

last two years in the field of architectural 

visualisation. After the first appearance of Alex 

Roman’s renders, the landscape of this industry has 

been totally reshaped. I knew that if I wanted to make 

something significant, I’d have to work harder than 

before to get any recognition. Therefore, instead of 

making one scene and shooting renders from 

different angles, I tried to make every render 

individual. I considered this to be ten different projects 

rather than just one, since each shot differs not only in 

lighting and composition, but in almost every other 

aspect too. The most interesting render out of the 

bunch is probably the above scene with the snow. As 

you read through this tutorial, you will find there are 

no secret tools – no surprises coming up. In fact, this 

is a good example of making something look great 

with the simplest of tools! 

While doing research over the internet, I came across the 

02 website of two students (Ankit Surti and Samuel Gwynn), who had 

already modelled the building in 3ds Max some years ago. Contacting them, 

they kindly agreed to help by supplying all the information needed to start the 

work, including the official drawings, which they’d acquired from the architect. 

Don’t ever be scared to ask fellow artists for favours. 

In terms of colour 

03 mood, I loved this 

photo and wanted to make a 

render with the same feeling. 

It’s as if you can virtually smell 

the rain. I always aim to create 

renders that move the viewers 

inside emotionally. 

169

Artist 

Showcase 


I have a very strong passion for architecture and have 

never really tried any other areas of 3D. I love renders 

with an artistic touch. Technical achievements alone 

are not enough for me. I prefer the work of artists who 

create a balance with colours, light and shadow. 

Modelling the building 

Constructing the shapes 

I started with the main volume of the building, 

04 which is the green metal wall, drawing a spline of only 

two vertices which were set to Bezier Corners. Having switched 

to Adaptive Interpolation, I moved it to fit the plan, converted it 

into editable poly and used Slice Plane to cut it as needed. 

On the other 

05 side, it was quite 

similar, except it wasn’t 

curved. I created rectangles 

for the outline of the wall and 

the windows, then converted 

them into splines and 

attached them. After that, I 

converted it into editable poly 

again and added a Shell 

modifier. The horizontal joint 

lines of the building’s metal 

cladding were formed with a 

Displacement modifier. 

KUMU, Main Lobby 3ds Max, V-Ray, Photoshop (2009) 

I decided to showcase portfolio images all taken from this particular 

project. This was actually the first render I took. I loved the colour 

balance between the cold blue coming from above and the warm, 

yellowish light from below. 

KUMU, Spring, Daytime 

3ds Max, V-Ray, Photoshop 

(2010) 

What I especially liked about 

this shot is the composition. 

The horizon line is kept very 

low, making the building look 

like it reaches very high and the 

camera correction also adds to 

that feeling. The aeroplane that 

curves across the sky adds a bit 

of dynamism as well. 

I modelled the 

06 details as precisely as I 

could – even the ones I knew 

wouldn’t be visible from such a 

distance. I did everything using 

only standard primitives or 

splines converted into editable 

poly images. The tools I used 

the most at this stage were 

Lathe, Sweep, Symmetry, FFD 

Box as well as the editing tools 

for editable poly. 

For the railing 

07 in front, I used splines 

again. I quickly outlined the 

posts, extruded the parts, 

chamfered the edges a bit and 

attached them into one 

editable poly. I made sure to 

watch the position of the 

pivot, so that I didn’t have 

trouble offsetting the railings 

when using the Spacing tool 

along another spline. 

KUMU, Fall, Late Afternoon 

3ds Max, V-Ray, Photoshop (2010) 

This is where I tried to achieve the atmosphere I referred to in Step 

3 with that evocative photo of a field. I was aiming for a very bleak 

image with the sun almost set and just moments away from the 

breaking of a storm. 

170 

The leafless tree models started 

08 out as single boxes. Just by pulling 

vertices and extruding polygons, in a few 

minutes, I had created three kinds of branches. 

Applying Turbosmooth and scaling and rotating 

them several times, I ended up with some 

natural-looking winter trees.

Architecture 

Refining the details 

Bringing it all together 

2-3 hours 

render time 

Resolution: 

4,037 x 2,659 

The terrain was 

09 modelled using a simple 

plane that was distorted with FFD 

Box to follow the slope. I cut the 

holes in it by simply using the 

Boolean tool and adding a subtle 

Noise modifier before turning it into 

editable poly again. I used the Soft 

Selection controls to pull up vertices 

near the walls. 

This might be disappointing for some, but the 

10 snow effect was achieved using a 2D Displacement 

modifier, rather than a particle system like PArray. I took 

a snapshot of the viewport from the top and drew a very 

large bitmap. Next, I applied it to the terrain by using a Planar 

UVW Map modifier. 

Another problem that can occur when glass panels 

12 are lined up is the reflection breaking at the edge of 

each panel. To tackle this, I selected every second panel in a 

chessboard pattern and rotated them a little in all directions. 

There’s a little trick to doing glass that not many people 

11 use. I just added a little Noise Bump and simulated the 

double glazing by cloning the glass and pulling it back a few 

centimetres. I then applied a different glass material to it with the 

same settings, but a slightly altered Noise Bump. 


For the main light source, I used a 

VRayLightDome. Usually an HDRI might 

be used in the Map slot, but this time I 

just used a darker blueish colour. 

I set the Multiplier to 1.5 and made 

it invisible as to not affect the reflections 

(for which, I put an HDRI in the 

Reflection Override slot). The 

Environment Override was also checked 

in with a black colour to ensure the 

background didn’t affect the lighting. 

As for the rest of the scene, I used 

smaller VRayPlanes and VRaySpheres 

with a warm orange colour. 

13 Modelling a 

window is one of the 

easiest tasks, but can add a lot 

of realism when done right. I 

found a drawing of a section of 

a window and drew the outline 

with a spline. Once I’d applied 

a rectangle with a Sweep 

modifier, it was ready. 

171


Artist info 





http://radicjoe.cgsociety.org 



Photoshop 

As always, the 

modelling part was 

the least interesting 

for me. I constantly 

find myself browsing 

through free 3D 

libraries on the 

internet just to get 

over this part 

172 

Living Room 

by Night 2008 

This image isn’t the newest from my 

portfolio. Nowadays, I’m more interested in 

the architecture itself rather than the interior 

decoration. This is from a previous era when 

my main interests in renders were smaller 

interiors, such as this one. 

The composition is always interesting for me. 

In fact, it is one of the most important aspects of 

rendering. I wanted to create a nice living space that 

is both in order and a mess at the same time

Architecture 

Back when this render was 

made, I considered it my best so far, 

so I decided to make a really highresolution 

render. The final image is 

10,000 by 4,000 pixels, which really 

helped bring out all the details 

The lighting of this image is also interesting because there are 

several light sources in the scene to make it really vivid: the TV itself 

and its backlights, the small reading lamp, the IES light sources 

from the left, and a warm, diffuse light from the right 



173

We talk to Luis Linares of Kuan Studio about the philosophy of his new architecture 

company, based in South America 

A Interior Bridges 

“Watching a classic movie 

in a modern space” 

Company Kuan Studio 

Founded May 2009 

Company website 

www.kuanstudio.com 

Country Uruguay 


V-Ray, Photoshop, 

After Effects and AutoCAD 

Expertise 3D animation 

Client list Images of products for 

a design studio in Barcelona, 

Spain, architects in Switzerland, 

architects and real estate group 

investors in Panama, architects in 

Uruguay and Argentina 

Currently, we focus on architectural visualisation 

and products in 3D, but our next step is audiovisual 

postproduction and videogames 

Luis Linares is the co-founder of Kuan Studio 

It was as recent as 2009 that three men, 

Agustín Gutiérrez, Rodrigo Peña and 

Luis Linares, decided to get together 

and form Kuan Studio in Montevideo, 

Uruguay. The name Kuan comes from the 

Chinese classic text of the I Ching, meaning 

contemplation, with which the team feel an 

affinity. It was their common vision and the 

same passion, which is excellence in the 

visual communication of projects, that 

brought them together to form Kuan. 

Contemplating the project and listening 

to the client are key elements at the studio, 

as they share opinions in order to reach the 

best artistic result. To achieve this, they 

concentrate on taking care of details and 

have a deep sense of loyalty and a 

responsible commitment to the job. Each 

member of the team has a specific role on 

each project: the project manager is 

responsible for each project to assess and 

follow up to the final product, and is also the 

174

Architecture 

The name Kuan comes 

from the Chinese classic text 

of the I Ching, meaning 

contemplation, with which 

the team feel an affinity 

Advertising office 

This is a personal project inspired by the 

Facebook offices, with which we were very 

pleased. We looked at all the details in the 

modelling phase, from the smallest to the 

largest, working on all the vegetation in 3ds 

Max and V-Ray. 

We sought the light that you get from a 

cloudy sky, with little direct sunlight on the 

scene. We decided that we wanted the 

interiors of the offices seen through the 

windows to appear relaxed, because this is 

an advertising agency and did not need to 

be formal. 

In postproduction, the details in different 

parts of the building and the environment 

are greatly enhanced. Through Photoshop 

we retouched the grey walls of the building, 

the colours of the vegetation and overall 

image to get a result that blends serenity 

and simplicity in architecture. 

175

B Shower Spa 

“Refreshing the mind and 

body in a concrete setting 

(Mediterranean client)” 

C 

D 

176

Architecture 

visible face to the client; the art director is 

responsible for lighting as well as the 

realisation of the scene in each project; 

there’s the animation and modelling 

manager; and finally, the postproduction 

manager is responsible for giving the final 

touch to each image. 

What are the main services that Kuan 

Studio offers and the areas of CGI that you 

cover? 

Luis Linares: Currently, we focus on 

architectural visualisation and products in 

3D, but our next step is audiovisual 

postproduction and videogames. 

Who are some of your main clients? 

LL: We are currently designing a catalogue 

of bathroom artifacts for a recognised 

European brand. We have had clients in 

Panama for important real estate projects, 

such as luxury residential buildings and 

large commercial spaces. We are now 

entering into the Swiss and German 

markets; however, any clients require 

confidentiality, so we’re only able to name a 

few here. 

Do you tend to work more in industry 

visualisation, commercial or residential, or 

is it an across-the-board approach? 

LL: We work on every scale across the 

industry and we take each project as a new 

and unique challenge. 

What is the most interesting or rewarding 

residential project you’ve worked on? 

LL: The House in Switzerland, because in 

this particular image we wanted to transmit 

E 

a warm and comforting mood in the house 

we were in charge of visualising. 

What software tools do you regularly 

employ and why? 

LL: As a first phase, we primarily use 

AutoCAD to model different parts. Next, we 

use 3ds Max for complex modelling. As an 

engine for rendering, lighting and 

texturing, we use V-Ray. For postproduction 

we use Photoshop and After Effects. 

How many people typically work on one of 

your projects, either in-house or externally 

where necessary? 

C Close-up Spa 

“Close-up of the good 

life… enjoying the 

peaceful nature of the 

sea (Mediterranean 

client)” 

D Mediateque 

“Montevideo’s cultural 

reflections at dusk” 

E Loft 

“Mixing materials for a 

unique modern style of 

living in a house in 

Punta del Este, 

Uruguay” 

We work on every scale across the 

industry and we take each project as 

a new and unique challenge 

177

The House in 

Switzerland 

The House in Switzerland is 

a project that we loved and 

enjoyed throughout the 

production process. From 

the exchange of ideas with 

our client came the goal of 

creating a warm mood using 

the wood as a motivator of 

the scene. 

There are specific design 

elements that were 

modelled exclusively for the 

scene, which help to 

enhance the atmosphere in 

this image. We wanted to 

convey the cold 

contemplated from a warm 

place using multiple items 

such as wood that 

symbolises the warmth and 

serenity; also fire and the 

stove that further reinforce a 

pleasant atmosphere. 

Postproduction was the 

most important stage to 

generate this space, since 

colour corrections, contrasts 

and effects allow us to 

illustrate the idea of the 

desired space. 

We had a good impact abroad and good 

reviews of our work for the time the studio 

has been open 

F 

LL: There are three people who work at 

Kuan full time, and we all participate in all 

the stages of creation. If there’s a bigger 

project or we have several projects at once, 

we hire external contractors. 

Can you give us some idea of the actual 

production pipeline for producing an image 

or set of images for a client? 

LL: We want our customers to feel at ease 

and comfortable. This working 

methodology is based on practicality and 

efficiency to achieve the best results in a 

timely manner. It starts with the modelling 

process, where we send previews to the 

client to make the necessary corrections to 

get the best result in the final product. Once 

the previous images are approved, we begin 

the final rendering of images and/or videos. 

What kind of work have you been doing 

recently in the animation and product 

visualisation fields? 

LL: In the visualisation of products, we have 

been commissioned for modelling and 

rendering a catalogue of bathroom artifacts 

in Barcelona, Spain. Also, we are in 

preproduction stage for an independent 3D 

animation film. 

The building and visualisation industries 

have both been affected by the global 

recession. Has your country and your type 

of work been affected as well? 

LL: We are a new studio so we have not felt 

the crisis as others may have, and we had a 

good impact abroad and good reviews of our 

work for the time the studio has been open. 

What are your plans and ambitions for the 

company in the future? 

LL: Our plans and ambitions are to continue 

growing on a worldwide scale and enlarge 

our clients’ portfolio, and to grow as an 

architectural visualisation and 

postproduction studio. 

G 

F House 

“Cooking and living 

with style in San 

Sebastian, Panama” 

G Bridges Building 

“Modern style of living 

in San Francisco” 

178

Architecture 

The GH House 2010 

This was my entry for the GH House Archviz Challenge on 

www.ronenbekerman.com. GH House was designed by Ronen 

Bekerman at the Israeli firm, Dunsky Kornhauser Architects, 

and was provided for participants to place in a context of their 

choice. The environment was at the discretion of each artist; 

we just had to keep the basic house geometry. 

Artist info 

Anton Cherenko 


www.cherenkoart.blogspot.com 

Country Ukraine 


OnyxTREE, After Effects, Photoshop 

The first step was to find an 

interesting point of view. The GH 

House architectural design was 

great in that there were many good 

views to explore and choose from, 

but I wanted to find a unique angle, 

one that would distinguish my 

image from the others 


Onyx 

TREE 

After 

Effects 

3ds Max V-Ray 

Photoshop 

In order to achieve a more 

realistic view of the water’s surface, 

I created ripples originating from the 

boat and lamps. First, I made a plane, 

converted it to editable poly and 

changed the vertex locations for 

my canal form 

The trees and bushes were 

generated using OnyxTREE’s TREE 

STORM plug-in for 3ds Max, which were 

converted to V-RayProxies to make my 

work with the scene and image render 

possible, as far as memory resources 

were concerned 



179

Creating 

a mansion 

Mansion At 6 Evan Way 2010 

This was created as a photorealistic 

detailed rendering to aid in the sale of 

the largest home on record for its area 

Ryan W Knope is a freelance 3D artist with 13 

years’ experience in the visualisation industry 






mental 

ray 

Grass- 

O-Matic 

Photoshop 

CS4 

Artist info 

180 

Ryan W Knope 

Username: RWKnope 


www.ryanknope.com 

Country US 


mental ray, Grass-O-Matic, 

Photoshop CS4 

Expertise Ryan makes a living 

largely from his architectural 

and interior visualisation 

business in Denver 

This rendering was especially important because of its 

high profile. It is very close to Washington DC and, at 

38,000 square feet, it was an important property 

bound to interest those wielding great power. 

With that in mind, the architect had very stringent ideas of 

how it should look in both building materials and the general 

feel of the rendering. Larry Link Jr is an old-school architect and 

used a lot of terms that I had not heard before – many dating 

back to Greek and Roman architecture. 

One of the biggest difficulties was figuring out the pipeline to 

implement all of the greenery around the estate. This was 

accomplished by using several MAX files that were rendered 

out and the layers blended in Photoshop. The rustication 

around the garage also proved quite time-consuming, as some 

of the areas didn’t work out right with Bump maps and 

Displacement maps would have been far too heavy during 

render time. For that reason, I decided to place each stone 

block individually, which sounds laborious, but in the end, it 

looks much better on the final render. 

The most interesting part of the project was that Link was 

still designing it as I was creating it, which could have led to a 

logistical nightmare. In this case though, it was satisfying to 

help shape the building and offer my thoughts and opinions 

during the creative process.

Architecture 

Modelling, 

texturing, 

postproduction 

Information about the home: 

Developer/Owner representative: Michael Sotir 

Tel: 443-392-6752 

Estate Home with great bones and classic new architectural plans. Builder is in place to finish home to new owner’s desires. Enough space to satisfy all client needs. 

a Use renderable splines, boxes and Edit Poly to define the 

structure. Try to confirm a camera early on 

Concept 

The concept for the mansion came directly from the architect, 

Larry Link Jr. A solid early plan and viewpoint was defined by 

the sketches. This made it much easier for me to lock in the 

framework from the very beginning. 

