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We are proud sponsors of FlyignArchitecture's new contest, Architecture Unchained. To participate, you have to upload your work in progress of an architectural structure free from the constraint of gravity. Franco Folini, Novedge's President and Co Founder, is one of the judges and we are keeping a close eye on the competition.
So, why not start by learning a bit more about FlyingArchitecture's founder, Matus Nedecky?
Novedge: Tell us a bit about who you are and what you do
Matus Nedecky: Hi all! So first of all, let me thank Aurora Meneghello for giving me
this opportunity to be interviewed by Novedge. It's an honor!
My name is Matus Nedecky, I am originally from the small Slovak village of
Zelenec. When I finished my high school in a nearby city, I started to
attend the BUT - Faculty of Architecture in the Czech Republic. After gaining experience in three architecture firms (full-time during my studies), I
decided to go my own way and become an architectural visualizer. There's
still a long way to go, even if I have reached some milestones already,
which can be seen on our studio's website.
Novedge: How did Flying Architecture start? And how has it evolved?
Matus Nedecky: FlyingArchitecture
started as a simple blog back in summer 2009. As I started to work in
Rhinoceros 4, and I was working on some basic commercial visualizations,
I needed to use the same 3D assets over and over again. Unfortunately,
there was no website dedicated to Rhino assets at that time, the only
package you could get was McNeel's Savanna3D... and I thought I could do better. So I started producing my work. First I
created fifty 3D models in Rhinoceros and then I published the website on
social media. Leo Bonilla, a great guy from
Colombia, and Rendy Himawan, a designer from Jakarta, contacted me right away. These two (and
many others afterwards) gave me great support, they shared my passion for this
project and they also shared some of their 3D
models. And this is where it all started :)
Then many people from all over
the world started to share their own 3D models, and FlyingArchitecture
grew rapidly.
I believe if one does something with passion, he will undoubtedly do a great job. And I can proudly say I loved doing this! It
was and still is such a great feeling seeing all our own models and our fan's in visualizations all over the world (I have seen some models in
visualizations by BIG)... it's an honor to serve thousands of people
and to offer them something they need.
Well, free 3D models were just the beginning... since 2009 I also added other features, like the forum, materials and tutorials. Besides the
website itself, I also work on architectural visualizations for
commercial clients.
Then on December 28, 2009 everything changed. That's when I first
talked to Veronika Nedecka, when she was an interior design student (now my wife and the mother of our child) - since we
knew each other, we also started to work together, so our professional
services went much more pro! Thanks to our images, which were getting
better and better, we were offered to teach a workshop on architectural
visualization in Barcelona, Spain, and we accepted.
Since then, we led workshops in Barcelona, Vienna, Rome
and some personal courses in Bratislava. Now we're are planning some
more events, so if you are interested... stay tuned! :)
I can't forget to mention that our new online store with 3D models is the first marketplace where Rhinoceros users can get truly realistic, high quality, 3D models ready for use in their 3D
scenes. Take a look here.
Novedge: What are the rewards and challenges of having your own business?
Matus Nedecky: It's
not really a walk in the park.... But of course it has many more pros than
cons. However you are responsible for everything - you have to care
of PR, marketing, the job itself, bookkeeping, etc. There is so
much to think about, that it may
sometimes seem unbearable. Just don't give up! Even if you think it's not worthwhile
and sometimes it is a struggle, there are always better days coming :)
For me, better days came with Veronika and my co-workers, Lukas [Filip, interviewed here]
and Fabio.
The biggest challenge is time management: it's extremely hard
to balance it all - work, family, free time, eventually school and also
other projects.
The biggest reward for me since I started
to work alone has been the lack of stress. I have to admit, I work longer
hours than before, but I do not have someone standing behind my back
checking what I am doing. Oh and also as an artist I have
the opportunity to express myself, my own style and feelings, not just the opinions
and style of my team leader... That's the biggest satisfaction!
Novedge: What surprised you the most?
Matus Nedecky: Well, I'd say it's the
positive feedback! I started working on the FlyingArchitecture website just
for fun, and to create something that I needed. You should see
the mass of positive feedback I received, it's such a great feeling to receive hundreds of emails that say "Thank you"... That was the
best award I could ever get :) So Thank You all, who supported me and
who said Thank You... You gave me new energy to continue.
Novedge: What is a recent project that you worked on?
Recently at the
FlyingArchitecture studio we are working on tens of residential/commercial
buildings for our clients... mostly new buildings for commerce or flat
units. From time to time we also have a great opportunity to work on
something very specific, like museum designs, firemen stations, hotels
and so on.
What I appreciate the most are personal projects. At the moment, I
am running about 5 of them, but I can show you some I finished
recently. It is very important for me to take a break from commercial work
(for most of them we sign an NDA, so they cannot be published)
and to create something in my own style with a touch of artistic
feeling.
This is the Norwegian house, design and visualizations by FlyingArchitecture:
Aluminium house, some romantic idea of where I'd love to live:
FlyingArchitecture, our future office design. We jut have to wait a bit for the technology to catch up :)
Novedge: What software do you use?
