CG Samba

Meet the Artist 1.0 - Bruno Camara

Rodrigo Assaf — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 14:49:06 UTC

MEET THE ARTIST - V1.0
Name: Bruno Câmara
Website: www.brunocamara.com
From: Brazil

Bruno was born in Belém, Brazil, in 1982 and when he was 7 years old he saw a friend drawing the Green Lantern perfectly in a piece of paper and got amazed with that. Since then he never stopped drawing.

His background in traditional art and passion for creatures and VFX were crucial for his 3D career. He could never miss blockbusters of that time like Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, Predator, etc.

In 2001 he started a degree in Bachelor of Computer Science and after graduate in 2005 did a full time 3D training (Autodesk ATC) in São Paulo, Brazil.
After 6 months he was teaching 3DS Max in the same ATC and started a new animation company with other artists. This was his first job as a 3D artist. Three years later he moved to another animation studio focused on Ads for TV to work as a Lead Modeler and stood there from 2008 to 2011.
Currently he’s living in São Paulo and working as a Freelance Character Artist specialized in organic and hard surface modeling characters for TV Ads, Cinematic and Games, Sculpts for 3D printing, Concept Art, Texturing and Animation.

1.: What made you work with CGI?
I was in the last year of university (BSc. in Computer Science) at that time I realized I didn’t like programming but love drawing characters, playing games and watching VFX movies, so that’s when I decided to get into the CGI world. The main event that made me study and go for CGI was a CG Challenge (Machine Flesh) sponsored by CGTalk that happened that year. I was so amazed with the artists work, especially one from the artist Kris Costa (Brazilian artist, a.k.a., Antropus). That’s the specific point where I decided to pursue this fantastic area (CGI) and after that I moved from Belém to São Paulo for 3D trainings.

2.: Which artists and games influenced your work?
Many artists, including 2D artists, 3D artists, sculptors, painters, etc. I am a big fan of Adrian Smith, Carlos Huante, Carlo Arellano, Kekai Kotaki and Laurel Austin. I love the fantasy art from Boris Vallejo, Julie Bell, Frank Frazetta, Jim Murray, Simon Bisley and Paul Bonner. 3D artists like Alessandro Baldasseroni, Kris Costa (Antropus), Gio Napkil, Kolby Jukes, Rafael Grassetti and Cedric Seaut. Sculptors like Aris Kolokontes, Mark Newman, Spider Zero and many others.
Considering the games, Blizzard games are the ones that influenced me and the most addictive too (lol).

3.: Which skills or tips would you highlight to be a great 3D Modeler? And an animator?
To be a good modeler I would say that passion and teamwork are the most important qualities. Skills like traditional art, drawing, painting and sculpture are really helpful and an advantage when you want to get a job.
To be a good animator I’d say the same qualities mentioned but also take a nice animation course and acting (theater). Both demands a lot of study and dedication for the rest of your life because knowledge is everything and infinite.

4.: Which Autodesk solutions do you use? Could you describe your workflow?
From Autodesk I work with Autodesk 3DS Max and Autodesk Mudbox.

Considering a character development for “cinematic” purposes my workflow would be:

4.1 – Sketching
4.2 – Modeling/Retopology
4.3 – UV’s
4.4 – Highres Sculpting
4.5 – Textures

4.1 – Sketching:
I Sketch the character to define its proportion, posture and the scale between the body and its accessories. I create an organic high-resolution modeling to be exported to 3DS Max.

4.2 – Modeling/Retopology:
At this stage I model the character final version in 3DS Max. I keep in mind all the edge loops needed for animation and rig.
I use the 3DS Max Graphite Modeling Tools that help me to create the final mesh on the high-resolution model. I also use box-modeling techniques.

4.3 – UV’s:
I create the character UV mapping in 3DS Max, and split it in many UV shell’s needed. Usually I create a UV Shell for the head, Torso, Arms and Legs. It depends on each character.