01 Boxing out the structure 

Boxing out the structure and defining a viewpoint was my first step. This boxed-out structure 

mainly consists of renderable splines for the walls and roofs. An Edit Poly modifier was used 

to pull the walls to the desired height. Boxes were added for the chimneys and patio elements. 

The goal at this stage was to get approval of the overall shapes, size and positioning. Once 

approved, I then moved on to the detailing and refining. I also defined a camera angle. This 

allowed me to work on the foreground and side landscape while Link was still designing 

other elements of the home a. 

181

182 

Problems and 

solutions 

The most problematic 

modelling element was 

placing the vegetation and 

grass. I quickly realised my 

machine had a very difficult 

time dealing with more than 

one grass mass at a time. 

Each grass area had to be 

separated and placed into a 

different scene. This eased the 

tension initially, but then I had 

to place the trees into the 

respective grass scenes to get 

the shadows to work properly. 

Each tree was between 

750,000 and 1,000,000 polys or 

more. The grass was even 

heavier with geometry. 

Rendering the grass with 

the trees took a lot of patience. 

A bunch of render settings had 

to be refined because of the 

model densities and proxies 

used. In the end, I had to buy 

2GB RAM to solve the issue, 

because I was not willing to 

sacrifice sampling values. 

b Place boxes to get window 

location and size approval 

c Roof, window and pillar 

creation process 

d Use splines, Edit Poly and 

the Spacing tool to add the 

roof rake 

c 

b 

Beyond the walls 

Adding in the main features 

02 Cutting out the windows 

Next it was time to cut out the windows. This was a bit 

tedious, because there were so many. Thinking about my 

workflow, I preferred to send Link a screenshot showing the 

windows as boxes through the wall. This showed location 

and I could get approval without having to cut them out. This 

was both good and bad, because once I had the boxes in 

place, it was too easy to use ProBoolean rather than cutting 

them properly in Edit Poly. About 95 per cent of the windows 

were cut using ProBoolean without flaws. The remainder had 

to be fixed and welded, with some re-cut in Edit Poly. 

ProBoolean still saved me time, but use it carefully b. 

03 Windows, pillars and roof 

The window mullions, casings and sashes were created using 

renderable splines. The stool and apron were created using 

Chamfer boxes. An Arch & Design material was applied that 

included the Round Corners value activated in the Special 

Effects Material tab. I used a box for the glass panes. Next I 

placed these sets around all of the other open window gaps. 

Some I kept as instances and some I did not, but I kept track 

of which were real windows and made tweaks to differently 

shaped windows. Pillars started as splines and were lathed. 

The roof began as renderable splines for each section. Edit 

Poly was added and the roof pitches created by pulling the 

top set of vertices c. 

04 Roof rake and frieze 

For the roof rakes, in Edit Poly’s Edge Mode, I began by 

extracting lines from the top of the exterior walls. From there 

I created several ridges via renderable splines on the top and 

bottom of the rake bounds. The white backboard also started 

as a renderable spline, with vertices edited to match the 

existing depth. I drew a profile shape for the tooth detailing, 

then added another Edit Poly modifier, extruded the shape 

and capped the object. Next I copied a previous spline and 

matched it to the contour of the walls so that I could use the 

Spacing tool to populate the tooth along the spline without 

having to place each one. For uniform architectural features 

such as railings/beams the Spacing tool is a great device for 

saving time d.

Architecture 

28 hours 

render time 

Resolution: 

5,000 x 2,988 

e 

d 

05 Quoining the corners 

The quoin stones started off as a box, which I then extruded, 

bevelled and scaled to create the front block detailing. The 

blocks were then alternated in size to create the necessary 

pattern. These blocks needed to share the same colour as 

the main stucco finish, so I copied the stucco material and 

added a rough stone texture to the Bump map slot. Box 

UVW mapping was used. For the corner stones, the objects 

were instanced and rotated. The reverse joints were 

instanced and mirrored e. 

06 Constructing the chimneys 

The chimney construction was pretty straightforward, 

though slightly different from the average design. The 

chimneys were created fairly fast by blocking them out with 

basic objects, such as Chamfer boxes, cylinders and 

renderable splines. Once massed, vertices were moved to 

Edit Poly. An Arch & Design material was applied with a 

Bump map in order to simulate stucco. This material also 

had the Round Corners option applied, saving me from 

having to chamfer all of the edges f. 

07 French doors 

Making sure that the distance from the camera was kept in 

mind, the doors were created as simple, yet effective 

objects. The hole was cut into the wall via Edit Poly, then the 

doorframe and detailing were added with different size 

renderable splines. The doors themselves started as boxes 

and the holes cut using, once again, Edit Poly. The hole 

edges were then chamfered and boxes with the 

windowpanes inserted. Chamfer boxes were used for the 

shutters, box mapping added and an Arch & Design material 

applied. The material has a Diffuse and Bump map and both 

maps were given a Blur of .01 g. 

e Boxes are extruded to 

define shape, adding a 

bevel and a lip 

f Construction of the chimney 

was quick with Edit Poly and 

basic objects 

g Basic construction used 

because of distance and 

shadowed areas 

f 

g 

183

Lighting and 

post-lighting 

The lighting rig started out 

with a mr Sun and Sky. 

Final Gather and GI were 

set up, although I noticed 

some areas needed some 

fill lighting. Fill lighting was 

used in and over the patio 

above the garage to help 

simulate the artificial 

lighting from inside that 

room. mr’s Photographic 

Exposure control was set 

to Daylight Clear Sky. This 

same lighting rig was 

utilised for each scene file. 

I also set up an Ambient 

Occlusion pass. This 

greatly increased the 

realism of the shadows 

and detailing in the model. 

Once rendered, I painted 

in a lot of shadows and 

highlights for realism. 

To create an even softer 

lighting feel, I added 

softened white highlights 

in Photoshop. 

Block it out 

Finish the mansion’s masonry 

08 Applying the rustication 1 

The rustication began as copied quoin blocks. I placed each 

block one by one in horizontal rows until I could instance 

them up. This went along pretty quickly until I got to the 

arches. The arch rustication had to be edited quite drastically 

in Edit Poly. I used Slice Plane to cut through the object, 

adding more segments to deform. Once I had the left side 

complete, I then instanced to create the right side. 

Around the circular patio balcony above the garage doors 

it took longer, but the same methods were used. I placed 

actual geometry as I didn’t want to use render-hungry 

Displacement maps, unless as a last resort h. 

09 Applying the rustication 2 

Before rendering the final passes, I processed all of the 

scenes at a high resolution and lower sampling rate (1/4) to 

make sure that everything lined up perfectly. It is too easy to 

nudge a camera or move something by accident. Once I 

confirmed all locations and objects as matching, I set up the 

render settings and rendered the scene out at a lower 

resolution (1/3 final size). 

For the final render, I used a sampling rate of 4/16, with 

BSP2 on. Final Gather and Global Illumination were used 

because of interior and overhanging porch areas i. 

I placed actual geometry as I didn’t 

want to use render-hungry Displacement 

maps, unless as a last resort 

h 

i 

Ryan W Knope 

I started 3D in late 1996. This developed 

into an obsession over the next year or two, 

which turned into a money-making career 

before I had graduated from high school. 

From there my love for the art has never 

faltered. My freelance visualisation 

business has been going strong for about 13 

years, and over the last two years it has 

gone international. 

Sumiyoshi Master Plan 

3ds Max 2010, Photoshop CS4 (2009) 

Created for Ecocentrix, Sumiyoshi is a ‘Luxury Living 

Community’ that has now been constructed in Japan. 

The World Has Moved On 

3ds Max 2010, Photoshop CS4, ZBrush (2009) 

A fun project for a contest. It won second place. It’s 

based on a town in Stephen King novel, The Gunslinger. 

184

Architecture 

j 

10 Combining the renders in PS 

Once rendered, the different images needed to be brought 

into Photoshop to be lined up and blended using layer masks. 

For the blending, I put the main house in first, then began 

adding the tree layers. Since there were areas of similar 

colour, I inverted some layers to check the hard-edged 

bounds, painting on the mask accordingly, then inverting 

back to normal. With all of the rendered layers in position, it 

was time for postproduction detailing j. 

k 

h Quoin blocks are resized to 

fit the smaller areas and 

cover upper patio walls 

i Render settings that I used 

were not far from defaults 

j Some of the different render 

sets to be combined prior 

to postproduction 

k The areas applied with 

Dodge and Burn tools, plus a 

grass detail overlay 

l Various items of 

postproduction added as 

finishing touches 

Smoke 

Smoke usually does not 

rise straight up as there is 

often some wind that 

whisks it away. Originally, I 

had the smoke going 

straight up and the 

architect gave me a lesson 

on how straight rising 

smoke is indicative of old 

city slums, where less 

wind tends to be present. 

Hardly befitting when it 

came to this multimilliondollar 

property! 

11 Postproduction 1 

Once I blended the layers, I created copies of the original 

layers and turned them off, saving them just in case 

something went wrong with my edits; you can never be too 

careful! Next I began to use Dodge and Burn tools in 

Photoshop. I used varying intensities and shade values. I tried 

to accentuate the highlights and darker spots. 

Starting the vegetation, I sent the architect the thumbnail 

shrub library, so that he could begin picking bushes and 

flowers. I began placing each bush, keeping them on different 

layers and assessing shadows and highlights. Around a lot of 

the trees I added some taller grass stock from the vegetation 

library for variation and realism k. 

l 

l 

As Humans Control Nature 

3ds Max 2010, Photoshop CS4 (2009) 

This project started as a contest image and then became an 

obsession for two months. The inspiration was my terrarium. 

12 Postproduction 2 

For the chimney smoke, I began with a smoke stock image 

which I found online. I had to mask the image, blur and 

reduce the opacity. Lastly I set the blending mode to 

Multiply. Next I added detail to the yellow frieze with a blackand-white 

pattern. This layer’s blending mode was set to 

Overlay. Including people was a question from the start. In 

my opinion people can ruin the integrity of a rendering. For 

that reason I decided to only place them on the upstairs patio 

at 75% Opacity. This gives an element of scale, but they 

don’t detract attention from the property l. 

l 

185

Luis Tejeda 

Artist info 



Username: 3dluis 


luistejeda.tutorial-lab.com/ 

Country USA, Spain 


Photoshop 

I chose to make a combination 

between wood and metal with no brick, 

trying to get a modern look for the house. 

I added a red tree to add distinction to all 

the dark green vegetation 

It took me about 

three weeks to 

finalise the image. 

I used 3ds Max, V- 

Ray and Photoshop 

for the final 

retouching. I used 

a free plug-in called 

Ivy Generator to do 

the growing ivy on 

the wall 

186 

For the final composition, I rendered in different 

passes. The most important ones were occlusion, 

reflection, refractions, Z-Depth, specular, shadows 

and, of course, the render ID with which you get more 

precision to separate different parts of the rendering 

by selecting a colour

Architecture 

For the lighting I used VRaySun and 

a V-Ray camera. I think for exterior shots 

like this one you can achieve better 

results. I used V-Ray displacement for the 

grass, then in Photoshop I duplicated the 

layer, made it darker and erased some 

parts to make grass patches 

Peaceful 

House 

2009 

This image was an entry for a contest where 

postproduction wasn’t allowed. I elaborated a 

lighting scheme that would accentuate 

different areas. With some postproduction, 

I later added details for more realism. 

I wanted to make the scene inviting to this 

beautiful house at a certain time in the day. There’s 

something very serene about a sunset and I wanted 

to capture this feeling 



187

We talk to Nick Homer about running a small architectural 

visualisation company in difficult economic conditions 

a 

Pressing 

keys 

all the right 

188 

Company F10 Studios Ltd 

Founded 2008 


www.f10studios.co.uk 

Country UK 


V-Ray, Photoshop 

Expertise Architectural 

visualisation 

Client list LCE Architects, 

Blue Edge, West Pier Trust 

…to see very positive images of 

it in full glorious colour, as it used to be 

in its heyday, was a very welcome change 

Nick Homer is the managing director of F10 Studios 

It’s unusual for anyone to start a 

business in the middle of a recession, 

but that’s exactly what Nick Homer 

did with F10 Studios, an architectural 

visualisation firm on England’s south 

coast. By starting out when times were 

hard, though, Nick was able to run a costconscious 

business, ensuring low 

overheads and great value for customers. 

F10 Studios is based in the heart of 

Brighton, right in the thick of the vibrant 

and creative North Laines area. The core 

team is made up of only three people, but 

there’s a large network of reliable modelling 

and visualising freelancers, so the team can 

expand when needed without the 

overheads, and risks, that have been very 

apparent over the last year or so. If F10 

needs other skill sets, it can call upon some 

of the many other local creative companies 

on the doorstep. 

What are the main services you offer and 

areas of CGI that you cover? 

A A golden hallway in a hotel 

designed by LCE Architects 

b Hotel concept in an urban 

setting from LCE Architects

Architecture 

b 

189

West Pier 

In April 2009, F10 Studios was approached by Brighton’s 

West Pier Trust to graphically restore the pier and provide 

visualisations that illustrated the pier in its heyday. F10’s brief 

was to capture the true beauty and romanticism of the much 

loved piece of seaside architecture as it was in 1920. Creative 

director Glen Bruckland said: “The first challenge was piecing 

together the original plans and drawings, some dating back to 

the 1860s. Some of these prints had not seen the light of day 

in years, and the job of pulling all the information together was 

a huge task in itself. Fortunately local structural engineering 

firm HOP was also able to provide several digital drawings, 

which assisted with the main structural modelling. 

In order for the images to be convincing, a high level of 

detail was essential. The West Pier Trust also provided plenty 

of reference photography from the Twenties, which was vital 

for adding all these details. In all it took over a month to 

model, with detailing going down to individual nuts and bolts.” 

Rachel Clark, general manager of the West Pier Trust, said: 

“Being able to preserve and show off to a new generation this 

wonderful part of British architectural history is extremely 

important to us. The stunning visuals produced by F10 have 

done just that, and we are looking forward to working with 

them on future projects to help our cause.” 

190 

Nick Homer: We aim to go the extra mile 

with both stills and animations, creating 

compelling imagery that assists architects 

and developers all the way from concept 

design through to successful bid 

applications and marketing tools. 

Is there are particular style or philosophy that 

you bring to your projects? 

NH: Understanding the key messages and 

working out the most effective approach 

to each individual project is vital. 

We love to create punchy dynamic images 

that stand out and grab your attention. To 

make images convincing, the difference is 

c 

in the detail, and we strive to add as much 

as possible in the timeframe. 

Who are – or have been – some of your main 

clients over the years? 

NH: Our team has many years of experience 

working with many UK and international 

architects like Fosters, and has been a 

helping hand in some very high profile 

wining bids such as London 2012 and 

Glasgow 2014. We have also worked together 

with LCE Architects on a number of projects. 

What is the most interesting/rewarding 

architectural visualisation project you’ve 

worked on? 

NH: Our work last year with the West Pier 

Trust, recreating the West Pier in Brighton, 

was a very interesting and rewarding project. 

It needed to be a very detailed model, 

so there were plenty of 3D challenges like 

modelling from 100-year-old design 

sketches and worn-out black and white 

reference photos, and creating many 

weathered materials – quite complex V-Ray 

blend materials were extensively used. 

The reaction that the set of images 

received from people, who were very 

passionate about the pier, was incredible. 

I think people are so used to seeing colour 

photos or paintings of it burning down or in 

tatters, that to see very positive images of 

it in full glorious colour, as it used to be in 

its heyday, was a very welcome change. 

The goal was to help regenerate interest 

in the Trust’s plight, and we feel we did. 

What software tools do you regularly employ 

and why? 

NH: 3ds Max and V-Ray are our primary 

weapons of choice and everything we do is 

created by them – maybe with the odd help 

from another plug-in or two. 

We have all been using Max for many 

years, and so it is second nature now. Like 

most software, it likes to throw in 

challenges from time to time, but on the 

whole it is a very good bit of kit, and with V- 

Ray on top, which has established itself as 

the de facto standard in arch vis rendering, 

we find we have a very effective tool set. 

How many people typically work on 

a project, either in-house or externally? 

NH: A project can range from one person for 

a day or two for a quick CGI, through to 

collaboration between ten of us and other 

companies in the area, lasting a month or 

two. There are many creative companies 

based around us, so there are always

Architecture 

d 

A project can range from one person for a day 

or two for a quick CGI, through to collaboration 

between ten of us and other companies in the 

area lasting a month or two 

e International fountain 

design project 

f 

c Busy at work in the F10 

Studios office, where a 

small team means low 

overheads and costs for 

the client 

d A mixed use architectural 

visualisation theme for 

Blue Edge 

f A private residential project 

showing the latest design 

thinking in terms of 

materials and style 

191

opportunities to bring different specific 

skill sets on board. 

We work very closely with our neighbours 

Blue Edge (blue-edge.co.uk), as their skill 

sets complement ours very nicely – with 

them producing a broad range of visual 

solutions that our 3D content can be used in. 