Matus Nedecky: Haha, that's a long and painful story... At university, they taught
us how to use 3ds Max, but I gave a try to Cinema 4D, Blender, Modo, SketchUp and
Rhino. I have to say that polygons just aren't my blood type. That's why
I was so amazed by the NURBS technology in Rhinoceros, which I chose as my
primary 3D software.
Since then, I use it on a daily basis. It worked great in college
for all architectural drawings and also for 3D modeling and rendering.
Its stability and extraordinary user-friendliness just amaze me. And
that's why I stick with it :)
Besides Rhinoceros, I use V-Ray for Rhino and Photoshop. The combination of these software solutions give us extreme
flexibility to finish all daily tasks in a very effective way and within reasonable time.
Novedge: What makes a good render extraordinary?
Matus Nedecky: The most
important thing is to be original. That's why I try to keep Rhino as our primary
3D software in FlyingArchitecture. The worst thing that can happen is that somebody starts to take shortcuts and just mindlessly copy and
paste assets to their 3D scenes. There are tons of CGI artists working
like this these days... So the direction we are taking is to use custom
3D models and our own photos for exterior postproduction, so we stay
original all the time.
Generally speaking, it's always up to the artist, everybody has a different point of view. There is an artist in all of us, we just have to
release him :) Don't just copy... create!
Novedge: What are your plans for the future?
Matus Nedecky: I always have big plans! I would need several lifetimes to
accomplish them all... Of course, there are some
particular plans for FlyingArchitecture, mostly regarding the website
itself, so we can get bigger and better with our free 3D models
database. I'll have more news soon, so stay tuned! And of course,
we are doing our best to offer better visualizations to our clients
every day. You can check our current visualization portfolio here.
Want to see more? Check out FlyingArchitecture's website.
Ready to share your Architecture Unchained? Read all about the contest here.
And don't forget to get in touch with us on Twitter and Facebook!
Novedge: Tell us about yourself and your role at urban edge studio
Bill Eubanks: I am a landscape architect with a little over 30 years of experience, which is really hard to believe because I feel like I am still learning. I am the Creative Director at urban edge studio. This is supposed to free me up to mostly design and not manage projects. It works better on some days more than others. I love public meetings, public workshops and the energy of a design charrette. It was a super cool day for me when I became a Fellow of ASLA.
Novedge: What drew you to work with the public rather the private space as an landscape architect?
Bill Eubanks: Actually, we do a lot of both. I prefer public work, though, because it benefits and affects so many people. I also love the public process. But some private work can be really rewarding and oftentimes the private sector has a huge impact on the public realm.
Novedge: There are four fun videos on Vimeo around the issues of walkability, community, frontage, land use and traffic. Can you explain your studio's approach to them?
Bill Eubanks: I think we place a lot of emphasis on the public realm -- especially streets. This includes how architecture addresses the street and helps form the public realm. It includes how a pedestrian feels on that street. However, we do very little traditional streetscape kind of work. We prefer to get them right the first time. While we avoid "isms" for the most part most of our work boils down to what I would consider form based not because it's a trend but because it works and makes sense.
Novedge: What software do you use?
Bill Eubanks: Our favorite software is our brain. We try to use that the most. Daily if we can. We use lots of trash and sharpies. Markers are still part of our world. When we do go digital, we use Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, SketchUp, and AutoCAD. We also abuse things like Excel to do things that are very graphic - not just spreadsheets.
Novedge: What is it like to work at urban edge studio? What do you look for in an intern and/or an employee?
Bill Eubanks: We work hard but we try to keep balance in our lives. We have fun. We joke around a lot. We also collaborate constantly. It's like breathing for us. Our studio is open, literally and figuratively. We are highly creative and that sneaks out in all kinds of ways. Right now we are listening to the new Sunvolt album, Honky Tonk. We listen to a lot of music. We don't really like cheap beer. Ever. Pretty much, if an intern can hang in that kind of environment and has the ability to make us laugh and to make us think, they will fit in just fine.
Novedge: As a small studio, what has been most important in developing and growing a successful practice?
Bill Eubanks: I think consistency in who we are and what we do is so important. We have a reputation to maintain, whether we like it or not. And we live and die by that reputation. So, integrity, ethics, creativity, and professionalism are key to our existence, every day.
Novedge: What innovations do you find most exciting in your field?
Bill Eubanks: Urban agriculture, eliminating food deserts, introducing green infrastructure, embracing urbanity, density, walkability, complete streets, repairing sprawl. These are some of the things we talk about and try to embrace in our practice.
Would you like to be interviewed for our blog? Do you know a passionate artist or innovator that would be a good fit for The Edge? Tell us on Twitter at @Novedge!
Our 69th Webinar, Working with Shaders in Artlantis 4.1, left us all wanting for more! Here Chris Stringer answers all the questions he couldn't get to during our live Q&A session.
Q 01: Can a render from Artlantis be used as a Postcard?