4.4 – High-res Sculpting:
Here is where I put some more specific and micro details I want for the character, like: scratches, rust and prints on the metal, stitches and wear on the cloths or leather, veins and wrinkles for skin, etc.
There are some details I prefer doing later while texturing like, for example: torn using opacity maps, small leather wrinkles using bump maps, cloth bumps, etc. After sculpting the high-res details, I export the normal maps.

4.5 – Textures and Shading:
Finally at this last stage I begin texturing the character with Mudbox and Photoshop.
I gather the most references I can related to the character. Images from realistic materials help to check how they react to light improving my results.
Mudbox is perfect for texturing character’s specific areas without losing quality allowing export maps to Photoshop.

6.: Which work from your career was the most challenging? What are you planning for the future?
I consider my actual work the most challenging of all because I am creating characters for the next games generation (PS4 and XBOX720). I may highlight the high-quality result that is expected for these characters considering the new powerful hardware from that consoles.
About my future planning, I intend to invest my time to study more in order to achieve the highest quality that is demanded on actual games. I also intend to be part of a talented team where I can contribute and learn more and more.

123D Creature - 3DS Max

Rodrigo Assaf — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 21:01:53 UTC

Hey Guys, in this post I would like to show one possible workflow between the new App for iPAD 123D Creature and 3DS Max.

1) The first step is to create a monster using your fingers and paint it on 123D Creature for iPAD. I did my horrible :-) creature in a few minutes!! This app you can paint texture, use modeling brushes like 123D Sculpt and create the creature's anatomy based on a skeleton (with symmetry that you can't disable :-( or animate).

Just click on Export Mesh and the App converts it to OBJ file with your texture and send to your email.

2) Import the file on 3DS Max and you will notice that the mesh is really subdivided!

And the Texture is already Unwrapped:

3) For animation purposes I did retopology using some Conforming tools on a low poly base mesh. This process should demand some work if you need to have a precise result from the target model. (not my case ;-) )

In order to have the same texture as the original model first I had to Unwrap the model:

4) To Project the texture from the Original texture to this new Unwrap mapping I used Render To Texture with a projection modifier. I left all the 3D models (the all quad one and the original) in the same position and clicked on render to texture.

In the Render to Texture Panel, I choose the Projection Mapping and click on Pick button and select the original Mesh from iPad. After that just add an output map with a 1024pixels resolution and Render! The same texture will be project on my new Unwrap mapping like the picture above. Beware with wrong projection identified as red color. If this happen, try to improve your projection modifier so the software can calculate a better solution.

This is the result. The texture is now projected onto the all quad and lowpoly model.

5) Now, just add a CAT Rig (Dragon) really fast and do some Skinning!

That's it... now you've got a 3D Model rigged and ready for animation.

Smoke 2013 - The Wait is Over

Rodrigo Assaf — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 17:10:01 UTC

Check out the Webpage in AREA about the new Smoke 2013

Key Features in Smoke 2013 include:

Editing and Effects. Connected Like Never Before:
- Familiar track-based video editing environment combined with essential tools for color correction, motion graphics, and visual effects
- New timeline workflow designed for video editors
- Conform timelines from Apple® Final Cut Pro® and Avid® Media Composer® video editing software

ConnectFX: Node-Based Compositing Without Leaving Your Timeline:
- Move quickly from your timeline to a full node-based compositing workflow. Tell your story and work fast with essential video editing and effects tools where you need them.
- Easily experiment and make changes to complex effects. Results are automatically fed back into your edit.
- Eliminate the need for plug-ins, workarounds, or managing metadata from multiple applications.

Powerful 3D Visual Effects:
- Go beyond 2D layer-based compositing with the Action compositing environment.
- Use true 3D visual effects tools for 3D text, titles, animated motion graphics, 3D logos, and total control over lighting.
- Create stereoscopic 3D (S3D) effects with tools for conforming, editing, and compositing.

AU Brasil 2012

Rodrigo Assaf — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 21:22:36 UTC

AU Brasil 2012 - Media & Entertainment Track

See you there! October 9th WTC São Paulo - Brazil

3DBOXX & renderPRO: Autodesk Demo

Rodrigo Assaf — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 16:41:36 UTC

3DBOXX & renderPRO: The One-Two Punch!