Can you give us some idea of the actual 

production pipeline for producing an image 

or set of images for a client? 

NH: The process can vary depending on the 

client and the stage of the design process 

that we get involved in, but the basic formula 

Undoubtedly there has been a slowdown, 

although there is still plenty of work out 

there. F10 was set up at the beginning of the 

recession, and keeping overheads down was 

always a priority 

g 

is to start with understanding the key 

messages. From that we can decide on 

exactly what the views are of, and so what 

needs to be modelled. There is no point in 

modelling things we don’t see, so it’s very 

important to get this signed off straight away. 

We then take the client’s 2D Cad files and 

import them into 3ds Max. Plans, elevations 

and sections are positioned in 3D, and a 3D 

model built up from these. We stay in close 

contact with the architect during this 

modelling process, as quite often designs 

are not final or are incomplete, until we 

have all structural design signed off. 

h 

While working on the lighting and 

materials, and with all views signed off, we 

can start adding the extra design details 

into the 3D model. When all this is complete 

we render the scene out, using V-Ray 

elements so we have total control when we 

are in Photoshop. We will always do 

a load of elements, in particular a good 

selection of Multi-Matte elements for 

individual object control, an AO pass, 

depth, and also various lighting. Reflect and 

refract ones are always handy. 

Have you been involved in any, or would 

you be interested in working in, the Gulf 

states, which house a number of very highprofile 

projects? 

NH: We have done some big exciting 

international projects, but not in the Gulf 

states yet. We would love to get involved 

in projects out there with other worldleading 

architects. 

The building and visualisation industries 

have both been affected by the global 

recession. Have you noticed any kind of 

slowdown, and what have you done to 

counter this downturn? 

NH: Undoubtedly there has been a 

slowdown, although there is still plenty 

of work out there. F10 was set up at the 

beginning of the recession, and keeping 

overheads down was always a priority. In 

this competitive market this means we can 

keep costs low without sacrificing quality, 

which seems to be a winning combination 

with our clients. 

g A concept hotel designed by 

LCE Architects showing a 

luxury development fitting 

into the natural environment 

h National Park, design 

led by Mark Keville of 

LCE Architects 

What are your plans and ambitions for the 

company in the future? 

NH: We want to continue pushing ourselves 

creatively and technically, and improving our 

work so our reputation continues to grow. 

We would love to get involved in 

supplying architectural work to the 

documentary or film industry. If there’s a 

film being made that is set in Brighton 100 

years ago that needs some scenes set on the 

West Pier, then we can definitely help with 

that right now! 

192

Arkin Esref 

Architecture 

Artist info 



Website 

www.arkinesref.com 

Country UK 


V-Ray, Photoshop, ZBrush 

Times of day 

are always 

important in 

visualisation. I 

really enjoy 

sunrise and 

sunset, so I went 

for a morning feel 

with the Sun 

slowly rising 

and casting a 

warm 

glow 

Quite a bit of 

time was spent 

thinking how 

the actual site 

would work; 

where rebars 

would go; where 

they would be 

stored; what I 

could add to the 

scene to make it 

a little more 

convincing, 

etc… 


3ds Max V-Ray Photoshop ZBrush 

Construction site at sunrise 2011 

I was surfing the internet as usual looking for inspiration when I came across images of 

construction sites in Dubai. They showed modern towers going up in a desert environment, and I 

instantly thought to myself, ‘I’d really like to do an image of this.’ So I began to gather reference 

images and analysing construction sites – the feel, the atmosphere, etc. I felt that creating a 

morning image would be best suited to representing the calm before the scene becomes a busy, 

sprawling construction site… 

193

Transport 

Interview: Daniel Simon ..............................200 

Creating a futuristic flying vehicle ..............210 

Get that post-apocalypse look .....................214 

Creating a magnificent Spitfire ....................218 

I made this: Simeon Patarozliev .................234 

Modelling a sports car .................................. 236 

Lighting the Silver Arrow .............................240 

I made this: André McGrail ..........................245 

Building a concept car ..................................246 

I made this: Neil Maccormack ..................... 252 

194

Transport 

Artist info 

Chris Skinner 


www.skinnercreative.co.uk 

Country UK 

Software used 

Blender & Photoshop 

Artist bio 

This was my entry for the 2010 

NVART Competition held on 

cgsociety.org. The theme was to 

create a futuristic vehicle 

inspired by the work of concept 

designer Syd Mead who is 

famous for designing vehicles 

for films such as Aliens, Blade 

Runner and Tron. 

Image name Orion 5 

195

Artist info 

Carlos Ortega 


www.zigrafus.com.mx 


Software used 

Maya, mental ray, Photoshop 

Artist bio 

Inspired by Syd Mead work, I 

wanted to portray a warm and 

quiet sci-fi scene, having as a 

main character a vehicle, 

something huge and heavy that 

can look protective and safe at 

the same time. 

Image name The Flea 

196

Transport 

Neil Maccormack 


www.bearfootfilms.com 

Country Switzerland 

Software used 

LightWave 10, Photoshop 

Artist bio 

The image was made as an entry 

for the CGtalk Syd Mead 

competition, the theme being to 

design and render a Futuristic 

Vehicle in the same style as Syd 

Mead artwork so that was my 

goal. I used LightWave 10 to 

model and render the image 

and then painted over some 

areas in Photoshop. 

Image name Trakker 

Artist info 

197

Artist info 

Paul Wesley 


www.paulwesley.in 

Country Dubai 

Software used 

3ds Max, Vray, Photoshop 

Artist bio 

The concept behind this piece 

was to design a futuristic 

automobile that was equipped 

with ammunition and had 

defence capabilities. Keeping 

this in mind, I went with a look 

and feel that decidedly looked 

futuristic but at the same time 

incorporated elements from 

current or yesteryear vehicles. 

Image name Karmelion 

198

Transport 

199

Company Cosmic Motors 

Founded 2005 


http://danielsimon.com 

Country Born in Germany, lives 

in California 

Software used Autodesk Alias, 

Autodesk Maya, mental ray, 

Bunkspeed Move, Photoshop 

Expertise Vehicle 

concept design 

Client list Disney, Marvel, 

Bugatti, Puma, Rocket 

Racing League, Honda 

Cosmic Motors © Daniel Simon Studio 

200 

All Cosmic Motors images featured are from the book Cosmic Motors by Design Studio Press 

(ISBN 978-1-933492-27-8). Copyright Daniel Simon (www.danielsimon.com)

Transport 

We talk to Daniel Simon, a vehicle concept designer using 

3D to stunning effect in his hyper-real visions of a parallel universe 

mechanics 

A concept designer creates products 

that do not exist, yet makes people believe 

that they could. It’s about sparking dreams 

and fantasies in others – and what would 

the world be without that? 

Daniel Simon – vehicle concept designer 

a Cosmic Motors Gravion Racer 25 

“Pilot LaGata Donner posing with her 

winning turbine-powered circle racer” 

201

When I render, I imagine being in a pricey 

rental photo studio. I choose my angles, lenses, 

colours, materials, backgrounds, etc wisely. 

My life is too short to render images that 

no one will remember tomorrow 

b 

202 

Daniel Simon visualises vehicles 

of all kinds for feature films in 

Hollywood. Prior to his move to 

California to work as a vehicle designer on 

such blockbusters as Tron Legacy for Walt 

Disney Studios, and The First Avenger: 

Captain America for Marvel Studios, Daniel 

worked for a number of years for 

Volkswagen Design and its related sports 

car brands, Bugatti and Lamborghini, 

as an exterior designer. 

Other clients have included Puma, for 

which he designed a global print ad for 

c 

futuristic soccer boots. He also successfully 

launched his own fantasy label in 2005, 

Cosmic Motors, which is a ‘virtual studio’, 

so to speak. It’s all about the lifestyle: palm 

trees, blue sky and seductive pilots. But it’s 

not all glamorous: to bring his visualisations 

to hyper-reality he relies heavily on 3D 

software and spends a fair portion of his 

time indoors behind a monitor, where he 

envisions a fantastical parallel world. 

You design stunning vehicles and work with 

beautiful women. What aspects of your job do 

you enjoy the most, and why? 

Daniel Simon: We all look for balance in 

our lives. Mechanical beauty and female 

attraction is haunting me all day, so I try 

to combine it in my work. Nothing 

extraordinarily new, I guess, but it’s 

challenging. It’s not easy to stay away from 

cheesiness and remain classy. But after 

months behind a computer it’s a relief to get 

outside in the sun and do a production shoot 

with a real model. 

What does working in concept design mean 

to you? 

DS: It’s being out of your comfort zone 

almost every day. A concept designer 

creates products that do not exist, yet makes 

people believe that they could. It’s about 

sparking dreams and fantasies in others – 

and what would the world be without that? 

So, it’s not about creating production data 

(although if it comes to manufacturing a 

vehicle for a movie then very much so), but 

more about a spiritual impact. Your art will 

be seen by a widespread audience from all 

cultures. There is no package to start from, 

no pedigree, nothing. You can get lost with 

so much freedom! 

A concept designer questions everything 

in the beginning of a project and does 

extensive research. It’s fun to know a little 

about everything – aircraft, ships, cars, 

space, manufacturing, architecture, 

animals, anatomy, history, fashion, 

photography, colour… I love this variety and 

could never go back to a job that handles 

only one of these things. 

What are your general feelings about 3D 

modelling and rendering for concepts? 

DS: CGI is just a tool for me. Like a pencil. 

But no one talks about their tool as much as 

3D artists about their software. Sure, it is an 

interesting subject, but don’t over-hype it. 

It’s a tool and they change every year. Let 

software engineers (and God bless them) 

talk about it. For artists, all that matters

d Cosmic Motors Camarudo 

Mono Sport Pod 

“Made for impoverished racers, 

this cockpit is a practical mix of 

used spaceship parts” 

Transport 

e 

is what you do with it. Your eye, your feel 

for proportions, perspective, dynamics… 

It’s the creative mind piloting the tool. 

The same applies to rendering: for me, 

rendering is photography. Everybody can 

take boring photos with a badass camera. 

I get so tired of seeing another picture of 

a HDRI rendered sphere or bauble – who 

cares? It’s amazing technology and I am still 

blown away by it, but why post it on a blog? 

I don’t get that. Say something with your 

rendering! Think about the lighting, the 

colour temperature, the mood, the angles… 

When I render, I imagine being in a pricey 

rental photo studio. I choose my angles, 

lenses, colours, materials, backgrounds, etc 

wisely. My life is too short to render images 

that no one will remember tomorrow. 

How did the Cosmic Motors book opportunity 

come about, and how long did it take to 

produce, from the galactic story and concepts 

to the 3D and hyper-real illusions? 

DS: In 2005 the president of Design Studio 

Press, Scott Robertson, saw my website 

and dropped me an email saying, “Let’s 

make it into a book.” I fell off my hammock 

on a Brazilian beach when I read it. I flew 

to LA. We polished the concept of it and 

all was done in 2007. 

f 

b Cosmic Motors 

Nembiquarer 

“An exhausted 

stewardess taking off 

after a long day on board 

this lavish business truck” 

c Cosmic Motors 

Nembiquarer 

“This cutaway drawing 

reveals the truck’s tight 

interior due to its 

military pedigree” 

e Cosmic Motors Galaxion 

5000 Gangster Coupe 

“A streamline limo, 

refurbished by heavily 

armed gangsters prone 

to style” 

f Puma ad campaign 

“The design brief from 

the client asked for 

experimental-looking, 

full-leg soccer boots” 

203

Cosmic Motors 

“COSMIC MOTORS is an independent manufacturer of 

vehicles of all kinds, located in the centre of the Galaxion 

galaxy. CoMo, as it is affectionately referred to by its fans, 

was founded by the famous Redooa brothers in the Galaxion 

year 8966-B. 

“CoMo soon became a shooting-star company among the 

big established vehicle makers in the Galaxion system and 

countless record-breaking CoMo vehicles steadily caught the 

attention of the public…” 

Daniel Simon’s passion for car design, jet engines, aircraft 

graphics and scantily clad female pilots is clearly visible in this 

collection of fantasy vehicles. They are all 3D-built from 

scratch, rendered to perfection and accompanied by hyperprecise 

design drawings and sketches. 

This volume only scratches the surface of many of 

Daniel’s ideas, so it’s no wonder that work on a second 

book just started. 

Cosmic Motors, 176 pages, is published by Design Studio 

Press in hard and soft cover, and is available to order at 

www.designstudiopress.com 

Cosmic Motors book cover 

Order at www.designstudiopress.com 

Hardcover: ISBN 978-1-933492-28-5 

Paperback: ISBN 978-1-933492-27-8 

g Cosmic Motors Ice Train 

at Factory Facility 

“This composite of render, 

photograph and Photoshop 

painting emphasises the titanic 

size of the Arctic machine” 

204

Transport 

h Cosmic Motors Camarudo 


“Built for junior racers to 

compete for lucrative spots in 

more powerful racing classes” 

In total, work on Cosmic Motors took 

about seven years – two years full-time. 

It took forever! It was both fun and torture. 

But I wanted the book to be more than a 

quick brain fart – it had to be a timeless, 

quality showcase. 

Scott, a concept designer himself, 

became a good friend and an endless 

source of inspiration. 

What work is involved in the creation 

of your hyper-real concepts, and how long 

does the production of one of these images 

generally take? 

DS: For each Cosmic Motor I would say oneto-six 

months per vehicle. It’s not about the 

modelling – that’s the fast part. It’s the 

design work. Some are easy; some drive me 

crazy. I do many revisions, render daily, try 

different versions, go back to the drawing 

board… For example, I’m still not happy 

with the Gravion Racer on the cover: there 

is something weird about it in front view, 

so I am still fine-tuning it. Also, I don’t reuse 

parts or download stuff. Everything is built 

from scratch to fit perfectly into the design 

look. The extensive research also takes up 

quite some time. 

Per published vehicle I would have 

about five unpublished, different versions. 

Then, to render one image I need a few 

days to find the right angle and lighting. 

All maps are custom-made; logos have to 

be designed. Graphics take days to finish. 

If it includes a real human model, add a 

week or so for costumes, location and 

postproduction. Most images are 10,000 

pixels in true resolution, which equates 

to about 66 megapixels, so there’s lots of 

work to do. 

On a feature film it’s different: it’s all 

about speed. Sometimes I have a day for 

a model, sometimes up to two months. 

How long did it take for you to perfect 

your technique? 

DS: I wish it were perfect. I am learning 

every day, but sometimes I get stuck with 

old techniques. It was 2003 when I started 

3D modelling. I built a teapot in three days 

and I immediately saw the power of the tool. 

At that time I was a car designer at 

Volkswagen, dealing with full-size clay 

models. I was dependent on modellers – 

extremely gifted talents – but I struggled 

with the process. 3D software was a 

blessing for my creativity. 

What hardware and software is essential to 

your workflow, and why? 

DS: I rely on Autodesk Alias on a Windows 

7 workstation, 64-bit, dual quad-core 

processor, 16GB RAM and a Quadro FX4600 

graphics card (it will be fun reading this 

again in a few years!). I model NURBS. For 

creative lighting and rendering I like mental 

ray through Autodesk Maya. For 

fast visualisation on productions I run 

Bunkspeed Shot and Move. I also run a Mac 

for administrative work. But basically, I hate 

computers – I’d rather be the singer of a 

famous band – but hell, I was born with a 

thrill for design, so I guess I’m stuck behind 

a 30-inch monitor trying to model and 

machine my ideas. Bummer! 

You seem to be happy in the old-school world 

of drawing as well as the computer world of 

3D modelling. Can you tell us more? 

DS: A pencil is a great tool to throw ideas 

out quickly – I am not even saying on 

paper; could be digital. I believe somebody 

who can draw can work more efficiently 

in 3D. Most people rely on happy accidents 

on the screen, but I am not a fan of that 

(although some accidents I’ve had have 

led to cool results). 

In my work on movies I’ve found that 

every director is different, so it’s great to be 

able to make adjustments with either more 

205

206 

i Cosmic Motors 

Detonator Mk2 No6 

“Built for bike fanatic droids and 

unsuitable for humans – the posing 

cosmic siren is misleading”

Transport 

I am fascinated by Daniel’s mastery 

of detail that is complemented by a 

thorough facility in three-dimensional 

realisation of his stunning designs 

Syd Mead – artist, futurist, illustrator and conceptual designer 

207

k 

Cosmic Motors © Daniel Simon Studio 

l 

j 

208 

sketches or more 3D to get the best design 

results for the director. 

Can you tell us how you got into feature film 

work, and how your earlier experiences 

helped pave the path to these opportunities? 

DS: In 2005 I quit my comfortable design job 

at VW to move to Brazil to work on my own 

designs, which later became Cosmic Motors. 

I felt it was the right time in my life to take 

two years off and work on my dream. After I 

finished, I moved back to Berlin and opened 

a design studio there, Daniel Simon Studio. 