A: No. A Postcard is a specialized type of low-resolution (400x300 pixel) JPEG rendering with additional information about the scene's materials embedded into it, created in Artlantis using the menu/command Tools/Create Postcard. By contrast, a regular Artlantis rendering created using the menu/command Inspector/Render does not contain this type of information...See also Q 2, Q 12 and Q 24.
Q 02: Can Postcards be moved from one PC to another? Must the Shaders be shared on both rigs?
A: Yes, Postcards can be moved, shared, emailed, etc. Yes, the original Shaders that existed on the computer/project where that Postcard was created must also exist on any other computer where that Postcard is going to be used, if it is to work properly. To ensure that Shaders and other media files used in a specific project travel safely with the project when it is being sent from one computer to another, always remember to save the project using menu/command File/Export as Archive… See also Q 1, Q 12, and Q 24.
Q 03: When you re-assign materials, will it be saved that way when the document is reopened?
A: Yes. Those settings are retained in that Artlantis file. See also Q 9.
Q 04: What are the limitations in Artlantis if a texture is pulled from the web? Do you lose any feature rich operations if you apply your own texture?
A: The limitations really depend on the quality of the texture and the set of accompanying image maps, because your goal in Artlantis shouldn’t be just to use good textures…it should be to use good Shaders. So,what’s the difference? A texture is a single bitmap image that defines one aspect of a material’s appearance. They can get assigned to the material in the 3D modeler or later in Artlantis. The most common type of texture used isa color (diffuse) image map, which are typically made by photographing a real-world material and often digitally altering them to create seamless edges. A material that only has a single texture map assigned to it is going to appear “flat” and less realistic…i.e. more computer-generated. A Shader is a combination of one or more separate texture files(typically all based on the same color image map as a starting point) that work in combination to define a material’s appearance in ways that cannot be accomplished with the use of a single color image map alone. Shaders typically make use of additional supporting image maps to add effects such as bump, reflection, shininess, normals, etc. These maps interact with the scene’s light and reflections to add life-like qualities to the materials. In Artlantis, it is possible to create a custom Shader that has all of the advanced settings of the high quality default Shaders in Artlantis, since they are offered to you within the menu/command Tools/Create Shader From... But, you either need the skill to create the supporting image maps for the shader (if they don’t already exist), or you need to find someone who already has those skills and has created those image maps. You can learn a lot by using the Create Shader From command to examine some of the existing Shaders’ settings and their accompanying image maps.
Q 05: Is there a specific relationship between values of the bump to the normal maps?
A: The bump and normal maps are both typically derived from the same starting point: the diffuse (color) image map. Both can be used to create the illusion of enhanced depth or relief in a Shader by affecting the way light interacts with the underlying color map, however, the normal map can be used to accomplish more than what is possible to achieve with the bump map. The grayscale information in the bump map can only scatter light in the direction of one axis: the Z axis.The normal map is a more advanced type of bump map, using the RGB color information it contains to scatter light in the X, Y, and Z axes. As an example, when creating a slate floor tile Shader, you might start with an 8 x 8 tile grid for the color map.
Giving it a Reflection of .7 and Shininess of 700 would create the following appearance:
You might use a bump map to simulate the depth of the grout lines and provide a rough textured quality to the slate surface. The lighter areas in the bump map will result in that area of the diffuse map appearing raised while the darker areas will appear to be recessed.
The normal map could have some of those same qualities as the bump map. It could have the same basic texture, accentuating the rough texture of the slate surface (below top). However, it could instead be created to scatter light in a simpler, profoundly different way…to make the individual tiles appear as if none of them were laid completely level (below bottom), so that the reflections of the background do not line up perfectly on each tile.
The combination of the bump and the normal maps could be used to both enhance the natural texture of the material and create more of a random appearance to the reflections in the tiles.
Q 06: Chris, can you show us how to use light on interior at night views? Thank you.
Q 07: How can we make realistic renders like those in 3D Studio Max using Sketchup with Artlantis?
A: The built-in Artlantis radiosity engine strikes an excellent balance between quality and speed. However, if you need something that goes beyond the capabilities of the Artlantis radiosity engine, check out the Maxwell Render engine for Artlantis. By default, it is installed with Artlantis 4.1 in a 30-day demo mode (can be activated with the purchase of a separate serial number) and is accessible from the menu/command Artlantis/License/Maxwell Render Engine (on Mac) or Help/Edit License/Maxwell Render Engine (on Windows). Licensed from Next Limit Technologies, the developers of the standalone version of Maxwell Render, the engine is an optional product that excels at creating hyper realistic renderings with physically accurate lighting behavior. The renderings take significantly longer to produce, but if that level of quality is needed, it is possible to do so without having to leave the familiar and extremely easy-to-use Artlantis work environment. That’s a powerful combination! Normally,you’ll want to use Artlantis for your preliminary renderings (and most of your final renderings, for that matter), then use the Maxwell Render Engine when is has to be perfect. You’ll note that there is a dedicated family of Maxwell Render Shaders in the Catalog of mostly reflective and refractive surfaces. You’ll want to apply those in a different version of your Artlantis project before doing a Maxwell rendering.
