Here’s an opportunity to learn from some of the top 3ds Max artists in the areas of modeling, lighting and rendering. Whether you are a pro or a novice I think there is always something unique to learn from experts like Josh Nizzi, Jeff Patton, and Neil Blevins. These guys are very well known for creating amazing work and sharing their knowledge with the CG community, so I thought why not give them a little plug here on my blog.

Josh’s work mostly specializes in the genre of large fighting robots. Interestingly Josh and I used to work for the same independent game developer Day 1 Studios, although not at the same times but we did sit at the same desk. :)  He has recently produced a 4hr training DVD for Gnomon, “Robot Design with Josh Nizzi: Concept, Model and Paint”. I like this DVD because it demonstrates an interesting illustration technique where Josh designs a rough model in 3ds Max and then uses renderings of that to finish the illustration in Photoshop. This is great because the rough model can then be very quickly transfered to the Previs department for illustration in the 3d animatics.

Many know of Neil Blevins for his “Soulburnscripts for 3ds Max” which are a great collection of tweaks and workflow enhancements he has written over the years. He has also had images published in several books and magazines, and is currently working for Pixar Animation Studios as a Technical Director. Neil’s new DVD, “Hard Surface Shading and Texturing with Neil Blevins”, covers a whole gamut of topics for creating high quality/photo-real content. With over 5hrs of material I’m sure your brain will begin to melt.

 

Another fan of the pixels is Jeff Patton, originally he seemed to be involved in 3d rendering as more of a hobby (like many of us I am sure) and then Jeff quickly gained guru status on many community forums such as CGsocietey (CGtalk), the Vizdepot, and here on the AREA. What I really like about Jeff is that he is always willing to dive in and help another user figure something out. He is always very active on the forums absorbing and sharing as much knowledge as possible, in particular his lighting and rendering skills with mental ray. Jeff’s new 3ds Max / mental ray videos at the Gnomon Workshop cover a wide range of rendering related topics, covering things from basics up to a few project based scenarios like lighting architectural interior & exterior scenes.