Well, two weeks after the opening, I closed 

it to follow the irresistible call of director Joe 

Kosinski and production designer Darren 

Gilford, to design vehicles for Tron Legacy. 

I’ve lived in Los Angeles ever since and work 

with great people. 

What was it like working as vehicle designer 

in LA on Disney’s Tron Legacy? 

DS: I can only say this for now: I guess I 

will be proud of no more than three movie 

projects before I die, and this is one of them. 

In the feature film design world many 

things get changed before they hit the 

theatre, for various reasons. But the work 

on this one was different. We can talk about 

it after its release. It will look incredible! 

Continuing the feature film theme, you’re 

currently working on The First Avenger: 

Captain America. What are your 

contributions to this title and how long do 

your roles on movies like this tend to last? 

DS: Most feature film projects in 

Hollywood hire about a dozen freelance 

concept artists – preferably members of a 

local union – so-called concept illustrators. 

There is so much talent! I am finding my 

niche amongst them as a specialist for 

vehicle design. I hope I can contribute to 

projects using my experience from the 

automobile industry and my quiet, nerdy 

interest in all sorts of vehicles. I like to stay 

on board from the first concept phase to 

final set build supervision, which is about 

six-to-twelve months. Sometimes I get 

hired for one week only, to spark ideas. 

I’m never really done with a movie though 

until it’s released. 

j It’s all about the lifestyle: 

cool machines, palm 

trees, blue sky and 

seductive pilots 

k Cosmic Motors 

Nembiquarer 

Luxury Truck 

“The front wheels – 

housing propellers 

– can swing forward 

and pull the truck out 

of the swamps” 

Now you’re working on feature films, what’s 

happening to Daniel Simon Studio? 

DS: It’s idling in the Galaxion Universe. 

Your work has also been featured in 

numerous art, design, automobile and 

lifestyle publications, both print and online. 

How important is it to promote your work in 

this way, and what other marketing tricks 

do you employ? 

DS: Private me is rather humble, but 

publicity gets you jobs. Through my 

website happened the book, through 

the book happened Tron. Try to be unique 

in some way and promote that. Accept 

small steps but always think quality. 

My local hometown paper interviewed 

me first, a year later Playboy magazine 

called. And I try to be present online – 

producing a book trailer for YouTube was 

surprisingly successful. 

l Scene of Starting Grid 

Preparation 

“Hand-drawn with ball 

pen and shaded in 

Photoshop– a fun 

exercise between 

computer hours”

Transport 

m Cosmic Motors Camarudo 


“Brunella XII is the most 

successful semi-droid on 

planet Oosfera” 

You toured through Japan last year with a 

series of lectures in Tokyo, Osaka and 

Nagoya on car, graphic and computer design. 

What was this experience like and how did it 

come about? 

DS: Everybody should travel to Japan. Every 

inch of that country is designed. I felt like 

I was on another planet. You think you are 

advanced? Yeah, right – welcome to Tokyo. 

And the lectures were incredibly different 

to Western events; so much etiquette, so 

much bowing! And people are very humble 

and disciplined. You can find some of the 

best designers there and nobody shows 

it off. Love it! 

In your lectures you talk a lot about 

proportions and design language. Can you 

tell us more? 

DS: Proportion is everything. That’s the art, 

and a thin line. Our eyes are so trained over 

the years to unknowingly find something 

attractive, or not. Between a beautiful face 

and an ugly face there might be only 3 per 

cent difference. It’s the same with cars. 

A quarter inch here or there will make you 

think, “Ooh, how sexy!” or, “Oh, it somehow 

looks lame and fat.” And then you model 

something on the computer and start 

fiddling with volume that you scale up 

Each decade of the last 100 years has 

been defined by what manufacturing 

process was used in the making of vehicles, 

and that reflects in the design. Knowing 

all those subtle differences is only the 

beginning of a creative adventure 

and down 20 per cent or so. The freedom 

can lead to terrible proportions. The same 

applies to shape language. It’s so subtle. 

A certain type of radius decides if a vehicle 

looks Forties, Sixties, or Nineties. The way 

panels connect; how part lines run over 

surfaces; if glass is flat, bent, or even has a 

crest line. Each decade of the last 100 years 

has been defined by what manufacturing 

process was used in the making of vehicles, 

and that reflects in the design. Knowing all 

those subtle differences is only the 

beginning of a creative adventure. 

When your work on Captain America comes 

to an end, what’s next for Daniel Simon and 

Cosmic Motors? 

DS: Los Angeles is fast. You never know. 

For years I’ve worked on the launch of a 

scale model collection for Cosmic Motors, 

but I’ve never found the time to bring it 

to the market. This city hits you every 

morning in the face with irresistible job 

opportunities. There are so many movie 

directors out there I want to work with. 

And then there is the next book… 

You come across as an artist who 

has fulfilled many dreams in his career 

already. But are there any new aspirations 

for the future, or childhood dreams yet 

to be realised? 

DS: If I design vehicles all day I’d better 

know how to fly them, so next should be 

a pilot’s licence. That can’t be so hard. 

Maybe a helicopter licence one day, too. 

As for the work, well, my own movie. 

Some day. 

209

Step by step: 

Creating a 

futuristic 

flying vehicle 

Future Flier 2010 



V-Ray 

Photoshop 

CS4 

Unfold 

210 

The mass of the 

aeroplane is quite 

simple so that the 

geometry of this 

type does not cause 

problems, even for 

beginners at model 

building 

Michal Kwolek is an experienced 

professional artist who specialises 

in 3D modelling and texturing

Transport 

Concepts, 

modelling 

Concepts 





Artist info 

Michal Kwolek 

Username: kreska90 


www.kwolek.org 



Quad 2.40GHz, 8GB RAM 

Expertise Michal specialises 

in 3D modelling and texturing 

The first stage was 

02 to work on the shape 

of a simple sketch, made in 

Photoshop, viewed from the side. 

The dimensions weren’t exact – 

it was more important to get the 

lines of the vehicle sketched out. 

At this stage I did not care about 

details – it was all about creating 

the right shape of the car so that 

when it came to modelling, it 

would be much easier to keep 

the form in the right shape. 

Formula 1 cars 

01 of the Sixties were 

characterised by simple and 

beautiful shapes. The typical 

car shape looked like a long tube 

with a hole in the front. When 

working on the Future Flier craft, 

I wanted to re-create this basic 

shape. The first step of the work 

was therefore to collect 

reference material for vehicles 

from those years. When I had 

the necessary pictures, I could 

start the modelling process. 

T 

his tutorial 

shows the 

process of creating 

the Future Flier image from 

conception to a final render. The concept 

was based on the form of old F1 cars. The image has 

been completely modelled, lit and rendered in 3ds 

Max 2008 using V-Ray. The postproduction work 

was done in Photoshop. The modelling work was 

established quite quickly, in less than two weeks. 

The mass of the aeroplane is quite simple so that 

the geometry of this type does not cause problems, 

even for beginners at model building. Similarly, the 

hangar and equipment were very straightforward. 

After creating primitive models, the poly modelling 

for the detail parts was simple. The plane materials 

are standard materials in 3ds Max. The most 

difficult part of the project was the lighting and 

rendering, mainly because a few test renders were 

needed to get the exact glow and desired effect. 

After an initial vehicle concept I decided to draw a more accurate version. 

03 The base for the simple model was constructed mainly from primitive shapes 

in 3D, then this model was rendered and composited in Photoshop. Here I have also 

modified the vehicle to fit the proportions of the interior elements. The modelled ship 

now has the look of the original concept drawing. 

211

Artist 

Showcase 

Michal Kwolek 

Michal was born and lives in Poland, and is 32 years 

old. He’s been a computer graphics professional for 

eight years, previously interested in it as a hobby. For 

six years he was working for an advertising agency 

using 2D graphics. Currently he is working in the studio 

as the general graphic artist. He mainly deals with 

modelling and texturing, though from time to time 

does simple rendering and animation. 

04 

Modelling the vehicle 

Creating the sleek lines of the craft 

I made a model of the ship using 

the poly modelling method. I started 

from a simple tube shape with a small amount 

of polygons. The tube was converted to 

polygons on the object and I removed the field 

along the y-axis. Next I added the modifier 

‘Symmetry’ to the shape of the tube. Now, 

the shape of the two halves was a mirror so 

the second half was a reflection of the first. 

Modifying the first section modified the second 

as well. This allows you to obtain a symmetrical 

shape which saves a lot of modelling time. 

05 

When I was happy with the 

balance of the preliminary modelling 

of the ship, it now looked liked a perfect tube. 

At this stage the most important point was to 

capture the correct proportions. I then cut a 

hole in the middle and modelled the edges so 

that they formed a basic cockpit outline. Then 

the front and ends of the hull were modelled 

so that the geometry bent inwards into a 

distinctive air inlet shape. 

Kids 3ds Max, V-Ray, Photoshop CS3 (2008) 

The work of Kids was created for a competition organised by the 

Polish portal, max3d.pl graphics. This work took first place. I really 

like this picture; it brings much joy to me, especially the modelling 

of the kids and their parents. It was completely created in less than 

two months. It also qualified for a CG Gallery Choice Award. 

Minotaur 3ds Max, V-Ray, 


Minotaur was formed in a free 

moment at work. The model took 

quite a long time, probably nearly 

three weeks. Originally intended 

to be a hero without a shirt, it was 

to be realistic. But I went away 

from that approach to a more 

cartoon style. Unfortunately, 

because a realistic weapon 

remains, it detracts from the 

whole image. Maybe someday I’ll 

improve it and make the Minotaur 

a realistic figure. 

Andrew 3ds Max, V-Ray, Photoshop CS3 (2007) 

Reviewing the work of Daniel Frost, I had the idea of making a 

steampunk plane named Andrew. It’s an amazing idea with large 

chimneys on a plane – I like this type of invention. Creating it in 3D 

(originally it was a simple bar sketch) was a pure pleasure. The 

background and water were created in Photoshop. This image 

qualified for a CG Gallery Choice Award. 

06 

In the next stage I created the main elements of the ship. Not bothering too much about 

the details, I focused on the shape of the vessel and the proportions between different parts. 

All the elements still used the same Symmetry modifier so that only half of them had to be modelled, 

with the other side being created automatically. When I decided that it had the correct proportions, it 

was time to start the fine-tuning. 

07 

When I was aligning the engine 

I didn’t really care about the technical 

validity of the construction, I just wanted you 

to be able to see it at first glance. Therefore 

I modelled a simple block, pistons and valves. 

All kinds of tubes, ropes and cables made lines. 

It has (like the hull) been completely treated by 

the Symmetry modifier to make it faster and 

easier to finish. 

08 

When the ship was initially in place 

it had metal-strut feet, but at the last 

minute I decided to put them on wheels, which 

were modelled from cylinders. The cylinders 

were distorted at the bottom edge so as to look 

as if they were subjected to a load. The chassis 

design of the undercarriage is a typical light 

aircraft arrangement. I made it with appropriately 

matched tubes that look like pistons. 

212

Transport 

Adding fine details 

Refining the model and adding textures 

Having the basic 

09 vessel and cockpit 

completed, it was time to add 

the details inside it. First of all 

I modelled a simple chair and 

then the handlebars for the 

steering control. These were 

placed inside the cockpit. 

Then I added seals around the 

windows and small air vents 

in the hull rear. All these 

elements were modelled with 

simple shapes and applied 

with symmetries. 

Initially I wanted to present the vehicle in a neutral 

10 environment. With time, however, I decided the hangar 

would be more to the point. I modelled it with a cube, thicker 

layers of gauze and I added an undulating shape of the roof, the 

whole thing slightly asymmetrical so that sides were not very 

equal. The side structures were done with lines, giving them 

a proper thickness and rendering options. 

Lighting 

the image 

I wanted to present the 

scene at a certain time 

of day with the sun 

slowly setting 

westwards. A V-Ray 

light to simulate sunlight, 

using a spherical shape, 

and a light orange-pink 

colour was created 

outside. The hangar 

doors were fixed open 

so that this sunlight 

could then come in from 

outside. I used the 

interesting shapes of 

the structures and 

accessories to create 

chequered shadows 

around the hangar. 

The aircraft was also 

illuminated with spots 

of light arranged around 

the area where it rested 

so that it was nice and 

bright, despite the 

sunlight outside. I also 

tweaked the reflections 

on the paintwork so 

that they had a more 

realistic effect. 

10 hours 

render time 

Resolution: 

4,000 x 2,250 

The UV maps were prepared for the 

12 vehicle using the Unfold program and 

exported. Mapping was prepared only for those 

elements on the side nearest the camera. Knowing 

that the ship would only be visible from one side 

helped simplify the UV mapping. The walls of the 

hangar, as well as smaller items of equipment, 

possessed a simple map that was added directly 

in 3ds Max. Then I was ready to take on the UV 

texture making. 

The modelling of this scene ends with creating the 

11 hangar interior. It needed barrels, bottles, boxes of 

tools and such elements. I wish I had the room to include 

a convincing character as well, but the perspective would 

have looked off with someone in it. Most of the objects were 

created from simple solids subject to minor modification. 

Besides those, I had taken a cable to connect things up and 

use fuse boxes and all kinds of electrics. That concluded the 

modelling process. 

The textures were 

13 prepared in Photoshop, 

mainly for the vehicle itself. 

A 4,096 x 4,096 resolution 

texture map turned out to be 

high enough. So I prepared a 

Diffuse, Bump and Specular 

channel render. Other textures 

were already lower resolutions, 

but this didn’t matter as they 

were in the background. 

The floor needed a higherresolution 

texture as the 

camera was positioned quite 

low and close to it. Most of the 

textures I got free from 

cgtextures.com. 

213

Step by step: Get that 

post-apocalypse look 

Open Road 2009 


LightWave 

3D 

modo 

Photoshop 

214 

Create a barren 

post-apocalyptic 

scene – featuring a 

Mad Max movie style 

vehicle – finished 

with a grungy 

concept art look 

Waldemar Bartkowiak specialises 

in modelling and texturing

Transport 




Artist info 



Waldemar 

Bartkowiak 

Username: mancubus 


www.mancubus.glogow.org 


Hardware used Quadcore 

Q6600 2.7GHz, 8GB RAM 

Expertise Waldemar specialises 

in modelling and texturing 

The idea is to build a post-apocalyptic style car, like you might see 

01 in the Mad Max movies, or Fallout computer games. It needs to be 

rough, dirty, put together from different parts – look mean. Most of the parts 

need to be rusty, weathered and damaged, showing it has been built from 

junk and that it has a long history on the road. We chose the cliché setting – 

on some desert road, which highlights that there are few to no survivors left. 

Texturing, 

lighting 

I 

n this tutorial, the main goal is to create an 

image, which has the feeling of 2D art, but uses 

3D tools. You can find a lot of shiny, brand new, 

realistic car renders out there, but we want this artwork 

to stand out from the crowd. We feel that concept art 

really complements the rusty pick-up truck in a postapocalyptic 

environment better than any other style. To 

create the image, a combination of 2D and 3D skills will 

be used. The car will be modelled with a large amount 

of detail, using LightWave 3D and modo. We want to 

design a truck that looks as if it could actually have 

been built in reality, but give it an illustrative finish. For 

lighting, rendering and compositing, LightWave 3D will 

be used to match the background. To get the 2D feel, 

multiple passes will be composited and then combined 

with overpaint techniques, using photo textures, 

procedurals and hand-painted elements. Finally, all the 

layers will be composited in Photoshop. 

For the base, we used a 

02 combination of two popular pick-up 

trucks: a Dodge Ram and a Ford F-150. Using 

parts from both of them, the car was 

customised to make it less recognisable. Of 

course the car also needs custom tyres and 

a different engine that will stick out from the 

car body. We opted for a pick-up truck for 

the vehicle as it will be able to carry a greater 

amount of armour, fuel and equipment. Plus 

the survivors can load various objects/ 

resources, which they may discover in this 

unfriendly environment. 

You can’t have a post-apocalyptic 

03 vehicle without weapons. Militia in some 

countries use pick-up trucks as weapon bases/ 

fighting vehicles called ‘technicals’. While looking 

for references, we found the big, mean Russian 

Kord machine gun that seemed perfect for the 

main gun. Then, you can go on to look for other 

details and references like rucksacks, fuel 

canisters, pieces of armour, etc. This research part 

is very important, and the amount of time you 

spend on planning your piece at this stage will 

definitely pay off later. 

215

Artist 

Showcase 

Waldemar Bartkowiak 

I’m a 3D artist from Poland. I have a generalist 

background, which allows me to do a wide range of CG 

work from drawing concepts, lighting and animation 

to composition. My favourite areas of 3D art would be 

modelling and texturing. For my day job, I create 

realistic assets, but in my spare time, I like to create 

more stylised artworks, like this one. 

Incident Zero LightWave 

3D, ZBrush, Photoshop, 

Fusion (2009) 

This is my admission for 

the Polish CGTalk contest. 