Artlantis Radiosity Engine:
Maxwell Render Engine:
Q 08: I had difficulties customizing interior views using white walls in Artlantis. I use the "china", "basic" shader, but never got the realistic view as you can see in this if it's possible.
A: If you want to achieve brighter whites, here’s what to do. In our example here, we’ll be changing the walls. First, you’ll want to have probably either the Basic or Expert Shader applied to your surface. The color doesn’t matter, but just to keep things simple, make it white. Locate the blanc.jpg in the Catalog/Images and drag it onto the surface (the walls, for example) in the 3D Preview window. In the ShadersInspector/Material list, select the blank.jpg texture. In the settings for that texture, mark the Rep. checkboxes so that it tiles horizontally and vertically. At this point, you probably won’t notice any visible changes in the 3D Preview window yet.
With the blank.jpg texture still selected in the Shaders Inspector/Material list, adjust the Ambient slider to the right to maybe around 0.20 or so. You should see the white areas of the walls brighten considerably. If you take the Ambient slider all the way up 1.00, it will increase the white to a very unnatural looking pure white, which you wouldn’t normally do. Note that the ceiling in the next image next has not been changed, thus becoming a point of reference compared to the brightened walls.
Q 09: Is it possible to apply a shader texture in just one face of the imported model? Or do we need to import another model with that face in a different shader?
A: Yes, you can apply a Shader to just one face using the re-assign material command. There is no need to import another model. First, select the face by activating the selection tool in above the material list.
Change the selection method to single face.
Click on the desired face in the 3D Preview window to select it. The selected element will temporarily be highlighted. Then, click on the Apply Material icon, in the Shaders Inspector palette.
A dialogue will appear. In this case, you will want to apply a copy of the currently selected material to the surface. Give the new material an appropriate name.
The final result is a new material definition for that surface, which now operates completely independent of the other elements in the scene that shared its previous material. You can then apply Shaders to this surface as you normally would in Artlantis…just drag and drop a Shader directly onto the surface in the 3D Preview Window.
See also Q 03.
Q 10: How can we use HDRI files to get shaders affected within the environment?
A: While it is true that HDRI does affect the appearance of Shaders in the scene, that’s a lighting/background topic really best left for a future webinar. In the meantime, you can watch this video available on the Artlantis YouTube channel: Artlantis 4.1 - Adding HDRI Background.
Q 11: When we render the "white" shader from native Artlantis there's always a little bit of gray aspect. How can we control this shader to put it more with and apply to interior walls?
A: See Q 8.
Q 12: Since the Postcards are just jpegs, do they have to be generated from Artlantis?
A: Yes, they must be generated from Artlantis, because they are not “just” jpegs, they are specialized jpegs with additional information embedded into them. See also Q 1, Q 2 and Q 24.
Q 13: Can you do paint on the surface, like graffiti effect?
A: Yes. While there is no paint brush tool in Artlantis, this can be easily achieved if you add an alpha channel to an image in Photoshop to mask out its background. In the alpha channel, dark areas will mask the image and light areas will remain visible. Export as a TIF or PNG, then drag and drop that image file directly into the Artlantis 3D Preview window. Scale, reposition, and check the Use Alpha Channel checkbox.
Q 14: I have problems with 3D plants from version 1.2 looking very rough when rendered in 4.0. Do you know why that would be?
A: That would be a question for the Artlantis technical support team. We would need to know what plant files you’re using, a few things about your system and setup, and might possibly need an archived project file to diagnose the cause and offer a solution. To submit a support ticket on artlantis.com, use this link.
Q 15: Is there an easy way to use alpha channels in Artlantis, so you can make realistic looking grass for example?
A: Yes, but Shaders might not be the best option. The problem with many grass textures (and even high quality grass Shaders) is that from a far distance, they appear too repetitive, while from a close distance, they appear too flat. You could start with a grass Shader, and drop one or more subsequent grass textures onto it (with various bits masked out using an alpha channel to show the other underlying grass texture) to create a more randomized appearance to the grass texture, but this does nothing to resolve the problem that in real life, unless you’re on a golf course, grass normally doesn’t look like low-pile carpet.
Grass 1 with alpha (goes on top)
Grass 2 (goes underneath)
Grass textures 1 and 2 combined. The blend creates more randomnessthan using one texture alone, however it still looks pretty flat.
Grass is a material that is really difficult to simulate through just a texture and some bump and normal maps, because in reality it is a highly volumetric type of surface. Yes, you’ve got to put some kind of ground material in your project, but rather than taking great pains to create a Shader to simulate grass or using a high-poly 3D grass object, you could instead make a composite for your final image. Artlantis provides the option to save out a rendering as a Photoshop file. The resulting file contains 5 separate, very useful layers: MODEL_FRONT (the foreground elements), BACKGROUND (the background elements), MATERIAL (a materials map, differentiating the materials in the scene by unique colors), OBJECT (like the materials map, only for objects),and ZBUFFER (a grayscale depth map of the scene). The first 2 layers combine to create the finished rendering, but it’s the last 3 layers that can be very useful for post-process editing.