Filmed live at SIGGRAPH 2012, this demo, conducted by Gary Davis,Autodesk M&E Technical Specialist, showcases the dedicated rendering power of renderPRO, as well as the GPU-accelerated rendering performance of the 3DBOXX 4050 XTREMEworkstation featuring NVIDIA Maximus technology.

Project Geppetto

Rodrigo Assaf — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 20:31:13 UTC

Download the New Version of Project Geppetto for 3DS Max / 3DS Max Design 2013

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/geppetto/

Project Geppetto is a research project that explores making it easy, fast and fun to add crowds to 3ds Max scenes. Project Geppetto is a data-driven animation system that offers high level control of plausible human animation. The free^* technology preview of Project Geppetto now includes the Evolver character generation technology.

Architects, engineers, and designers can use Project Geppetto to enrich the context of their presentations with realistic human activity. Project Geppetto comes with a set of animations and characters for use in common public settings like sidewalks, hallways, lobbies and plazas. Project Geppetto is the first crowd technology to offer both ease of use and high quality results.

Project Geppetto assembles all the components you'd need to create, manage and control large crowds of characters. Our research goal is to solve three big problems:

Creating believable motion easily
Creating the look of any kind of human population or demographic and allowing for cultural influences
Creating an efficient framework for interacting with tens of thousands of such characters

FMX 2012

Rodrigo Assaf — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 13:49:36 UTC

The Area covered the FMX 2012 event

Check it out here: http://area.autodesk.com/fmx2012

Ptex to UV

Rodrigo Assaf — Thu, 31 May 2012 18:48:14 UTC

Hi,

Using PTex can boost your workflow! You dont need to wait for the UV Mapping to begin the painting task. Now it is possible to do both at the same time!

But why do we still need UV mapping if PTex made it easier? Well, not all renders or game engines deal with Ptex mapping. Thats why we still need to work with UVs.

Curiosity: Vray Render works fine with PTex (Does Anyone know another one?)

For this example, I chose a 3D Model from the 3DS Max demo folder.

1) Lets consider this 3D Character model, just created by an artist, without UVs.

2) Just to prove that there is no UVs, here is the messy UV Unwrap of the character. At this stage of production it is necessary to generate the UVW but also we can begin the painting/texturing process using PTex in Mudbox.

3) I will send to Mudbox this 3D Model. In the Entertainment Creation Suite we have the SEND TO Options.

4) The 3D Model is sent to Mudbox.

5) Select the Mesh and lets get it ready for Ptex Mapping. Go to Mesh -> PTex Setup...

6) You need to set the Mapping Resolution to be used on your Mesh. Higher resoltuion means bigger file sizes and memory usage.
In this low resolution it is possible to notice the lack of definition in the texture.

7) I just increased the resolution into a level of detail I need. Press Done to begin the Painting!

8) To paint, create a Paint Layer. I created a diffuse channel Ptex 16bits Integer.

9) Ready! Your 3D Model is ready to be painted. We can use all painting tools in Mudbox. Please do not consider my painting skills here...As you can see my painting is terrible (just to be an example :-)!!!

10) Meanwhile, in 3DS Max, Maya or Softimage the 3D Model could be UV Mapped. With both processes (UV Map and PTex Paint) ready, we can now project the PTEx on an UV Map. I will export this model with the correct UV Map to MudBox.

11) Just click on SEND TO MudBox and choose ADD to Current Scene.

12) I just selected the PTex model and moved to get a better visualization from both meshes.

13) To project from Ptex to UV, I moved the UV Mesh to be in the same position of the Ptex Mesh, in order to help the projection. Just click on Maps -> Extract Texture maps -> New Operation

14) Transfer Paint Layers

15) In Target Model, choose the Mesh with the correct UV Mapping.
In Source Model, choose the PTex Mesh.
I Used Ray Casting as a Projection Method. Click on Extract

16) Ready!! The projection works fine! My UV Mapping has the texture I did in PTex. Now I just need to export this texture mapped on the UV Mapping to use in 3DS Max, Maya or XSI.