I tried to achieve a more 

illustrative look than a 3D 

render. The story behind it 

feels like a cheesy, B-class 

sci-fi movie. In a desert 

laboratory, while 

researching a new 

bioweapon, something 

has gone terribly wrong. 

A squad of special forces 

soldiers is sent in to rescue 

surviving scientists and to 

retrieve research data. I was 

trying to get a book cover/ 

poster look. 

04 

Material surfaces 

Adding textures and materials 

The texturing process for this 

project was quite unique in that the 

decision was taken to hand paint most of the 

textures instead of using photos. We did use 

some pre-made textures (predominantly from 

www.cgtextures.com) for the base and to add 

a touch of realism, but the main part of the 

texturing was done using a Wacom Intuos 

4 tablet. Start by painting the base colours 

for the various parts. 

05 

After applying the base colours 

to the parts, break them up with 

some procedurals. Procedurals add some 

variations to the colours and change the tones. 

Next, create a mask to get rid of the paint from 

the metal parts and to show the grey steel 

underneath; you want to achieve a weathered 

look. You can also add some grunge or noise 

to make it more interesting. 

06 

Now, it’s time 

to add the rust to the 

plates. To get this effect, we 

used a combination of photos 

from CGTextures and handpainted 

stains of darker rust. 

You want to end up with 

different variations and stages 

of decay for different parts. 

Don’t forget to add rust to the 

rest of the metallic parts of the 

car. Try to keep the rust to the 

seams and on the most 

exposed areas where there 

is little to no paint, by using 

previously created masks. 

Greed LightWave 3D, modo, Photoshop (2008) 

This is turntable sculpt from my demoreel called Greed. The life of 

a noble knight that fought many battles and monsters, completing 

numerous quests and dangerous tasks, finally comes to an end. 

He was defeated by his own weakness – greed. After slaying the 

monster and returning with the treasure chest, he gets stuck in the 

swamp. With the chest full of gold, he was too heavy to move, and 

starts to slowly sink in the swamp. Refusing to let it go, he dies from 

exhaustion, but still holding his treasure. 

216 

07 

Next, make 

scratches in all 

the metal textures. On the left 

side of this image, you can see 

the clear metal, while on the 

right, you can see it with a 

Scratch map applied. Paint all 

the edges with a grungy 

brush, and make them 

brighter than the rest of the 

surface. This enhances 

specular highlights, and also 

defines the shapes better. You 

can also paint drips onto the 

rusty surfaces under bolts, 

which combined with 

Ambient Occlusion, creates 

a great grungy look. You may 

need to paint extra highlights 

on the cloth surfaces to make 

the wrinkles more visible. 

08 

The last part of this stage involves painting dust 

textures. To do this, you’ll need to use a combination 

of procedurals and grungy brushes. Try to add more dust on the 

lower parts of the car, and less on the top. The most dusty parts 

are, of course, the tyres, so they will need extra layers on the 

treads. We included quite a lot of dust to tone down the colours 

and make the car blend better with the background. Also, this is 

the time to add the important small details for the finishing touch 

– such as bullet holes, scratches, leaks, etc.

Transport 


Creating the environment 

Before you start 

09 to work on the 

lighting, you need to find a 

fitting background. We did 

many tests with various photos 

and tried many angles to 

effectively blend the car into 

the environment. We also 

wanted to show the empty 

road to bring a sense of 

loneliness and isolation to 

the scene. 

1 hour 

render time 

Resolution: 

4,096 x 2,444 

When happy with the 

10 final staging of the car, try 

to get the light to match the 

background and get the same 

ambient lighting on the car. Firstly 

work on matching the light angle and 

brightness, so you can then work on 

matching shadows. Try working with 

black-and-white images, so the 

colours won’t be a distraction, and 

concentrate on the contrasting and 

corresponding shades of grey. 

Once the car is 

12 incorporated into 

the background, split the 

rendering into separate 

passes such as Occlusion, 

Shadows, Reflection/ 

Specular, Color passes for 

different parts of the scene. 

By rendering everything 

separately, you give yourself 

more freedom within the 

composition. This is 

particularly important as we 

are going for a very stylised 

and unique look, which avoids 

a straight CG render feel. 

Combining and blending all 

of your passes in Photoshop 

is the key. 

When you have the car angle sorted out and the 

11 strength of the light matching that in the environment, you 

can start working on the final composition. Don’t worry overly 

about the environment itself at this stage, as you’ll be heavily 

overprinting it later. In LightWave 3D, use Camera Projection to 

project the background image onto the ground plate to easily 

match the shadows. 

Modelling the scene 

While modelling, the biggest challenge we faced was the 

placement of the details. We wanted to create the feeling 

that everything had a purpose and had been placed there 

for a reason. Knowing that the final object would be quite 

heavy, we started with a proxy model of the car and 

placed all the proxy details on it. The base car was 

modelled from two different trucks and later armour 

layers and details such as screws were added all over – 

modo’s Mesh Paint tool is excellent for doing this. We 

modelled all the details as separate pieces (engine, 

rucksacks, guns, ammo boxes, etc) and replaced the 

proxy models with finished ones. The model ended up 

quite heavy, but with a highly detailed final result. Many 

polys could have been removed by replacing them with 

various textures (tyre thread, for example), but we wanted 

this model to be able to withstand close-up scrutiny. 

Once all your passes are rendered, work in Photoshop 

13 to combine them in the right way. At this stage, you can 

also start working on the background to give it a more painterly 

finish. We have painted some city buildings in the distance to add 

a little story to the image. Paint the car render itself to fix any 

errors and to increase the concept art feeling, while also trying 

different colour gradings to experiment with the mood. 

217

Software used 

modo 401 Photoshop ZBrush 




Artist info 

Dieter Meyer 

Username: Deetz 


www.cg-artworks.com 

Country Canada 

Expertise I have been 

modelling highly detailed 

aircraft for over three years to 

use in my aviation artwork 

Creating a 

magnificent 

Spitfire 

Spitfire Mk5B 2010 

218

Transport 

Model and render a realistic 

Spitfire for an animation or for 

compositing in your artwork 

Dieter Meyer specialises in aircraft modelling 

The Spitfire first flew in 1936 and made its combat 

debut in 1939 defending a Royal Navy base in the 

Firth of Forth, Scotland. Since then, it has been 

regarded as one of the best fighter aircraft ever built. 

This article will focus on the modelling of a Spitfire Mk5B. 

This project will require a high level of skill and a good 

knowledge of working in modo. However, most 3D 

packages offer the same general methods, so this tutorial’s 

workflow can easily be applied to other software. There is a 

great deal of work to modelling an aircraft and I may not be 

able to cover every aspect of the detailing process. I will be 

covering the major sections of the aircraft and the general 

process I follow in creating highly detailed models. 

The greatest challenge you will face on this project is the 

ability to keep the model entirely in SubD without the need 

to freeze the mesh. The benefit, of course, is you can 

control the subdivision level at render time for a higher 

or lower level of detail depending on your needs. It also 

allows for a much easier UV mapping process. 

In the second part of this tutorial, we’ll cover all the 

aspects of UV mapping and texturing the Spitfire. 

219

Starting the model 

Creating the fuselage 

Modelling 

a Box out the fuselage 

using a cylinder with six 

segments and eight sides 

01 Box out the fuselage 

The first step is to box out the basic fuselage by making 

a cylinder with six segments and eight sides. Make sure 

its centre is zero on X and delete the two cap faces. Give 

it a basic oval shape and extend it from the base of the 

spinner to the end of the fuselage; don’t worry about 

the rudder yet a. 

02 Adjust to fit blueprint 

Your next step is to begin adjusting the vertices so they 

line up with our blueprint. Press Tab to enter SubD mode. 

The nose of the Spitfire is nice and flat so we’ll line up the 

top of the cylinder here. Take the first set of vertices and 

make them into a circle to match the spinner b. 

03 Continue matching adjustments 

Now continue the process down the length of the fuselage 

starting with the side profile and then switch to your top 

view and adjust the width of your edge loops. Next we’ll 

need to add five edge loops at the tail to create the base 

of the rudder and begin adjusting the vertices vertically 

to match the drawing. 

04 Refine the rudder base 

Here we’ll continue to refine the base of the rudder 

by adding three more edge loops to help control the 

thickness. We don’t want a bulky looking base here; 

b 

d 

b Use the conveniently flat 

nose of the plane to line up the 

top of the cylinder 

c Add extra edge loops with 

Alt+C and Free mode selected 

d The cockpit area after 

adjustments to produce 

smooth, realistic edges 

c 

it needs to finish off looking fairly sharp. Use the Edge 

Slide tool to move the edge loops and pay attention to 

how they match the flow of the fuselage. Everything must 

taper to the rear nicely c. 

05 Onto the cockpit 

The last area to deal with will be the cockpit. Start by 

adding an edge loop at the rear of the cockpit. Bevel the 

two faces that make up the cockpit inward and down and 

delete them. Next we’ll add more edge loops to sharpen 

the surrounding area of the pit. You will need to arrange 

the edges after the bevel so they provide a continuous 

flow with no triangles d. 

Artist 

Showcase 

Dieter Meyer 

I grew up in South Africa before moving to the UK 

and finally to Canada. I’ve always enjoyed drawing 

and sketching and using an airbrush to create 

artwork, but it was around 2000 when I started using 

Photoshop and 3D software to create digital art. 

P-47D Thunderbolt modo 401, Photoshop (2010) 

Modelled and rendered in modo 401 with all of 

the textures created in Photoshop. This was an 

interesting project for me as I had not done a bare 

metal finish on an aircraft before. 

220

Transport 

Those distinctive wings 

Giving the Spitfire its edge 

08 Add the distinctive curve 

Now we’ll add more edge loops along the X-axis to give 

the wing its curved shape. Use the Loop Slice (Alt+C) in 

Free mode with a count of 2 to add the edge loops. Use 

the top view to ensure the rear edge lines up with the 

aileron edge on the drawing; we’ll use this later when we 

cut out the control surfaces. Move the vertices on the top 

edges upwards to give it a rounder shape g. 

Included on the CD is the full 

Spitfire Mk5B model for 

modo 401 so you can study 

the finished result. 

e 

f 

06 Create the wings 

Begin by adding a cube with three segments on the Y. Use 

the top view for initial placement and then the front to get 

the needed angle, and then scale the end down using the 

Action Center>Selection option. Do the same for the rear 

of the wing, making sure it’s very thin. Remove the faces 

that are adjacent to the fuselage e. 

07 Hone the wing shape 

Move the front top and bottom edge backwards to give 

the wing’s edges a round form. Next we’ll add some edge 

loops to start creating a better wing shape. Use Alt+C for 

Loop Slice and change the count to 5 with Symmetry 

enabled. Repeat this process for the tailplane f. 

g 

09 Join wings to the fuselage 

Extrude the edges adjacent to the fuselage to get the basic 

wing fillet started. You will need to add edge loops as you 

go and continue to refine the shape. The wings will not 

join to the fuselage but sit against it. Once you have made 

the fillet, add a small bevel to the edges that are nearest 

the fuselage to simulate the folded steel h. 

h 

e Boxing out the wings and 

tailplanes, using various views 

f Adding edge loops and 

making the leading edge of 

the wings round 

g Adding more edge loops 

to form the curve of the wing 

h Placing the wing fillet 

to sit flush with the fuselage 

Towards Kharkov modo 401, Photoshop (2010) 

This image uses my previously made Marder III H, made in modo 

401, and depicts the advance on Kharkov in early 1943. The 

backplate is a combination of photographs I took with a lot of 

painting in Photoshop. 

Alfa Romeo 12C modo 401, Photoshop (2007) 

This is the Alfa Romeo I made for the combination render with my 

Macchi 205. modo 401 being the software of choice with Photoshop 

used for textures. This was an interesting project for me, learning about 

race cars from the Thirties and Forties – very powerful! 

221

Organising 

your meshes 

As you model aspects of the 

aircraft, you may find it’s hard 

to see which piece is which. 

An easy method to organise 

your meshes is to right-click 

on the layer and choose Fill 

Colour or Wireframe Colour to 

better distinguish them. This 

can be done without creating 

separate materials, making it 

very handy. 

i Cutting the ailerons 

(wing-flaps) into the wings 

j Using the Bridge tool 

to add faces to the aileron 

l Filling in the gaps on the 

wing created by the aileron 

m Sharpening up the cut-out 

area of the wing 

Rolling and climbing 

Cutting in the control surfaces of the wings 

10 Form the ailerons – Part 1 

In order to cut out the aileron, first we’ll need to add 

two more edge loops that will form the sides of the 

aileron. Once they have been added, select the faces that 

make up the aileron and Cut>Paste them to a new layer by 

using the shortcuts Ctrl+X to cut, N for a new layer then 

Ctrl+V to paste i. 


Now select the edges of the aileron and bridge them so it’s 

a solid piece. Make sure to deselect the vertical edge on the 

aileron or it won’t work. Use the Bridge tool with three 

segments as we’ll need to join the vertices onto the trailing 

edge of the aileron. Use the Join option rather than Join 

Averaged so the trailing edge remains exactly in place j. 


The last step before returning to the wings will be to 

add four more edge loops to give the aileron some nice, 

crisp edges on the sides. Take the front upper and lower 

edges and pull them back to give it a rounded front much 

like the wing k. 

k Refining the aileron’s shape using edge loops 

13 Close the gap 

Using the same technique for the aileron, we’ll close the 

gap in the wing and then join the vertices on the trailing 

edge. Next an edge loop that surrounds the cut-out area 

will need to be added. C is the shortcut for the Edge Slice 

tool we’ll use. Once this has been added, join the two 

vertices on each corner l. 

14 Sharpen up 

The last step for the cut-out area will be to add one more 

edge loop with the Edge Slice tool (C) at the corners in order 

to make them sharp. The same process will be used to 

complete the tailplanes at the back of the aircraft m. 

i 

l 

j 

m 

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Transport 

n Creating the wheel 

bay reference meshes 

Wheel bays 

We have to put the wheels somewhere! 

The Symmetry option 

Many 3D modellers like to work with half of the object and 

then duplicate and join the edges. I prefer to see the entire 

shape take form and frequently use the ‘X’ Symmetry 

option. Even after I have finished an object, sometimes 

I may need to go back and edit the surface. The Symmetry 

option makes edits and modelling certain areas a snap. 

p 

15 The shock process 

This step is one of the more difficult tasks of making 

a SubD aircraft. It will require more patience and work 

to get it absolutely right. Begin by creating a six-sided 

cylinder on a new layer, but don’t add any depth. Then, 

using the Polygon Pen tool, trace out the area where the 

shock will lie. These two meshes will be used as the 

shapes to trace onto the wing n. 

16 Position your meshes 

Arrange the cut-out mesh in blue as shown. Use the Edge 

Slide tool to arrange the edges on either side of the cutout 

mesh so they won’t intersect. With the cut-out layer 

underneath your wing layer, select first the wing layer 

then the cut-out mesh layer. Then opening Geometry> 

Boolean>Drill, use the Stencil option and Last Selected 

as the drive mesh o. 

17 Going full circle 

Hide the cut-out mesh layer. Select the faces that make 

up the stencil area on the wing and Cut>Paste them to 

a new layer; these will be used later when we make the 

landing gear. Connect the vertices together to form 

a complete circle. You will also notice that the top of 

the wing received the stencil – this can be deleted by 

using Backspace p. 

o 

o Adding the stencil of the 

wheel bay to the wing mesh 

p Cleaning up the vertices 

to form a complete circle 

q Finishing off the wheel bay, 

adding caps and sharpening 

corners with edge loops 

q 

18 Mould the edges 

Now we’ll add edges to the corners of the circle and 

edges to where the shock will lie using the Edge Slice 

tool (C). Once this is finished, double-click the outline to 

select the stencil and extend it inwards and downwards 

(using Z) very slightly, then finally down until it’s deep 

enough to hold a wheel. 

19 Final wheel bay touches 

Use the Bridge tool and Edge Slice tool to connect the 

edges together to form a cap on the wheel bays. As 

always, add edge loops to sharpen those edges on the 

corners. Use the drawing provided to edit your shape 

so it matches the circle of the wheel bay q. 

223

Cockpit 

Let’s add a frame and some glass 

Problems 

and solutions 

One of the difficulties of 

working with SubD is that in 

order to refine a specific area, 

you may need to add a ton of 

edge loops. If your model is 

one piece, it may lead to an 

incredibly high-poly SubD 

model. When I model an 

aircraft, I use the major seams 

on the body panelling to 

break the model up, which 

allows me to better control 

the density of my mesh. 

r Isolating the cockpit area in 

order to cut out the windows 

s Cutting out the rear 

window of the cockpit 

t Box modelling the canopy 

area using edge loops to refine 

u Adding depth to the canopy 

using the Edge Extend tool (Z) 

20 Place your window cuts 

First we need to add some edge loops to control the mesh 

when we make our cuts for the window opening. Using the 

Slice tool (Shift+C), add two cuts, one to the nose at the 

seam of the engine and then another in line with the 

aerial. Select the faces in between and Copy>Paste to 

a new layer r. 