If you don’t already own Photoshop, stop what you’re doing and order it now. If there’s one other tool you need to create great renderings, it’s Photoshop. We can open this rendering in Photoshop and quickly use the magic wand to select the ground plane in either the OBJECT or MATERIAL layers. We create a grayscale mask from this, then apply a glass distortion filter to it to give it more of a rough edge.
Next step is to combine the rendering with a real image of the site or a photograph of a neatly manicured lawn (via a quick trip to a stockphoto website). I located 2 suitable images, used the content-aware fill to extend and touch up some areas, blended them by setting one of them at 50% opacity, then brightened the result with an overlay layer. Grass is brightened by adding a new solid green layer, set to overlay at 28% opacity
The final result of the new grass added into the overall composition is pictured below. Much more convincing! Since this is a tutorial about adding grass textures, I won’t discuss the additional compositional elements, cropping, and other adjustments that could be done to this image in Photoshop to make it a fully realized architectural rendering.
Q 16: What is a good practice to make good use of those different mapsto make better looking gaps or displacement?
A: See Q 5.
Q 17: We've had a lot of problems with swimming pools in particular. If in the modeler the solid element (slab) for the water actually touches the walls around it then Artlantis shows a black surface when rendered. We've been doing a work around which is leaving the water short of the walls and floors of the pool by about 1 cm inorder to not have the black surface. Any suggestions?
A: Sometimes, a simple work around is the best solution! You might also try just using a flat plane for the water. I once talked to a person who was rendering an interior and was puzzled by the way that the exterior looked wrong through the windows, even though everything was oriented properly and set up correctly. As it turned out, she was using the “glass” refraction option in her windows’ glass Shader settings, which was warping the view of the exterior like a magnifying glass. This was quickly and easily resolved by simply changing the glass refraction option to “air.” Your issue might be related to something like this…some weird refraction happening at the water’s edge. If you think this is a bug, you should create a support ticket with the Artlantis technical support team. They would probably need an archived project file to diagnose the cause and offer a solution. To submit a support ticket on artlantis.com, use this link. Another option might be to try posting in the Artlantis forum.
Q 18: Good afternoon, in my experience with Artlantis I have a problem with exterior renders. In general, is there a simple way to make the default shader to look more natural, I mean imperfect, weary or grayed out?
A: See Q 13 and Q 15 (first half)…stacking alpha channel images on to materials. The repetitiveness of the brick wall in the example from Q13 is definitely broken up by the graffiti, but in your case, you will probably be using a more subtle pattern (maybe a light layer of patchy dirt/grime that is applied across the surface), with maybe a few additional one-off textures applied here or there to resemble pockmarks or imperfections. You can apply as many textures as you want over top of a material, and you can opt to have them simply operate as one instance, or repeat to tile across the surface. Also, keep in mind that when a texture is applied to a material, that texture can then be set to be 100% transparent and used as some other kind of map (such as a Bump map) by adjusting the relevant slider (such as the Bump slider). So, you can really stack up or layer a whole series of graphic effects onto a material to achieve just about anything you want for imperfections or weathering.
Q 19: Can you render the pool image we're looking at?
A: Here’s another look. Sorry, the high resolution version stays with me!
Q 20: Are Artlantis 4 and Artlantis Studio separate applications that need to be purchased separately?
A: That depends on what you need. Artlantis 4 is available in two separate packages: Render and Studio. Render creates still images only, while Studio creates still images plus dynamic content like animations, VR object movies, and iVisit 3D panoramic VR presentations. You can start with Render, and if you ever need to create any of the dynamic presentation content, you can upgrade to Studio for very close to the difference in cost between the two applications. Incidentally, they both use the same file format interchangeably, so an office team could easily use both Render and Studio on the same project files.
Q 21: Can ImageCels be incorporated in Artlantis?
A: Yes. According to the imagecels.com FAQ, their “images (people,trees, etc.) are 2D in the 32 bit .TIF (LZW compressed) file format with embedded alpha channel masks. They are placed against a 0,0,0 black background. Textures are 24 bit .TIF (LZW compressed),seamless and tileable.” TIF is one of the many file formats that Artlantis supports, including support for embedded alpha channels.
Q 22: What are good websites to get HQ textures?
A: There really are a ton of them. Our store, objectsonline.com, sells 6different volumes of Artlantis Shaders, but we do not carry any stand alone texture files. Marlin Studios is one old favorite. Another is TurboSquid. But, even with a site as huge as TurboSquid, I will often start my search by using Google image search, and then happen upon professional texture websites along the way, once I find the best example of a texture for whatever specific material I’m trying to create.
