Anatomy For Artist Online 3D Model

Great tool for viewing the human figure. 

https://ecorche.anatomy4sculptors.com/figure-and-torso/torso-anatomy/male-ecorche

High Quality Look For Animations In Maya

 How to make Maya animation have a higher quality look.

About Me

I love to draw, paint, and sculpt. I have been drawing since I can remember holding a pencil. I have always been drawing/creating art. For some reason art and the creative process has always been a part of me and I have never really questioned that I wanted to do something of significance with my talents.

I have been very blessed to have worked as a professional artist for a very good part of my life, one of my first jobs was airbrushing t-shirts at Six Flags Over Mid America when I was about 16 years old. I worked for a magnet company for a period of time, that was my first introduction to working with computers to make art. I worked for a company installing vinyl graphics on cars/trucks and semi trucks. And then I landed my first job that was a bit closer to what I currently do, I was a 3D artist making graphics with designers to produce large format graphics for tradeshow events. During this time I knew I wanted to work in the video games industry and had to stay after work hours to teach myself Autodesk Maya when it first came out. I finally landed my fist video game art job when I was in my mid 20ies. 

During my career in the games industry I had the opportunity to be part of Electronic Art's EAU (AE University) EAU was EA's internal training department and I was able to teach professionals how to use programs like Maya and ZBrush. Eventually funding for that department dried up and I returned to be a production artist, but the love of teaching never left me.

You see one of my most profound memories as a student was when I was in the first grade and my art teacher during that time encouraged me and told me I was a really good artist. It was the first time in a school setting that I could remember a teacher giving me praise for my abilities. Those teachers words still ring in my head to this day. 

So when I had the opportunity to make a career shift and lave the games industry for a teaching positions with UCF's FIEA program I jumped at the chance.

Now I am in a position to still make the type of art I love, I'm still tied to the games industry, but above all else I get to pour into other peoples lives and help them achieve their dreams and goals.

I doubt that teacher in the first grade knew the huge impact her worlds would have over my life, I like to think maybe she did and that is exactly why she was there in that moment. But I am now trying to do my best to live with that type of intentionality as an artist, instructor and a teacher. I'm trying to try and have that type of impact on the people that have been entrusted in my life. 

Life as a Character Artist and Breaking in the Games Industry -- with Guillaume Tiberghien

Really great interview talking about industry, and what it takes as digital artist in the Entertainment space. 

Portfolio - How many pieces do I need?

From Class Discussion

* How Many Pieces - By the time you leave FIEA you want to have 3-5 Super High Quality Portfolio pieces. (3 is the bare minimum)

* Quality Is King -You are only as strong as your weakest piece

* Strategy With FIEA Timeline -1st and 2nd semester should be used to learn your craft, learn the tools and process, learn how to work smarter not harder. Learn how to make various styles. Discover what specific type of 3D artist you want to become. (Character, Environment, Weapons/Props, Hard Surface, Vehicles/Ships)

* 1st and 2nd Semester -The assignments from 1st and 2nd Semester will not be enough for you, you need to be doing personal studies outside of class in order to round out your specific skill set for yourself. (Character artist need to be doing anatomical studies for example)

* 3Rd Semester - 3rd Semester you need to produce 3 High Quality Pieces of your choosing. ( I will work with you to pick the best choices for you)

* 4th Semester - 4th Semester you need to create at least 2 High Quality Portfolio Pieces and use the remainder of your time making corrections to your website and Portfolio pieces you have already created. If you do not get an internship, the worst thing you can do is sulk and coast that semester. If you coast during the 4th semester, you will most likely coast your way to a job at Starbucks. 

If you do not land a job after leaving FIEA, you cannot give up. Some people it has taken them a year of grinding after FIEA to land their first job.

Do not thumb your nose at non game jobs if you cannot land a game job right off the bat, a job where you produce art of any kind will be better than having a job that has no art component to it. 

* Choosing Designs for Portfolio - When choosing pieces to work on, Art Station and Pinterest are great places to find high quality professional concept art, to emulate the job for real world, recreate that concept to the best of your ability. If the concept has missing information (such as only a front view) your job as the artist is to fill in the missing detail while still maintaining the look and the feel of the provided design (such as creating the reminder of the design on the backside that is missing).

* Animators - Animation should be your primary skill set that you are showcasing. But I do feel that game animation is a bit different than film animation. In film you build animation for a locked down frame/camera shot. It's all about that one performance. As a game artist, it's more about interlocking animation clips that flow in and out of one another. 