21 Adding depth 

Now we can position the edge loops around the window 

area to be cut out. Use the Edge Slide tool with Duplicate 

on to position the new edges. In Polygon mode, Copy> 

Paste the faces that make up the window to a new layer, 

then extend the edges of the opening inward to give it 

depth. Once again, add edge loops around it and the 

corners to sharpen the shape s. 

22 Begin the canopy 

Now we can get started on the actual canopy for the 

Spitfire. We’ll start off with a basic cube with two 

segments added in X, Y and Z. Place the cube into 

position and move the vertices to the general shape. 

Now we’ll begin refining the shape by adding edge loops 

to isolate the frame and window area t. 

23 Divide the canopy 

The next part of this construction will require us to 

separate the front and sliding section of the canopy for 

further refining. Select the faces that make up the front 

area and Cut>Paste them to a new layer; make sure to 

name it accordingly. Now we can continue on the front 

section without having to add unnecessary subdivisions 

to the rear section. 

24 Focus on the details 

Once we have refined our canopy to something close to 

the real thing, we need to separate the glass areas onto 

new layers and give the canopy frame some depth so it 

doesn’t look too thin and unrealistic. I select edges and 

use the Edge Extend tool (Z) to do this a few times, 

constantly keeping in mind that I want the edges of the 

canopy nice and sharp u. 

Keep it plane and simple 

Although I may not have been able to show how to create 

every element of the Spitfire here, for all elements the 

construction is the same. Start with a cube or cylinder 

as a base and avoid adding segments initially as this just 

creates problems. Building from a very basic primitive will 

help you see where edges should go in order to refine your 

mesh. Pay close attention to the flow of the aircraft and try 

to use as many reference photographs as you can to help 

with modelling accurately. 

s 

r 

t 

u 

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Transport 

v 

Wheels and whatnots 

Adding the final details 

28 Get in a spin 

Since we’re going to show the Spitfire in flight, we’ll need 

something to act as the propeller blades and the spinner 

cover. Using the front view, create a disc that matches the 

diameter of the blades. Use the cylinder primitive; just 

don’t extend it to give it any depth. Lastly, create the 

spinner, from the front view, by creating a cylinder with 

eight sides and three segments and scale the edges to 

match the drawing y. 

29 Spit-fire power 

The last details to add are the cannons, named aptly for 

their explosive power on the Mk5B and some intakes. 

Use a cylinder for the cannons, deleting the rear face that 

extends into the wing. For the intakes, we’ll use cubes and 

control the round edges by placing edge loops slightly 

away from the edge z. 

HALFWAY 

THERE… 

Now that we have a 

Spitfire ready to fly, the 

second half of this tutorial 

will show you techniques 

for UV mapping, texturing 

and lighting your new 

aircraft. We’ll then place 

it in a scene and really give 

it some life! There will be 

final scene files in modo 

plus OBJ models so you 

can texture using your 

preferred program. 

w 

v Adding the wheels to the 

wings using a cylinder, torus 

and a disc 

w Using the cut-out mesh to 

model the wheel bay doors 

x Creating the plane’s rudder 

starting off with a cube 

x 

25 The wheels on the plane... 

The drawings provided don’t really show the detail in the 

wheel or shock. For this tutorial, we’ll use a cylinder, torus 

and a disc. Let’s start by making a torus for the tyre and 

delete the inner faces. The disc, after a few bevels will 

be the rim of the wheel. The cylinder will be the shock. 

Visit the website provided to add further detail to this 

area of your model v. 

26 Add the wheel bay doors 

Now we’ll use the cut-out mesh we removed earlier from 

the wing to make the wheel bay doors. Use your drawing 

and delete the areas that aren’t needed. Use your Edge 

Slice tool (C) to add extra edge loops as shown and then 

use Polygon Thicken to give it some depth. Add two edge 

loops to sharpen it up w. 

27 Rudder time 

To make the rudder, start off with a cube. Align the cube into 

position and scale down the rear edges until they’re almost 

touching. Then begin to add edge loops using Loop Slice 

(Alt+C) and refining the position. We’ll need to sharpen the 

corner near the top the same way as the aileron corners x. 

y 

z Adding the cannons and intakes to the Spitfire 

y Adding the propeller 

placeholder and spinner 

225

226 

Included is a selection of files 

to guide you through the 

tutorial, plus a cool skyscape 

and an active propellor. 

spitfire_MkVb_textured.lxo 

spitfire_MkVb_textured.obj 

sky.jpg 

prop blur.psd 

Spitfire textures and UV maps

Transport 

Texture, render and composite 

the Spitfire model mid-flight onto 

an authentic sky backplate 

Dieter Meyer specialises in aircraft modelling 

Now that you are halfway through this 

tutorial covering the creation of a Spitfire 

Mk5B, it’s a good time to look at what 

you’ve done. So far I have showed the workflow for 

the modelling process using modo 401. In the 

second part I’ll cover the aspects of UV mapping the 

Spitfire, prepainting the model in modo and then 

perfecting the textures in Photoshop. The last stage 

will concentrate on lighting and rendering the 

Spitfire, before compositing the final renders to a 

backplate in Photoshop. 

The hardest part of this section will be the UV 

mapping. You’ll find that modo has excellent UV 

mapping features and, once they are 

understood, it will make the process very 

easy. I generally create three or four highresolution 

maps for a model, but for the 

purposes of this tutorial, we will create 

a single 4,096-pixel map that will hold all 

of the UVs. 

Textures will be created in Photoshop 

with additional textures downloaded from 

www.cgtextures.com. Further reference 

material for the Spitfire can be found at 

www.supermarineaircraft.com and 

http://spitfiresite.com. 

227

UV mapping 

Getting started with UVs in modo 

01 Mesh layers 

As part of my workflow, I initially created and named 

several mesh layers for the model. As we progress 

through the tutorial, we will combine the different layers 

into a single mesh with one UV map. Areas that have been 

UVed will be assigned a new material to keep things as 

organised as possible a. 

UV mapping, 

texturing, 

rendering 

02 Preparing a new UV map 

Switch to the UV tab, on the top tool bar. If you can’t see 

your model in the right view pane, just press ‘A’. Hide all 

layers except for the one you’re currently working on – in 

this case, the fuselage. On your Lists tab, select UV maps 

and then New Map, type in ‘Fuselage’ and hit Enter. 

a 

03 Project from View 

Select the brace on the cockpit and press ‘H’ to hide it for 

now. Hit ‘3’ for Polygons and, in the top view, select all of 

the polys on the right side. Switch to the right view and 

then select Project from View. Hit the left square bracket 

(ie ‘[’) to highlight polys not currently selected and click 

Project from View again b. 

04 Adjusting the UV map 

Select the left side of the fuselage and scale it in the V to 

–100%. Because the fuselage is rounded, we’ll need to 

adjust the UV border to compensate or our textures will 

look stretched. We don’t want to do it for both UVs though, 

so select both and then activate Fit UV’s with the Keep 

Proportion option. Now select the UV Symmetry: V. 

05 Continue to adjust the map 

Areas in red indicate that the map is intersecting with other 

parts of the map. In some cases, this is okay, but not for the 

fuselage. Start by selecting the edges at the nose and pull 

them forward until there is no more red showing. Do the 

same for the rudder. It may be easier to select the edges 

in the model pane and move them in the UV pane c. 

b 

c 

a Organising the mesh layers 

b Mapping with the Project 

from View option 

c Adjusting the edges to avoid 

stretching and overlapping 

Artist 

Showcase 

Macchi 205 modo 401, Photoshop (2009) 

Created entirely with Subdivisions, the Macchi 205 

proved to be quite a challenge in terms of modelling, 

but, in contrast, was really fun to texture. 

228

Transport 

UV Unwrap tool 

UV mapping without Project from View 

06 Exhaust ports 

Using the Unwrap tool is a great way to UV map rounded 

or more complex areas of a mesh – eg the Spitfire’s 

exhaust ports. In Edge mode, select the edge of one of the 

exhaust ports as shown in the screenshot. Set the 

Iterations to 2,000 and use the Cylindrical projection d. 

07 Multiple objects 

Since we have six exhaust ports, we don’t want to have 

to UV map each one individually. Select the exhaust port 

polygons in the UV pane and Ctrl+C to Copy. Then select 

the next exhaust port in the model pane. Back in the UV 

pane, Ctrl+V to Paste the UV map, then move it over 

slightly to the right. Repeat this step until all of the ports 

are mapped e. 

08 Sewing edges 

After you have unwrapped the aerial, it will split in half, 

so you’ll have to sew the sides back together. To do this, 

select the edges on one portion of the UV map. The 

corresponding edges will turn blue for the matching side. 

Use Selected to sew the blue edges to the ones you have 

selected. Or use Unselected to move the highlighted 

edges towards the blue unselected edges. 

d 

09 UV Unwrap 

After you’ve sewed the aerial together, use the UV Relax 

tool to edit the UV shape. Select the polygons of the UV 

map, with Iterations at 100 and in Unwrap mode, click on 

the UV pane to edit the map. It should now be more linear 

in shape rather than warped-looking. Rotate the map to 

a vertical position f. 

e 

f 

d Using the Unwrap tool on 

the Spitfire’s exhaust port 

e Creating UV maps for 

duplicate objects 

f Using the UV Relax tool to 

adjust the UV map’s shape 

Humber MkI modo 401, Photoshop (2009) 

I wanted to start adding some armoured vehicles to my collection 

and thought this little armoured car would fit well. 

Me-262 modo 401, Photoshop (2008) 

The only jet in my collection of CG aircraft. Modelled in modo and 

textured in Photoshop. The diorama base represents the area in which 

this plane is stored outside. 

229

UV Relax 

Sometimes the first attempt at 

relaxing the map doesn’t 

work. With Interactive 

checked, you can continue to 

adjust the UVs. Each time you 

click on the map at a vertex 

point, a blue square appears 

that can be moved around. 

These areas are also pinned 

and allow you to edit the 

specific section without the 

entire shape moving. 

h Setting up the new paint file 

in modo prior to Photoshop 

i Adding the basic camouflage 

pattern using the Hard brush 

j Starting to add the correct 

base colours, panel lines 

and rivets 

h 

Painting in modo and Photoshop 

Adding a little colour 

10 Exporting the UV map 

Finish UV mapping the model using the techniques 

explained. Refer to the files provided as a guide for the 

different areas to see how to go about laying out the UVs. 

The next step is to export your map as an EPS to open in 

Photoshop. Go to Texture>Export UVs to EPS and give the 

file a name of your choice g. 

11 Setting up a new texture 

Before doing anything within Photoshop, paint in basic 

colours in modo to get everything lined up. In the Paint tab, 

go to Utilities>Add Color Texture, then name the file and set 

it to 4096 x 4096 pixels. If you haven’t given your model a 

new texture yet, do so now, then drag it into the new 

Material group h. 

12 Painting in the base colours in modo 

Now, under Paintbrush, select the Hard brush. At this point, 

you can choose any colour you like as it will be replaced 

later in Photoshop. Using the reference image provided, you 

can paint in the basic camouflage. No need to worry about 

the underside as that remains a single colour. Painting in 

modo also allows you to paint across separate UV maps i. 

g The finished UV map ready to export as an EPS 

13 Setting up your files in Photoshop 

Open the UV map as an RGB at a size of 4096 x 4096 

pixels. Next open the colour map saved from modo. 

Ctrl+click the layer to create a selection and then Copy and 

Paste it to the UV file, keeping the UV layer on top. You 

may need to invert the UV layer so that it’s white to make it 

a little easier to see. 

14 Painting in the base colours 

in Photoshop 

Now that we can see where our camouflage is going in 

relation to the UV map, we can start adding base colours. 

For the panel lines, use a 1px black line. To create the rivets, 

use a hard-edged brush. In the brush options, under Brush 

Tip Shape set Spacing to 300%. Click once to begin and 

Shift+click to finish j. 

j 

i 

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Transport 

Texturing 

Adding the dirt and light maps 

Riveting stuff 

When a real aircraft has rivets inserted, the steel of the 

body is distorted. In addition to the regular rivets and panel 

lines, try painting in some slight deformations with a soft 

brush and very low opacity to create interesting 

undulations in the bodywork. Another step is to duplicate 

the rivets and panel lines and add a Gaussian Blur to 

feather them out, thereby creating more subtle 

undulations to the surface. If the rivets are raised, then 

switch the colour so the area around them is depressed. 

k 

15 Dirt maps 

At this stage, we want to break up the clean look of the 

aircraft by adding some dirt maps. I find that the site 

www.cgtextures.com is a great place to start when 

looking for textures. I tend to use a dirty, bare metal steel, 

placed on top of my layers and set to Multiply. You can 

then play with the opacity to see what suits you best k. 

16 Diffuse amount 

Organise your layers in Photoshop so that all of your colour 

layers are in a single group. Duplicate the group and call it 

‘Diffuse Amount’; this will control the light saturation of the 

colour map. Add a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, 

with Saturation at -100. Hide the camouflage as both 

colours will receive the same light saturation. Reduce the 

opacity on the other layers as well l. 

17 Specular map 

I like to create Specular maps with high contrasts between 

white and black. I usually use a few dirt maps with 

different opacity levels layered on top of one another. 

Here I’ve also painted in some areas where I think there 

should be more spec – for instance, where the aircraft 

would see greater wear and tear m. 

18 Reflection map 

White being the most reflective colour, we now need to 

alter the various areas that will be reflective. Tyres, for 

instance, should have no reflectivity, whereas the metal 

body should have a good deal. We will control the actual 

reflectivity later in modo. Overall though, the painted 

reflectivity should be kept fairly dark. 

19 Bump map 

The black panel lines should have the opacity reduced so 

that when they are placed in the Bump channel, they are 

not too deep and look trenched. This also applies to the 

rivets, which are only going to be visible on close-up 

renders. Give the background a medium grey shade 

and make sure any Bump layers correspond n. 

l 

m 

n The Bump map showing a 

close-up of the rudder fabric 

k Bare metal texture 

added, set to Multiply with 

48% Opacity 

l Diffuse Amount map after 

desaturation and altering the 

opacity levels 

m Specular map with several 

layers of dirt maps added 

231

30 mins 

render time 

Resolution: 

3,888 x 2,592 

o The texture maps once 

added to the material 

p Adding the sky image 

for lighting reference 

q Preparing the Spitfire 

to render in layers 

r Rendering the Spitfire 

Rendering 

Bringing the Spitfire to life 

20 Assembling the textures in modo 

In modo, if you haven’t done so already, assign the Spitfire 

a material with a unique name. Expand the Material group 

and use the Add Layer tab, then scroll down to Image Map 

and load one of the textures that you created. Do this for 

each map thereafter until all of the textures are loaded o. 

21 Adding the sky 

We now have to decide on how to light the Spitfire. We’ll 

use our backplate as reference in modo. In the Shader 

Tree, expand the Environment group. Use the Add Layer 

tab to load the ‘sky.jpg’ image. In the Texture Locator tab, 

change the Projection Type to Front p. 

22 Boosting the lighting 

We already have a Directional light, but we’ll add two 

Area lights to help fill in some of the darker areas. The 

first will be positioned below, to create simulated light 

bounce from the clouds, and the second as a light fill 

opposing the Directional light. Set to Physical Sun with 

London as a location and set the time to 17:30 with the 

North Offset at 150. 

23 Adding render outputs 

The Spitfire will be rendered in layers. Expand the Render 

group and use the Add Layer pull-down to add a new 

render output and set it to Ambient Occlusion. Do the 

same to add Reflection Shading, Specular Shading, 

Transparent Shading and Diffuse Shading (Total). In 

the Render properties, enable Indirect Illumination q. 

24 Rendering 

Hide the sky layer for now. Rendering will be done in two 

stages. The Spitfire first, then without moving your render 

camera, the propeller place holder, which will be used in 

Photoshop when we add the propeller blur. The default 

options will be okay, but Antialiasing can be turned higher 

to 32 samples/pixel if you prefer r. 

Target the lights 

To make it easier to keep the Area lights concentrated on 

the Spitfire, create a locator by going to New Item>Locator. 

Select the Area light and then the locator and, in the 

properties of the light, select Set Target. Now when you 

rotate the lights, they will move wherever the locator 

moves. Just add the locator to your Spitfire group. 

p 

q 

o 

r 

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Transport 

Compositing in Photoshop 

Adding the Spitfire to your backplate 

25 Opening the rendered files 

The next step is to add a mask to all of the layers. 

Ctrl+click the Alpha layer to select it, then Ctrl+C (Copy). 

In the Channels tab, create a new layer and Ctrl+V (Paste) 

the Alpha in. Deselect the layer, then Ctrl+click to reselect 

the Alpha channel. Click on any layer and then hit Add 

Layer Mask s. 