Q 23: I was an Artlantis user for many years and missed the latestupgrade path. In 4.1 can we re use all the shaders that we have for the past versions? (vol 1-10)
A: Artlantis has been around since the days of big hair and spandex (although being a French product, I’m not sure what was popular in Paris back then). When Artlantis was completely recoded and released in 2005, Abvent reset the version numbering to 1.0 and split the product into Render and Studio. Users of the legacy version, which had reached v.4.5, had a period of several years during which they could upgrade at a discount. Currently, users on Render or Studio v1.0 or later are eligible for a discounted upgrade to Render or Studio v4.1. Regarding the legacy Shaders, if the disc they came on is copyrighted year 2000 or later, there is still a chance they might work. Backwards compatibility was available for the legacy Artlantis Shaders volumes1-10, if they were released on or after year 2000. Although many of them still might work, they are not officially supported anymore. I’m not sure if yours will still work for you, but you could test that out by downloading the Artlantis 4.1 demo version, which runs without a serial number for 30 days. You would just need to copy your legacy Shaders into your programs folder…Artlantis/Media/Shaders/.
Q 24: Are postcards embedded in the project file, or do we need to transfer postcards to other computers where the project file is being worked on?
A: Postcards are separate JPEG files that are created in a project, but are saved outside of and operate independently of that project. Do not rename or edit them! They should normally be stored in your program's folder…Artlantis/Media/Postcards/. You will want to keep copies of the Postcards on any computer where you may later want to access them.You should also ensure that any Shaders referenced in a postcard also travel with the Postcard. See also Q 1, Q 2, and Q 12.
Q 25: What is the difference between reflection and fresnel settings?
A: The Reflection setting of a Shader controls one aspect of the Shader’s appearance: its ability to reflect light. The Fresnel Transition can, in effect, dynamically override or exaggerate the Transparency and Reflection settings of the Shader. In order for Fresnel to have any noticeable impact, there must be at least some level of transparency and/or reflectivity assigned to the material in the Shader settings. Fresnel will increase a material’s apparent reflection/opacity as a surface is oriented more obliquely, angled to face away from the observer. Conversely, a material’s apparent reflection/opacity is reduced as a surface is oriented more tangentially, angled to face toward the observer. When a material is assigned a low Fresnel Transition value, the apparent differences between the material’s reflection/opacity, when viewed at different angles, are exaggerated. When a high Fresnel Transition value is used, the differences are minimized. The following images illustrate these differences.
High Fresnel setting viewed at different angles…minimal differences
Novedge: Tell us a bit about who you are and what you do.
Ryan Swanson: My life began in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where I went to high school for architecture. I then moved to Tampa about 7 years ago to attend The University of South Florida School of Architecture and Community Design where I will soon receive my Masters in Architecture. I'm an aspiring architect, designer and creator. I like to make things and make things for a reason. I hate making something that has no back story or reasoning for its existence. I try to live by this quote from Jim Henson - "When I was young, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a difference in this world. My hope is to leave the world a little better for having been there.” It's kind of cliché but I believe if I'm alive I might as well make it worth it.
What do I do... Well I try to dip my hand in just about anything I find interesting. I coach and play volleyball, dj on my spare time, and pretty much just try to live life as much as possible. Which is a hard task to do while in Architecture School. I recently have really gotten into emergent technologies and how they can be used in a large scale realm to push urban activation. So I spend a lot of time learning and designing. I never want to stop learning.
Novedge: How did you become interested in architecture and the public space?
Ryan Swanson: I think my interest in architecture kind of came about when I was young and asked my mom what I could do that involved math and art and she was like "architecture." That started me down this crazy wild path to where I am today. I didn't really get into public spaces until I went to Europe about two years ago. Me and some friends backpacked around for 5 weeks going to about 7 different countries. I began to see what a real public space was and actually be a part of their activeness. It's one thing to read about how a space is in a book than to actually experience it. I saw how people began to come together and interact with one another through the space. It was something that I never really saw in Fort Lauderdale or Tampa in the urban environment.
When I came back to the States I had just actually moved close to downtown Tampa and began to ride my bike there quite often into downtown. Before I never had a reason to drive the 20 min to downtown because there was never anything going on. I began to ask myself why Tampa was unsuccessful when it came to public spaces. It had some of the same parks, spaces, and open areas that I experienced in Europe. I began to realize people just either didn't know that the spaces existed or that it was ok to hangout in an empty grass lot. Or, it was just that there was nothing going on for them to want to hang out there. If you look at any big city you can walk down a street and feel like you are alive. Something is always happening or about to happen. I wanted to make this happen in downtown Tampa. I felt it had the potential and wanted to begin to create a change in the social interaction downtown. Public spaces are a way for people to escape and with the way our world is looking these days people need any way they can get to escape the harsh realities of life and come together.
Novedge: What is a recent project that you worked on?