Become MoCap certified. I have seen over the years more job opportunities for the animators that have MoCap experience. At the very least know how to clean the data and show it off in a compelling way on your portfolio. 

Be flexible, know how to make skeletons, know how to paint skin weights, know how to set up simple calisthenics animations to test your deformation and range of motion. Know how to set up simple FK and IK rigs. Know how to effectively communicate with the rigger to get the performance you are look for.

Know how state machines work, build your own state machines, demonstrate how your animation clips work together to build overall compelling animations that work in a real-time environment. 

I feel above all other groups that Capstone is the playground for the animators to build high quality animations that can live on in their portfolios.

* Tech Artist - Team up with artist to get high quality models and animations for your reels. The quality factor of what you are showing off can have an impact on the non-tech artist that may be involved with reviewing your work.

Figure out compelling ways to show off your work to less technically minded people, your challenge is going to be taking complex subject matter and showing it off to more of a lay person that my not have all the technical know how to understand why your work is important.

Part of your job is to be a sales person, you need to sell your work almost as a product. Convince us why your work will save us time or money. 

Websites - KISS. Keep It Simple (Soldier) Make it as EASY as possible for anyone to navigate your website and find your work. 

Your work will be judged in a highly time sensitive environment, if you make people fumble around trying to view your work, they may just move on to the next person and just skip over you period.

Make sure to use compelling thumbnails for your work. Draw people in to want to look at your work. 

Keep EVERYTHING as professional as possible.

Resume and contact information should be as simple as possible to find.

How To Professionally Display Your 3D Models

 Artist,

Here is an example of How to Professionally show off your 3D models in the various stages.

The first stage is your Proxy Mesh. (Showing off both the grey rendered version of the model along with the wireframes for the objects.)

Note - The following shots have been rendered in Maya Arnold. For the grey render I used an aiStandardSurface. I plugged in an aiAmbientOcclusion node into various slots on the material. 

For the wire frames, I rendered with aiWireframe material, the infinity wall was filled with an aiAmbientMatte, I then took an aiAmbeintOcclusion node and fed that into the color of both of these materials.

Here are the results of theses shaders.

The second stage is your Up Resed mesh. (Showing off both the grey rendered version of the model along with the wireframes for the objects.)

The Third stage is your Game Res mesh. (Showing off both the grey rendered version of the model along with the wireframes for the objects.)

The final stage is your High Res mesh. (Showing off the grey rendered version of the model.)

Here are some ways to render clean wireframes using Maya Hardware 2.0.

1. Assign your objects to a new layer and change the layer color to black or white, this will control your wireframe color.

2. Create a spot light and turn on shadows for your lights.

3. Enable wireframe options in the render settings window. (Then open the maya render view window and use hardware 2.0 as your rendering option.)

Here is a way to show off UV information:

Portfolio Examples (Issac Oster)

Take a look at the simple but effective portfolio layout of Issac Oster (Past FIEAn and Alumni) 

 https://isaacoster.com/

Artist Roadmap

Artist Roadmap

We will be using the Research Tab/Area of our blog in order to start documenting the following:

We need to have a clear idea of where we are heading with our art and where we would like to take ourselves as Artist.

The first part of understanding how to get to a destination is knowing definitively where we are going. 

These series of questions and exercises will help us verbalize our ideas and then start to visually build that vision as well.

Projecting Out Past Graduation

Questions:

1. If you could project out past graduation, what is your overall career goal? 

• Would you like to work in AAA game development. 
• Would you prefer a midsize team? 
• Would you like a smaller team? 
• Would you like to be on an Indy team? 
• Would you like to work for a simulation company?
• Would you like to work in the theme park industry?

2. If you could project out into starting your career, what sounds the most appealing to you? 

• Would you like to work as a Character Artist?
• Would you like to work as an Environment Artist?
• Would you like to work as a Hard Surface Artist?
• Would you like to work as a Weapons/Prop Artist?
• Would you like to work as an Vehicle Artist?
• Would you like to work as an Lighter?

3. What are some of the top companies that you are interested in working for? 

• EA, Blizzard, Ubisoft, Nintendo, Iron Galaxy, ect.  

Inspiring Reference 

1. Create an Artstation account - I would like for you to create an Artstation Account. 

2. Create a collection for your top 10 artist -After your account is created, it's possible for you to make collections, this allows for you to find images on Artstation and then add them to a collection that you give a name to.

Make a collection for your top 10 artist that you like/are inspired by. Some may be in your collection because you really like their design work, others may because of their layout and how they present their work, some you may enjoy because of their use of subject matter, some you will be drawn to their modeling abilities. 