26 Adding the prop blur 

Open the render of the prop place holder and Copy and 

Paste it onto the Spitfire. Next, open the file ‘prop blur. 

psd’ and drag the prop group onto the Spitfire. Now use 

the Distort option (Edit>Transform>Distort) and use the 

prop place holder as a guide. The last thing to do here is to 

erase some of the prop that sits over the spinner t. 

27 Layer blend modes 

The final step before we composite our Spitfire onto the 

photo backplate is to adjust the layer blend modes for the 

various render outputs. Ambient Occlusion is set to Multiply 

to remove all white areas, while Reflection, Specular and 

Transparent layers are changed to Screen in order to remove 

the black areas. These can now be fine-tuned to your 

personal taste u. 

28 Compositing the Spitfire 

Create a new group for all of your layers and call it 

‘Spitfire’. Open the ‘sky.jpg’ image, then drag and drop 

your Spitfire group onto it. Resave this as a PSD file to 

continue the work. Now add a Photo Filter adjustment 

layer with Density set to 25%; this will help blend the 

Spitfire into the environment v. 

s 

u 

29 Motion details 

To give the Spitfire a sense of motion, we can incorporate 

some vapour trails and exhaust fumes. Using a fine brush, 

add a few streaks onto the wingtips and perhaps add a 

little motion blur (Filter>Blur>Motion Blur). The same 

process can be used to add exhaust fumes w. 

t 

v Adding the Spitfire 

to the sky backplate 

s Creating the layer masks 

t Adding the propeller blur 

to the Spitfire 

u Adjusting the layer 

blending modes 

Keeping it real 

When creating textures in Photoshop, try to use as much 

real-world reference as you can. The key is to alter and 

blend them in such a way as to – in essence – produce 

your own unique textures. Sometimes it may not be 

necessary to create a very worn aircraft, but adding a 

slight touch of wear and tear can make all the difference. 

w Adding some extra details to the image for authenticity 

233

Artist info 



Simeon Patarozliev 


www.spatarozliev.co.uk 

Country Bulgaria 


Digital Fusion, mental ray 

In terms of composition, 

the image is fairly simple. 

I wanted to give the car 

more space to breathe and 

was wondering if I should 

remove the opening in the 

wall, but without it, the 

image lost a lot of depth 

and the background itself 

became too uniform 

234 

The Getaway 

Vehicle 2010 

A bank robbery that didn’t go as smoothly as 

planned… I focused on keeping the image simple 

in its modelling and lighting, but maximising the 

impact of intriguing details such as the bloodspattered 

loot. I first used another car’s blueprints 

to set basic proportions, then a lot of references. 

The lighting was done using the plug-in, Smart 

IBL. In general, the scene includes a HDRI, a direct 

light acting as the sun, and subtle V-RayShadows

Transport 

My modelling techniques aren’t anything new 

to the CG world: I use both box and poly modelling. 

I started the car’s main body from a simple box and 

detached all the parts at the end. The fenders were 

made using the poly modelling technique, as was 

most of the other geometry you can see. Modelling 

this vehicle was an interesting creative process 

Rendering with V-Ray, I used Irradiance Map, plus Light Cache. 

I also added an Ambient Occlusion pass made in mental ray and 

used simple masks to adjust the colours and the contrast 



V-Ray 

Digital 

Fusion 

mental ray 

235

Step by step: 

Modelling a 

sports car 

DX-8 FEV 2010 

With the popularity 

of the electric vehicle 

gaining traction, 

I decided to create 

a unique vehicle, 

something that will 

appeal to everyone 

Billy Cheng specialises in hard surface 

modelling and mechanical design 

236

Transport 




Concepts 


Artist info 

Billy Cheng 

Username: extreme88 


http://www.projectreality. 

com.au 

Country Australia 


Quad 2.66GHz, 4GB RAM 

Expertise Hard surface 

modelling is the area that 

I specialise in, including work 

in vehicle and mechanical 

(robots) design and creation 

01 

My aim for this project was to create a concept car like no others. 

In order to do this, I needed to gather reference material similar to 

the style of car I am after. One of the best sources of inspiration for concept 

cars can be found at www.carbodydesign.com. The image above contains 

some of my favourite designs. 

Concepts, 

modelling 



02 

After studying numerous vehicle designs from around the 

globe, I started to piece together what my electric car might look 

like if it had a Lamborghini Reventon head, Ferrari 458 back and a Citroen GT 

Concept side. The image above demonstrates the confluence of different 

vehicle parts pieced together in Photoshop. 

D 

ue to increasing concern over the 

environmental impact, demands for electric 

vehicles are increasing every year. This has 

encouraged me to start this project. My goal was 

to create a concept car that is appealing and unique 

but not too futuristic. Traditionally, the process of 

modelling a popular vehicle that exists on the market 

becomes easier when reference and blueprint 

materials are commonly available on the internet. 

Without the use of these essential elements, it is 

difficult to model any object. This tutorial will detail 

the workflow and techniques used to create my 

concept car. The concept drawing created in 

Photoshop will be used to assist with the modelling 

process. In terms of modelling, I will introduce a brief 

of how to create the body in 3ds Max using poly 

modelling techniques. The final stage of the tutorial 

describes how V-Ray will be used to light the scene. 

03 

I had hundreds of different car arrangements in my 

mind. I even incorporated references from nature (like 

the shape of an eagle) and combined them together using the 

photo confluence technique mentioned in step 2, before I came 

up with the design in the picture above. 

237

Artist 

Showcase 

Billy Cheng 

I am a 3D artist / freelancer from Sydney. I have been 

in the 3D industry for almost five years. The services 

that I provide include product visualisation, vehicle 

and character creation, and interactive 3D applications. 

Modelling the vehicle 

Creating the stylish look of the car 

05 

04 

The first thing 

we need to do is to 

create a set of blueprints from 

the concept drawing. Highquality 

blueprints are an 

essential element when it 

comes to modelling. This will 

not only help visually, but the 

accuracy of your model will 

increase tremendously if you 

can see precisely what you 

are modelling. 

Traditionally, if you are 

modelling a car where references 

and blueprints are easily accessible, you could 

draw quick wireframes on them using 

Photoshop to get a better understanding of 

how the topology might flow from different 

angles. But in this instance, we don’t have the 

luxury of this, therefore we will need to create 

a spline cage (like the one shown here) and use 

this to sketch some quick wireframes. 

Giant Robot 3ds Max, Photoshop (2009) 

This piece is a hybrid between a Transformer and a Gundam type 

of robot. I worked on this in my spare time. It consists of 2.12 million 

polygons. All components were modelled in 3ds Max, rendered 

with V-Ray, and Photoshop was used for post-work. 

06 

From my 

experience, by 

drawing some quick wireframe 

using photoshop on the spline 

cage in different perspectives 

like the image above, allows us 

to use it as a guide which will 

result in a quicker and more 

efficient modelling process. 

MRH Helicopter 3ds Max, Photoshop, BodyPaint 3D (2009) 

This model was part of an interactive training application I did for 

a client. All major components, like the engine and other internal 

mechanisms, were modelled as well. The final product consists of 

over 500 individual components. It was created in 3ds Max and all 

textures were created using BodyPaint 3D and Photoshop. It was 

rendered in V-Ray and Photoshop was used for post-work. 

238 

Scooter Transformer 

3ds Max, Photoshop, 

BodyPaint 3D (2009) 

This piece was inspired 

by the Transformers movie; 

I created this based on a 

scooter I worked on for a 

client. I thought the design 

of the scooter looked pretty 

cool, so I decided to move it 

to the next level and created 

a Transformer scooter bot. 

07 

Using wireframe 

as our guide, start by 

using the poly modelling 

technique to follow the contour 

of the spline cage as closely as 

possible, to create the initial 

shape. While I am constructing 

the car, polygon by polygon, I 

will constantly be looking at all 

viewports to make sure I am 

moving the polygons exacting 

where I want them to be. 

08 Without 

worrying about the 

windows at this stage, we are 

focusing mainly on the main 

body. Make sure the flow of 

your model matches what is on 

the blueprint – especially areas 

like doors and hood, where 

they will be separated from the 

main body at a later stage.

Transport 

Getting the overall look and feel 

Refining the model 

09 

In the initial stage 

of the modelling 

process, it is essential to keep 

the doors and the main body 

as one single object to ensure 

the topology is consistent 

throughout the entire model. 

Once the overall shape is 

blocked out, the next step will 

involve the detailing of the 

current shape. 

10 

It is vital to get the general proportions correct before 

we add edge loops to detail the model, because it could 

get arduous trying to change the overall shape once you have all 

the details cut into the high poly object. 

11 

Now it comes to the 

part where areas like 

the doors and hood will be 

separated from the main body. 

We do this by selecting the 

door area with the poly 

selection tool. Then, under 

Edit Geometry, click Detach to 

create a new object, as shown 

to the left. 

38 mins 

render time 

Resolution: 

1,200 x 648 

12 

After separating 

all required body 

parts, it is time to add 

elements like windows, grill, 

wheels, headlights, back lights 

and interior. The final result is 

shown in the image here. 

The lighting plan 

The lighting setup for this scene consists of a target direct 

light for the simulation of the sun. It is set to a relatively 

low value and a V-Ray dome light is used for ambient to 

add a bit of mood to the scene. For example, I usually set 

the ambient dome light at a quarter of the value of the 

target direct light. Finally, open up the material editor and 

put VRayHDRI into your diffuse slot, then locate your 

HDRI and select spherical environment as your map type. 

Once this is done, put it inside ‘GI environment (skylight) 

override’ under V-Ray Environment. With the help of the 

right HDRI image, you should be able to get a realisticlooking 

render using this setup. 

13 

Lastly and also 

most importantly, I 

want to emphasise the 

significance of the headlights, 

which are like the eyes of a 

vehicle – in my opinion, they 

will be the first thing that 

attracts people’s attention. To 

achieve realism in any image, 

the key ingredient is detail. The 

image here shows a cluster of 

elements such as the reflector, 

glass cover and light bulb, 

which were all modelled as 

separate elements. 

239

Step by step: 

Lighting the 

Silver Arrow 

240 

Mercedes Benz W154 2009 

Learn how to dramatically pose and light a 1938 

Mercedes Benz W154 racing car to make this – and all 

your future vehicle projects – really shine 

Djordje Jovanovic 3D artist 

In this tutorial, you will discover the 

best workflow for creating your own 

virtual studio environment for lighting 

a reflective industrial model – in this case 

a 1938 Mercedes Benz W154 racing car. 

The studio is made up of a light setup 

which consists of two different light sources, 

custom reflection cards and a background/ 

base. 3ds Max is our main app with a V-Ray 

plug-in used as the renderer. We will be 

using a standard VRayLight as our main 

(diffuse) light source, then adding a few 

standard Omni lights and assigning them to 

our custom reflection cards. We can use this 

combination to accurately place reflections 

and separately control the intensities for 

diffuse lighting and reflections. In 

postproduction, you can use Photoshop to 

add some depth of field (DOF) to the image 

and do some colour correction. 

The major advantages of this setup is that 

the diffuse light and reflections have 

separate controls and the whole thing can 

be set up fairly quickly. The major difficulty 

will be the placement of the reflection cards 

because it can take some time to find the 

spots where reflections will be most 

effective. I found some interesting studio 

images and light setups on the internet that 

I’d never tried before; these are always good 

for inspiration or to use as reference. Similar 

inspirational images are shown in Steps 1-3. 



V-Ray 

Photoshop 

Inspirations 

Find a cool concept 

This image provided some ideas for the overall 

01 mood I was looking for. I liked the relationship of the car’s 

semi-reflective surface with the dark background in terms of 

contrast. The position of the main light source, directly over the 

car, which created a big shadow also appealed to me.

Transport 

Lighting, 

rendering 

© Porsche AG 




Artist info 

Djordje 

Jovanovic 

I liked the reflective properties of the car paint 

02 surface in this image and, similarly, the colour of the 

paint. I also liked the intensity of the reflections, the level of 

glossiness and overall gradients across the whole surface as 

well as the diffuse light in the scene. 

Almost symmetrical reflections were a fairly 

03 obvious choice considering the camera position. I did 

the frontal view like this image, but I wanted to go with an even 

wider lens – closer to the car – in order to accentuate the Silver 

Arrow’s front grille and the wheels. 


djordjejovanovic.com/blog 

Country Serbia 


V-Ray, Photoshop 

Expertise Hard-surface and 

environment modelling, 

texturing and lighting 

241


Set up your virtual studio 

We’ll kick off with 

01 the main subject – the 

Mercedes Benz W154. Next 

we need some kind of a base 

on which the car will stand, 

for which you can use a 

simple plane. And, lastly, of 

course we need the camera. I 

like to use VRayPhysical 

Camera because it has realworld 

parameters (eg F-stop, 

Lens focal length, Shutter 

speed, Color balance, etc). 

The parameters that differ 

from the default values are: 

Focal length 21.0, F-number 

2.0 and Shutter speed 20.0. 

Also make sure your 

environment background 

colour is set to black. 

Modelling 

the image 

The whole car was built in 

3ds Max 2009 using 

standard poly modelling 

techniques. I started with 

the front of the car body, 

which was the trickiest 

part. The major challenge 

here was to create a lot of 

precise details (air vents) 

on a surface that is curved 

in all directions, while 

maintaining the surface 

continuity. Once that was 

done, everything else was 

a breeze. I then quite 

quickly created the interior 

of the car, the suspension 

and the wheels. The tyres 

and the front air vent were 

the only other parts which 

demanded a bit of extra 

detailing work. 

VRayLight with Diffuse 

settings gives us the overall 

mood of the image 

The main light source in the scene will be the 

02 VRayLight placed directly above the car; the Type is set to 

Plane. The light area should be slightly longer and wider than the 

car and have its colour set to pure White. In the light Options, make 

sure that Affect specular and Affect reflections are unchecked, 

while Cast shadows and Invisible are checked. This way you’ll have 

a light source that emits diffuse light and casts shadows, but 

doesn’t create any reflections or specular highlights on the car. Play 

with the intensity until you are happy with the mood. 

Creating the first reflection 

card for the front reflections 

To add some reflections we first need to add a 

03 simple plane. This one is placed directly in front of the car 

and tilted slightly forward. The plane has a VRayMtl applied to it. 

Diffuse color is set to White and there’s a JPEG added to the 

Opacity slot, which is just a basic black-to-white linear gradient. All 

the other material parameters are set to their default values. 

242

Transport 

Now we need a 

04 standard Omni light 

placed between the card and 

the car. On this one you need to 

make sure that the shadows are 

turned off. The most important 

thing to set here is the Include 

options. You need to include 

only the reflection card to this 

light. This way the light will only 

cast its rays onto the card, 

which will then reflect back to 

the car, giving us independent 

control over this reflection. 

Artist 

Showcase 

Djordje Jovanovic 

As a son of a photographer, I became involved in visual 

arts from an early age. I’m currently working as a 

freelance 3D artist specialising in hard surface and 

environment modelling, texturing and lighting. 

Custom Humvee 3ds Max, V-Ray, Photoshop (2010) 

I always had a fascination with old, rusty mechanical stuff, like 

construction or military machines and vehicles, so wanted to create 

something on the subject. This customised Humvee was made to 

satisfy that desire and learn new techniques along the way. 

Modelled from scratch in 3ds Max and rendered with V-Ray. 

Next we need to add two more reflection cards, using the same process as Step 3. 

05 These two planes should also be placed above the car and rotated slightly downwards. 

However, these planes should be placed more towards the rear of the car. The camera is set to use a 

wide-angle lens which produces distortion; by moving the planes closer to the back of the car, we are 

able to minimise these effects and ensure reflections are almost flush to the car’s body. 

The camera is set to use a wide-angle lens which 

produces distortion; by moving the planes closer to 

the back of the car, we minimise these effects 

Hudson 3ds Max, Maya, mental ray, Photoshop, 

BodyPaint 3D (2010) 

My desire for creating old mechanical stuff wasn’t quite satisfied 

with Custom Humvee so I decided to make some more. This time I 

had a great time modelling the old Hudson steam locomotive in 3ds 

Max, rendering it with mental ray inside Maya and painting textures 

in BodyPaint 3D and Photoshop. 

For the final step of this lighting stage, we need to create two more Omni lights. Place 

06 them just above the car in the middle of the scene. Set them up as per Step 4, but include the 

left card to one light and the right card to the other. This way you will have separate intensity controls 

for each card. By this point, you’ll be able to see the effect of the gradient in the Opacity slot; it creates 

a nice fading-out reflection instead of a solid white line. 

Hiroshi Sambuichi 3ds Max, V-Ray, Photoshop (2009) 

While browsing through a local bookstore, an image of a Japanese 

interior stuck in my mind. I noted the name of the architect and, a 

few months later, when I finally found some free time, I created this 

image. It’s an interior of a rural Japanese house designed by Hiroshi 

Sambuichi. I created all the geometry from scratch in 3ds Max and 

rendered using V-Ray. 