Ryan Swanson: I'm actually working on a couple of different projects right now. One is this interactive projection installation I call Projecting Fun. The idea for the projection installation is that it is something that can be easy to transport and it can be as big as you want it. The installation is done using the xbox kinect and processing, an open source code driven software. Right now I have a simple script that reads movements of the body and allows one to dance and play and see themselves projected at a large scale doing it. The idea of this installation is to promote interactive activity in inactive spaces. It draws people in but also makes people begin to appreciate and notice the space they are occupying. My goal is to give people a good time and break up their typical route, but also make them appreciate the space they are in. I have done this installation in two locations, one on the side of an old facade and the other under an overpass. So this is something I have done but I am still working on making it different and more playful.
The next thing is a prototype for this thing I call the Space Manipulator. The idea is that it's this cube that is placed within an inactive space and it can be broken down to a multitude of spatial arrangements for people to interact with. The idea is to get people to begin to play and work together on something and to create this idea of public interaction. The whole concept is to get people to come together in a space that isn't regularly used but is an interesting public space that should be activated. So when bringing this installation in I hope to not only give people something they can hang out on and move, but something they can begin to discuss and figure out. Public spaces are about bringing people together and creating a place for people to be interactive and become a part of the space. It's about creating a conversation between the human body and the space around them. The Urban Conga is working on a bunch of different projects right now and they can be seen on our website. But something that has recently fell into our arms is helping design, create, and run a Fab Lab in South Tampa. Essentially we are working to create a place for learning and collaboration. The idea is that the house is always developing projects done by people coming to the Lab to learn and create. We hope to set up a studio in the Lab and begin to collaborate on a lot more public installations with creators from the Tampa area.
Novedge: What software do you use?
Ryan Swanson: Software is something I told myself I want to have a vast knowledge in. It's like being a painter; you don't want to paint with just one color. Through architecture school and 3d modeling I have become really familiar with 3ds Max, SketchUp, V-Ray, AutoCAD, and Photoshop. I use these programs for prototyping ideas and mostly for rendering and setting up files to be laser cut or CNC routed. 3ds Max is also good for animations for showing how interactive installations work or for getting accurate prototypes to pitch ideas. When showing people what you plan to do it's all about making it as pretty as possible and 3ds Max can do that for you. Rhino, with the Grasshopper plug-in, is probably the program I use the most for modeling and designing ideas. Rhino is great for parametric modeling and also it has an endless supply of plug-ins and can do a multitude of functions. Grasshopper is a generative modeling tool for Rhino that uses algorithms to create form. It also can be interconnected to Arduino which is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. The two can be used together to create real world interactions and create a digital model from that interaction. Another program I use for interactive projection installations is Processing. It is another interactive open-source software that runs off of Java. The great thing about Arduino and Processing is that everything is open source, so everyone is willing to share ideas, code, and help. The idea is to keep pushing the limits and for an idea to keep growing. So if you make something maybe someone else can make something cooler with the thing you created and then so on. I believe technology is important to keep up with the ever growing society we are in. So I keep trying to find new software that I can learn to make things better and bigger with.
Novedge: What is the Urban Conga?
Ryan Swanson:The Urban Conga is a collective group of creators activating urban spaces through interactive installations. We stimulate urban spaces through exploration, activation, and above all interaction. The objective is to spark a conversation between the public realm and the human body through interactive installations. Our mission is to start The Conga Line! We want to collaborate with other creators and begin to start a movement in inactive areas.
We are not a group of artists that create static public art to make a dollar. Our philosophy is to inject care into local communities by accentuating and enhancing the beauty of the current urban conditions! With like-minded passions to better communities, we are turning unused and overlooked urban spaces into interactive places to live, learn, and love your city. The Conga started in September 2012 when I and a couple of other students at the University of South Florida School of Architecture realized we were interested in solving the problem that our downtown is having with activation. So in doing my thesis I tried to incorporate my research into The Urban Conga in how to interact with people and what they best respond to in order to begin to activate these unused spaces. Our goal is to start a movement! We hope there will begin to be an Urban Conga group everywhere just giving people something to do and interact with and have fun. Our whole motto is "Come out and play!"
Novedge: What are the rewards and challenges of being part of a collective, such as the Urban Conga?
Ryan Swanson: Everyone works in groups in school and hate it. I feel this gives a false reputation on collaborations or working in a collective effort. In the working world this is something a majority of people have to learn to accept and deal with. I think working with other people is how to make something better. If you lock yourself in a room you are only getting one perspective on the thing you are doing and that is your own. When you put together a bunch of people that have different skill sets something amazing happens. IDEO is a design consulting firm that solely believes on creations through a collaborative effort. They are one of the top design consulting firms in the nation due to this mind set. If you look at any online open sourced software, people collaborate everywhere. Someone puts up some code that does a basic function and someone else takes that basic function and makes it fly a rocket ship. Maybe that's a bit extreme but my point is that things grow from a collective effort, every time being pushed to be better and different. At the same time you do run into problems with communication and people not being on the same page, but I feel in the end the rewards out way the some time bickering and arguments over how things should happen. The way the Urban Conga is set up is anyone can come to us with an idea and the motivation to make the idea happen. What we want to do is make that idea for an interactive installation happen. Either through helping that person with funding or just helping them build and design it. Ever since we started this collaborative group so many artists, performers and creators have reached out to us to make stuff happen. People need something that is actually out, doing stuff that they can sort of latch onto. Collaborating with these people just helps me learn more of their specific skill set.