2. Creating A Visual Board Of Inspiration - After your collection is completed, we need to make a pure ref board that is in the 16X9 aspect ratio. 

Place your top images from each of your artist on this board, this visual map should start to reveal to you visually some of the most important subject matter that will start to guide and inform the type of work you want to make.

ZBrush Tech Brushes On Gumraod

 Take a look here to download free Tech Brushes using Alphas.

https://gumroad.com/l/nNVzH

Use the discount code "ucfstudent" to get the product for free.

FIEA Art Core Site

 FIEA Art Core Site

Hard Surface Resources

Here are some great resources that can help you understand hard surface modeling techniques.

Elementza

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtmjNCtYxwpD6AXpFR_Ooig

Andrew Hodgson - 

https://www.artstation.com/andrewhodgson/blog/4aZN/modeling-blog-03-approaching-the-asset

And Youtube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/user/AndrewHodgson3D

Welcome To The FIEA Art Blog Space

Welcome to the FIEA Art blog space. The purpose of these blogs are to help in facilitating FIEA turn in for assignments, but also to serve as a way for you to document your work.

When you document your work, it will allow you to go back over time and see what tools, techniques and processes you have learned and safeguard them for a later date. Many times, you may only do a process a few times so it doesn't get committed to memory, when you document your work it allows you to return back at a later date and easily get to information you have already learned or collected in the past.

The FIEA blog will also serve as a way for you to see your progression over the duration of the program. It will be clear visual marker for you to see where you started out at, and where you end up, and in the end that becomes a powerful motivator.

The other thing the FIEA blogs do is serve as a window into current and past FIEA'N artist and their development. You can see the progress of your peers both past and present.

So, the first step on this journey will be you creating your FIEA Blog. Please take a look below and use this blog as a template for all the necessary components that you will need in order to create your own personal FIEA blog.

Common Art 1 - Week 1 - Materials And Set Up

For this weeks class we will be covering the basics of shape, form and shape language. But before we get started I have some tools for you for both Photoshop and Maya.

My hope is that giving you some of the tools that I have developed over the years will help give you a jump start to start creating fun and inspiring ideas as quickly as possible.

First up is Photoshop - I have two things for you in Photoshop. The first is my tools preset list that I use. A lot of artist have brushes sets that they use and give/sell away, but I like to use tool presets, just because it is one file and it saves brushes, smudge tools and a lot of other tools all in the same file.

Here is a link to the Photoshop Tool Presets that I use. https://gumroad.com/l/UuuCI (Load the tool presets for a wide selection of brushes and smudging tools.)

Next up in Photoshop is a custom Blank document that I have created that will give you the ability with solid colors to create various background colors with a paper texture feel to it. 

There are also a few painting examples in the file for you to take a look at as well.

If you use the discount code ucfstudent you can get the document for free.

https://gum.co/yFajn

Now that we have Photoshop covered let's head on over to Maya and take a look at these free tools that am putting together that will allow for a similar content browser experience like what we have in UE4.

Visit this link to download my Maya Prototyping Tool set:

https://gum.co/OQdAdY

This pack should help you get the UE4 mannequin, real-time lighting and some basic geometry shapes going in Maya to help you quickly make shapes and explore ideas quickly.

3D Week 01 (Unreal Simple Box Level) New

For this week's assignment, you will need to run through the provided video content, model a simple cube with nice bevels, take that cube into UE4 and build a master material, along with material instances. Once you have that set up, you will need to do something interesting with the cubes in UE4 (There are no restrictions to what you do with the cubes, it is up to you to be creative). You will also be learning a bit about lighting, atmosphere and mood in the UE4 engine.

Make sure that you document (visually) all the work that you are doing in Maya and in UE4.

Scale is a hugely important factor when first starting out any 3D project. Get your scale established quickly. If you do not do this early in the project in can cause issue for not only you but your entire team as well.

Visually document that you know how to get the UE4 Mannequin into Maya to help establish scale between your programs.

Show your cube in Maya with your grid scale set up!

Show off your material instance set up. Make sure to show your parent material.

Also, show your material instance.

Show off your creation from UE4 with multiple shots along with all your lighting and atmosphere (Mood)

Here are some examples of what FIEA Artist have created in the past.

Week 02 - Use of Silhouettes

This week we will be focused in on the use of Silhouettes to define the shapes for many things, characters, creatures, weapons, transports and environments.

Silhouettes are extremely important for Real-Time Art, and entertainment designs.Silhouettes are the first reads, they are the outline of the object/shapes that you are creating. And from a design aspect, your silhouettes should say something iconic about your person, place or thing.In a fast paced environment such as games, it is critical from just a silhouette stand point that you can read at a glance exactly what you are looking at.