17) To export the texture, go to the paint layer from the UV Mesh, right click with mouse. Select export channel to PSD, or Export Selected... to choose other formats.

18) Now just load the bitmap file in your material diffuse channel!

Cheers!

Siggraph 2012

Rodrigo Assaf — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:41:37 UTC

Preview from Technical Papers of Siggraph 2012.

123D Catch Photo Tips

Rodrigo Assaf — Fri, 18 May 2012 18:17:21 UTC

Here are some important tips to get better photographs for 123D Catch!

You can download it at: http://www.123dapp.com/catch

1)    Avoid Symmetry or ambiguous features in photos
2)    Accessibility – Is there enough space around the subject to make the shoots? Start from the center and take photos on every 5 or 10 degrees.
3)    Avoid Occlusions, if it is not possible take more photos
4)    Photographs need features (They can’t be transparent, “super” glossy or reflective)
5)    Subjects cannot move
6)    The software will use the maximum of 70 photos and it is recommended to shoot at least 50
7)    You need a consistent lighting (not underexposed or overexposed) – Overcast day has a nice lighting consistence.
8)    Do not use Flash
9)    Focus your target model (never blur it) and if you use depth of field to blur the background do it in all your photos
10)    Photos resolution don’t need to be ultra-high because 3 Mega Pixels is the highest resolution the software will accept, otherwise 123DCatch will resize them.
11)    Consistent Orientation (portrait photos or landscape)
12)    Do not crop or edit the photos

Cheers!

Rodrigo

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Portuguese Version:

Aqui vão algumas dicas que resumi para ajudar no processo de modelagem a partir de fotos usando o 123D Catch da Autodesk.

Este software, que agora está disponível também na AppStore (americana) para Ipad e Windows, faz modelos 3D a partir de uma sequencia de fotos tiradas de um modelo parado. Estas fotos são enviadas para a nuvem da Autodesk, que realizará os cálculos necessários para gerar o modelo 3D.

Site do 123D Catch: http://www.123dapp.com/catch

Dicas:

1)    Evitar características simétricas ou ambíguas nas fotos.
2)    Acessibilidade. Existe espaço suficiente para tirar as fotos? Comece do contro e tire fotos a cada 5 ou 10 graus.
3)    Evite oclusões, ou seja, partes escondidas. Se não for possível, tire mais fotos.
4)    As fotos precisam de elementos consistentes, ou seja, o modelo não pode ser transparente, extremamente brilhante ou reflexivo.
5)    O alvo fotografado não pode mover.
6)    O Software irá usar até 70 fotos e o mínimo recomendado são de 50 fotos.
7)    Precoupe-se em ter uma luz consistente. Evite a super-exposição ou a sub-exposição. Dias nublados possuem boa consistência.
8)    Não use Flash.
9)    Foque no modelo para não borrá-lo. Se for desfocar o fundo, faça isso em todas as fotos.
10)    A resolução das fotos não precisam ser grandes pois o software aceita até 3 Mega Pixels, caso contrário o 123Dcatch reduzirá as imagens.
11)    Mantenha consistência na orientação das fotos (Vertical ou Horizontal).
12)    Não faça Crop ou Edite as fotos.

Segue um teste que fiz ano passado usando as ferramentas da Entertainment Suite da Autodesk. Vou tentar postar aqui depois o workflow detalhado.

Abs,

Rodrigo Assaf

Brazuca na AREA

Rodrigo Assaf — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:32:03 UTC

Hello World! This blog will discuss technical questions about Media & Entertainment from Autodesk and topics about Computer Graphics. My first idea was to write it in portuguese considering the brazilian community but I've received lots of emails asking for english translation... so I have changed my plans.

Lets all check this website of Flame. It is celebrating its 20th anniversary! http://area.autodesk.com/flame20

Cheers,

Rodrigo Assaf