243

Add some depth 

How depth of field was created 

To quickly add a DOF effect to the image, we 

01 first need to render out a Z-Depth pass. A Z- 

Depth is a greyscale image, similar to an Alpha channel 

that is a graphical representation of a scene’s depth. Go 

to Rendering>Render Setup>Render Elements and add 

‘Vray_Zdepth’ to the list. Next time you hit Render, you’ll 

get a Z-Depth pass alongside the standard RGB pass. 

Depending on your scene size and default 

02 3ds Max units, you might have to play with the 

Z-Depth Min and Z-Depth Max values in the Z-Depth 

parameters fly-out menu. Basically you need to get a 

whole range of greyscale tones starting from white and 

ending in black, while maintaining the visibility of the 

whole car geometry. 

There are a few solutions for adding 

03 DOF in post. I like to use the DOF PRO plug-in 

for Photoshop by Richard Rosenman, mainly because 

of its speed, quality and the options you get. Adding 

DOF in Photoshop is as easy as loading your original 

RGB pass, starting the plug-in, loading the Z-Depth 

pass and playing with the size and shape options. 

244 

Textures 

This image is almost 

texture free. The one 

texture I did use was to 

create details on the 

tyres. It was a standard 

black-and-white image 

used as a Bump map. 

Lighting 

issues for 

3D vehicles 

Depending on the effect 

you’re attempting, you 

can run into a lot of 

different issues when 

lighting a car. However, 

there are some universal 

things that need to be 

taken into consideration. 

The first is the key 

relationship between the 

subject and its 

environment in terms of 

space, composition, 

colour and contrast. Next 

is the position of the main 

light source and the 

shadows, which can make 

the difference between a 

dramatic or peaceful 

scene. Then there are 

reflections. The position 

of the reflections across 

the car body, their 

intensity and shape can 

make or break an image. 

Finally the body paint 

material is also an 

important factor that can 

affect all lighting aspects. 

DOF in Photoshop is as easy as loading your 

original RGB pass, starting the plug-in, loading the 

Z-Depth pass and playing with the options 

Focus on postproduction 

Apply finishing touches 

Usually when 

01 working on this kind of 

mechanical-based image, I try 

to do as much as possible with 

the 3D software, leaving very 

little to do when it comes to the 

postproduction stage. 

However, sometimes I do play 

a bit with the image in 

Photoshop to enhance a model 

and its environment. In this 

case I just toned down the 

saturation a little in the Hue/ 

Saturation options and then 

tweaked the Curves 

adjustment very slightly. 

1.4 hours 

render time 

Resolution: 

3,500 x 2,161 

There’s a cool 

02 plug-in for Photoshop 

called 55mm Digital Optical 

Filters developed by Digital Film 

Tools. This plug-in allows you 

to do many things, but I use it 

mainly for its Chromatic 

Aberration tool. In optics, 

chromatic aberration (also 

called achromatism or 

chromatic distortion) is a type 

of distortion in which there is a 

failure of a lens to focus all 

colours to the same 

convergence point. Adding this 

kind of subtle distortion can 

add an extra layer of realism to 

a 3D illustration.

With my lighting I used the 

new SLIK kit from Luxology, a 

kind of content pack with premade 

studio lights and tons of 

options to set up any type of 

real-world photography 

lighting. This, mixed with 

global illumination, gives a 

professional-looking render 

Suzuki Intruder 

250LC 2010 

Transport 

I’ve created the bike for a portrait piece I’m working 

on which will include the bike’s owner – my 

beautiful girlfriend – on the bike in the desert. Since 

it’s the first finished piece and turned out better 

than expected, I decided to render out a product 

style shot using the new SLIK kit from Luxology. 


modo 

Photoshop 

André McGrail 

Artist info 

Username: Verasl 


http://andre.phaedra.co.nz 


Software used Modo401, 

Photoshop 



The entire bike is 

made in SDS subdivision 

in modo, giving it the 

ability to be rendered 

close up by automatically 

adding polygons; it also 

ensures there are no very 

sharp edges, getting rid 

of the CG look 

I wanted it to resemble a 

professional photoshoot, so spent a 

lot of time moving lights so 

reflections look sleek and simple, 

to bring out the bike’s shape 

245

Building a 

concept car 

Sting Ray 2010 

Artist info 

246 




Tyree Ross 

Username: Officialist 


www.tyediad.com 

Country USA 


Duo E8400 3GHz, 8GB RAM 

Expertise Tyree specialises 

in 3D concept art 

This tutorial will show how the Sting Ray 

was created. My thought process behind 

the idea was to create something that was 

on the border of reality and fantasy, yet still with 

a designer edge to it. The idea was to create 

something fresh and completely original. The 

biggest challenge in modelling a concept design is 

knowing where to begin. This tutorial will assume 

that you are already familiar with the basic 

modelling nomenclature of 3ds Max. I will give a 

broad overview of the steps used to create the Sting 

Ray. While creating the vehicle, I used the box 

modelling technique with editable polygons. The big 

challenge faced in the completion of this image was 

welding the vertices. Although it is tedious, it has a 

rewarding feel when you reach your final render. 

Correct geometry is so important when modelling 

vehicles. 3ds Max was the software used for the 

modelling, along with mental ray renderer. 

My thought process behind the idea 

was to create something that was on the 

border of reality and fantasy, yet still 

with a designer edge to it 

Tyree Ross specialises in 3D concept art

Transport 

Modelling, 

texturing, 

rendering 

01 Drawing the blueprint 

The first step is having your idea on paper. Draw as much 

detail as you need to help you model your design. The 

template doesn’t have to be detailed, but have just enough 

detail to get you the basic shape of the concept vehicle. 

The template or drawing will be the top and side portion 

of the tutorial a. 

02 Digitise your drawing 

Scan your blueprints into your computer using Photoshop 

or any other software that you have to scan your images. 

Try to save them with the same measurements: it will make 

it easier when you import them into 3ds Max. I used Adobe 

Illustrator to redraw the design, just to make sure that the 

curves were neat and precise b. 

03 The setup 

Start off with two planes. The first plane will be in the top 

viewport. This will be for your top blueprint material. The 

second plane will go in the right viewport for the side view. 

This plane will have the side-view material . Be sure to make 

the material active in the viewport. In the Hierarchy tab, 

check all boxes to keep the planes from moving during your 

modelling. Once the planes are set up to your liking, add 

cylinders where the front and back wheel would be and lock 

them into place as well c. 



mental ray 

B The blueprints need not be detailed. The idea is to concentrate 

on achieving the shape 

a One plane will be in the top; place the second plane in 

the right viewport 

C Adding cylinders is completely optional. When dealing with 

distinct shapes, use extra references 

247

Modelling the car 

Box modelling is the best approach 

30 minutes 

render time 

Resolution: 

3,000 x 2,100 

Problems 

and solutions 

I found that welding and 

chamfering are very powerful 

in modelling. Welding vertices 

can be so helpful in making 

complex shapes, but at the 

same time troublesome in 

lining up the vertices. After 

a few models you will get the 

hang of it. Later I found out 

that using the scale tool while 

having two vertices selected 

will bring them closer 

together. That alone cut my 

work down by hours. Once 

I was introduced to chamfer, 

I was amazed that the look 

that I have been wanting for 

so long for the 3D images was 

right under my nose. It is a 

process like any other 

technique. It has its own 

separate properties to get use 

to. As always, practice makes 

perfect. Detail, in my opinion, 

will make or break your 

image, aside from the design. 

The more detail you have, the 

better. People will always 

remember the detail you put 

into your work. 

04 Sculpting 

In the top viewport, make a box with four segments. They 

will be divided by height and width. Convert the box to 

an editable poly. Use polygon mode to start shaping the 

wheel well. Try to start at the bottom of the wheel-well 

and work your way around the cylinder, extruding the 

polygons. Once the wheel-well has been created, extrude 

the wheel-well to start shaping the front end d. 

05 Basic shape 

Once you have extruded the polygons to the second wheelwell, 

start extruding the top and side of the vehicle. Be sure 

to wedge the vertices together as you get closer to the rear 

of the vehicle. It should stop just behind the back wheel. 

In the middle of the base, extrude inward to create the 

opening for the pedals. Also, model the base of the vehicle 

to make the seating area e. 

d Be sure to stay true to the blueprints 

e Model wisely with the polygons. Less is more and more 

can be a headache 

06 Cut and weld 

In the front of the vehicle, cut two polygons 

in half. By doing this, we are outlining 

where the glass and the vehicle meet. 

Perform the same for the rear of the body. 

By doing this, you are defining where the 

glass ends and the vehicle begins for the 

rear wheel. We will cut the shape of the 

grill and both lights in the same manner. 

With the polygon mode, extrude the grill 

and lights inward. Select all of the polygons 

in the light casing and copy them f. 

248 

f Basically you are outlining 

where details will be added later

Transport 

g 


Lighting is very important when rendering your image. 

Too much light can make the materials look cheap. If there 

is not enough light, you will not see all the hard work and 

detail that was put into your model. Not to mention, too 

much light can make your render time longer. In the 

rendering settings, I make sure that my Gather points 

are set anywhere from 750 to 1,000 and check global 

illumination. Use a Skylight setting of 1.5 – without this the 

scene will be very dark. You can also add other lights such 

as spotlights and omnis. I try to use three lights in some 

renderings. Only one light will be used for ray-trace 

shadows and the others will be at a lower intensity 

to assist with the lighting. 

h 

07 Detach and attach 

Select all the polygons that would make the glass and 

detach them. Select the glass again; with all polygons 

selected, extrude slightly. From the corners of both 

headlights toward the wheel-wells, detach and drag the 

inner edges downward to connect the vertices. Now that 

all three sections are separated and edges are connected, 

chamfer all edges and corners to define the Sting Ray. 

Chamfer the edges within the extrude as well. For the 

finishing touch, extrude two edges toward the back wheelwell 

and connect the vertices g. 

08 Custom chrome wheels 

Start off with a Gengon and make sure that it has fillets at 

each corner. Convert it into a poly and extrude all sides by 

polygons. Extrude a second time and move them forward 

slightly. Extrude a third time and chamfer the edges. 

Create a cylinder and convert it to a polygon. Select all 

vertices in the middle of the cylinder and scale down 

slightly to create the rim. Pull back the outer edge of the 

cylinder and chamfer the edges. Scale both objects to 

create a realistic custom wheel h. 

09 Simple tyre tread 

For the tyres, create a plane with sections ranging from 

six to eight. Convert it to a poly. Extrude the polygons to 

your desired tread. On both ends of the extruded poly, 

bring the vertices out to create a slope in the tread. From 

here, copy the tread 25 to 35 times, and group or attach 

them together. Now bend them in a 365° angle. Take the 

outer vertices and scale them downward and add a vertex 

weld to your modifier stack i. 

g Detaching and welding 

is tedious, but when it is 

completed it is worth it 

h The best part of this method 

is the flexibility you can have 

with the design 

i Space the first copy just 

right. When it’s duplicated, 

it will flow with the bend 

j Cylinders, tubes and boxes 

were all used to make the console 

i 

10 Final details 

Make a box with three sections on the top portion to 

create the seat. Convert the box to a polygon and bevel 

each square individually. Raise each polygon slightly to 

form the cushions and add cylinders to each connecting 

corner. Repeat the same steps for the back cushion. Take 

three polygons from the back of the seat frame and 

extrude them to wrap around the tyre. Delete the middle 

polygons on both sides and reconnect them to make an 

opening. The steering wheel, buttons, monitors, light 

bulbs and gas pedals were all made with basic shapes j. 

249

Applying textures and materials 

Applying textures is where everything comes together 

Overall 

material 

All of the interior textures 

were multi/sub-object 

materials. Although it 

saves space in the 

material editor, the 

polygons will shift once 

you smooth it. The tyre 

material is a standard 

material with a dark grey 

diffuse and low Specular 

and glossiness setting. 

k Set the value of the shellac 

colour blend to 85 

11 Making car paint 

Make a shellac material. For the base material, the 

Specular level is 120 and glossiness is 60. Go to the 

diffuse and choose falloff. Set the first colour to black 

and second colour to dark grey. Change the falloff type 

to perpendicular/parallel. Change the line to a curve to 

where the two endpoints touch the left and top line. Go 

to the parent and go into the shellac material and change 

it to a ray-trace material. Change the diffuse to black; 

Specular level is 160 and glossiness is 90. Go to Reflect 

and choose falloff and falloff type Fresnel k. 

12 Tinted glass material 

Start off with a standard material. Change the shader 

parameters to Phong and check ‘2-sided’. Change the 

diffuse colour to black. Specular level is 100, glossiness 

60 and soften is 0.4. In Extended Parameters choose 

In; Amt is 100, Type is subtractive and Index of Retraction 

is set to 1.32. Reflection Dimming is checked, with the 

Reflection level set to 3.95 l. 

Artist 

Showcase 

Tyree Ross 

I have been drawing since the age of ten and a 

graphic artist for seven years. I was introduced to 3D 

artistry six years ago. In college I fell in love with 3ds 

Max. Since then, I have been self-taught with 

my modelling. 

The Boss 3ds Max (2010) 

The Boss is my interpretation 

of a concept Harley-style 

motorcycle. It was built with 

two motors, dual exhaust and 

wide tyres for handling. 

l 

m 

l You can change the colour 

in the diffuse map to achieve 

different effects 

m Set the refraction in the 

falloff to 1.5 

13 Chrome paint material 

The chrome material is similar to the 

car paint material except for a few 

things. Your base material is a raytrace 

material. Shading is Phong, the 

diffuse is black, and your falloff 

material in the reflection slot is set to 

a light grey (and the bottom colour is 

white). Specular level is set to 100 and 

the glossiness is set to 70. The shellac 

base is a standard material with the 

Specular level at 100 and glossiness 

at 20. The shellac blend is 50 m. 

250

Transport 


The lighting process is always trial and error 

n The box will only render as a 

reflection on the vehicle 

14 The illusion of light 

Create a box the same width as the vehicle and raise it 

above the vehicle. In Object Properties, uncheck ‘visible to 

the camera’, ‘receive shadows’ and ‘cast shadows’. Make 

a material to apply to this box to give the illusion of light 

shining down. Create a standard self-illuminating material 

of white, with an output of 3.0 RGB in the colour field n. 

15 Using the skylight 

Add a skylight to the scene from the lights menu. Without 

the skylight, the scene will not be illuminated. Set the 

multiplier to 1.5, with the sky colour set to white. The 

placement of the skylight does not matter as long as it 

is in the scene when it is time to render o. 

16 mental ray setup 

Choose mental ray as your renderer. Under the Indirect 

Illumination tab, enable Final Gather and set the rays per 

FG point to 1,000. Set the FG Point Interpolation to a radius 

of 15.0 and a min of 0.1. Also enable the Global Illumination 

and set the maximum photons to 500. For the Renderer 

tab, change the samples per pixel to a max of 16 p. 

o Multiplier settings, along with the global illumination, 

can be increased to make the scene brighter 

p Get the right settings in the mental ray engine 

to produce a quality finish to the render 

Studio 

appearance 

To achieve the studio 

appearance, draw a line in 

the right or left viewport. 

This line will be in an L 

shape. Once the line is 

drawn, select the joining 

vertices and apply a fillet. 

The fillet will allow the 

corner of the line to curve. 

Apply a lathe to the line 

and set the lathe to max. 

This will create a wraparound 

scene to help with 

lighting and reflections of 

reflective material. 

Tear Drop 3ds Max (2010) 

The Tear Drop was a concept based from the Sting Ray. It has 

speakers behind the seat and a dual exhaust for life in the fast lane. 

Breezer 3ds 

Max (2007) 

A futuristic zipline 

car. It is built 

for speed with a 

streamlined look 

and is lightweight 

due to its size. 

251

Neil Maccormack 

Artist info 



Website 

www.bearfootfilms.com 

Country Switzerland 

Software used LightWave 10, 

Photoshop CS4 

Decide what the main focal point of 

the image is and stick to it. Don’t try to 

give the viewer the whole story; let them 

imagine some things for themselves 


LightWave 

Photoshop 

Carrier 2010 

I wanted to create an image that was inspired by classic sci-fi movies, 

and what better way to portray that than by having a large, looming 

spaceship landing on a dusty, rocky planet? The concept was to evoke 

the idea that the landing could be happening on Earth in the future, or 

maybe on some far, remote planet… I mixed some realistic elements 

with futuristic ones to increase believability. 

Only include detail 

where you need it. The 

background ships are lowpoly 

and low-res; I didn’t 

need them to be high-res 

because they’re only 

featured to give an idea 

of depth 

252

Transport 

To create the notion of scale 

and size, I painted some small 

characters in the foreground. 

This helps the viewer believe 

that the ship is huge in 

comparison, adding to the 

grandeur of the image 

253

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