For this weeks assignment, take a look at this video that gives some pointers on how to use Maya as a tool that can assist in the creation of silhouettes:

Use this reference sheet as a an exercise where an art director would come in and say that he/she is influenced by these shapes and designs and would like you to incorporate those elements into your designs.

Build at least 9 silhouette variations for your designs.

3D Week 02 (Minecraft-ish Level)

For this weeks assignment, we will continue to use simple geometry, we will make a new cube with the right amount of segments for our bevel that will allow us to easily break our model apart for our UV creation. We will create simple but clean UV's for our model that will allow us to build simple textures in Photoshop that will give us the Minecraft look we are after. In UE4 we will build upon our shader building knowledge, we will choose a special filter type for our texture that will keep it looking blocky and crisp. We will also learn how to parameterize a materials texture inputs. We you are done, you should have at least 3 different Minecraft blocks, materials and textures to build your space out. (Please make sure to log your time you are spending on your assignment.)

If you would like to see some examples for inspiration, take a look here:

https://80.lv/articles/voxel-dioramas-tips-and-tricks/

3D Week 03 Lego Project Part 01

For this 2 week mini Lego project, there will be 2 parts. 

Part one is building all the Legos you will need for your set.

Part two is assembling them in UE4 to build a small Lego Set.

Everyone will be given a simple Lego Library that I have created as a foundation for your mini project.

Visit this link to download the files from Gumroad (use discount code ucfstudent for free download):

https://gum.co/ohTWC

Please watch the following videos to help you understand how to create the lego pieces and have it work with the grid system in Maya and UE4.

I have chosen to build a windshield as an example model for you to look at. This will show you how to build forms and add beveling to the model.Bevells add nice believability to the model, nothing in the real world has perfectly crisp edges, therefore it picks up some reflection or specularity on the edges. CG edges re missing this component and that is often why the come off looking drab or unrealistic. To combat that we will be using beveling, the problem is this can easily drive up our polycount. For a small project not quite a big deal, but if we duplicate our object hundreds or thousands of times, whatever that polycount is for the bevels are, multiply that by however many objects we have and you can start to see the problem we run into.

Lego put out an amazing tool for everyone on their site, they have offered the ability to look up any Lego set and get a .PDF version of the instructions.

https://www.lego.com/en-us/service/buildinginstructions/

In the back of the manual there is a page that list out all the pieces that make up the particular set you are looking for. This could serve as a nice tool to help you find and identify shapes that you want to create.

To choose the project you wish to create, I have created a Pureref board for 6 different projects.

Download the board here (use discount code ucfstudent for free download):

https://gumroad.com/l/LhBqZ

1. Choose one of the 6 projects

2. Grab the common Lego Library

3. Identify the parts you will need to model for your set.

4. Model your parts for the first week (hint, use proxy shapes, work fast, get a pipeline established between Maya and UE4 as quickly as possible.)

5. Second week, assemble and set up Materials and Lighting for professional display in UE4.

3D Week 04 - Lego Project Part 2

 For this week we will be taking all of our Lego pieces and assembling them in UE4.

There will be 4 distinct things I want you all to demonstrate, they are as follows:

1. I want you all to demonstrate how to assemble your parts as a blueprint. 

2. You should be creating an exact replica of the Lego set you have chosen.

3. With the Lego pieces you have created, make your own creation with the pieces.(So when finished you should have two distinct designs.)

4. I want you to watch the video "Hight Quality Rendering In UE4" and build high quality screen shots of your work and also build a high quality rendering of your sequencer work.(Post your high quality work to Youtube and embed the work into your blog.)

Week 04 - Use of Basic Lighting

In this section we will be taking a look at a Basic 3 Light Set Up. 

The core elements that we will focus on is a Main Light (Main shadow casting light), Bounce Light (Light that is reflected off of surfaces and produces a lightening effect to the overall scene), and Rim Light (Light that off to one side of the model, typically pushed back past the model, this produces strong lighting that is off to the side or the "rim" of the model).

The image above doesn't have a great example of Rim lighting, but it does demonstrate a lot of the other elements that we are looking for including core shading.

We will be taking a look at how to set up 3 Point Lighting inside of Maya using the Arnold renderer. When finished you should have results that look like the image below.

Head on over to my Gumroad page to grab these 3 Models. (Use the discount code ucfstudent to get the models for free).

https://gum.co/etYgc

Once you have these files, take a look a the learning video listed below where I cover how create 3 Point Lighting Set Ups in Maya.