Novedge: What advice would you give to people looking into going to college to study architecture?
Ryan Swanson: If you want to study architecture in college make sure it is something you are truly passionate about because it takes over your life!!! Keep your mindset open when it comes to what design and architecture are when starting. You will realize that the knowledge you learn in architecture school can be used in so many different ways of design not just in building buildings. Also architecture school is all about teaching the art side of things and not the real side of architecture so make sure you study how things functionally work and about coding and all that jazz as well as the fun stuff. Architecture school becomes a part of your life you kind of begin to realize no one outside of architecture school really understands what you are going through. It makes you feel sort of like an elitist in the college world but also excluded. Learn to love the studio and make it your home. Working in the studio is the most important part of architecture school. It goes back to the whole idea of putting different skill sets into one room and learning from one another. The main thing is just to hold on for the wild ride architecture school will bring you!
Novedge: Tell us a bit about who you are and what you do
Headless: We are three
directors/creators from Spain: Adrian Garcia, Alfredo Torres and
Victor Maldonado. We´ve been working in animation for many years
and five years ago we decided to get independent and create our own
studio, Headless.
Headless is a very
small studio specialized mainly on design and the production of very
small animation pieces. We work for other companies (Dreamworks,
Nickelodeon, Disney…) while we keep developing our own ideas and
projects. Currently we´re trying to finance a 2D European animation
feature that hopefully will see start of production during this year.
Novedge: How important
is team work in your field?
Headless: I think it's
essential. It's very difficult (with few exceptions) to imagine
animation without team work. I guess we're the living proof of that
as all the work we produce is made by the three of us. We have a very
organic way of working that consists on sharing and working together
all through the different stages of production. For instance, when we
are trying to find the style of a project or designing the characters
we take each other's work and rework, change it over and modify it in
order to improve the result. There's no problems with ego as we know
that's the way to achieve a great result.
Novedge: You have a
very distinctive style. How did you develop it and why?
Headless: I think it's been a
matter of years and years working the three of us together.
Separately we have different styles but when we work together we use
the strengths of each other in order to create what you might call
Headless's style. Also the fact that we have similar taste in
animation and art in general makes it easy to create a coherent style.
We are obviously drawn to a very stylized sense of design, we like
our work to be cheerful and happy and we pay special attention to
color and light…
Having said all that, it took time, effort and getting to know each other to reach a solid
style. Needless to say, we still have a long way to go, of course!
Novedge: What is a
recent project that you worked on?
Headless: The last project was
this little promo called Strange Oaks. It´s something we did on spec
just for the pleasure of developing our CGI skills. It´s a fake commercial for witches.
Although the piece
is a separate thing that we made for fun to promote the studio, there's a story in the world that we're developing. The premise is
simple: Strange Oaks is this little town where they've gotten used
to every night protect their kids from the attack of relentless
witches.
At the same time
we're developing what we want to be our first official Headless
short film. It´s a story called Kingdom of NO that will be
traditionally animated. It’s a project quite ambitious for a short
film and so we´re preparing a Kickstarter campaign in order to
finance it. I guess in the upcoming month you'll know more about it.
We´re very excited with this, because we believe it will be something very
special and cool.
Novedge: What software
do you use? Why?
Headless:Strange Oaks was made very traditionally in terms of CGI. We are no experts so we
needed guidance from a CG artist, and Javi Verdugo helped us through the
process. The piece was made with XSI, the render is with Arnold and
then we took care of the post production in After Effects.
The reason of using
this software is 100% practical. These are the software titles we had
available and we know how to use.
When we do
traditionally animated pieces (most of them, really) that we animate on a Wacom tablet with a software called TVPaint, a very simple but great
software that mimics the way you'd animate on regular paper. Then we
paint the animations on the same software and compose the scenes in
After Effects. Again, a very basic, normal way of doing things.
Novedge: What are some
of the rewards and challenges of owning your own business?
Headless: The reward obviously
is you are the one deciding the direction that you want to take your
business, your studio. Having the power to decide what you do and
what you don't, when to focus more on certain area and less on some others.
Ultimately you're the one responsible for the image of the company
and that's really great.
The challenge I
think is pretty obvious… surviving, keeping the studio alive. These
are definitively very hard times and work never comes easy, even if
you have some reputation. We are in a peculiar situation as we are
officially a studio but we don´t work as other studios, meaning we offer very little services and we are very picky about the jobs we
accept.
Novedge: What advice
do you have for young people who would like to work in animation?
Headless: I don´t think we
can give much advice, particularly in CGI, as we don't have much
experience in that field. We can talk about animation in general.
What we always tell people is to be very open-minded and try to
develop their own personality, world, style (call it what you will)
at the same time as they develop their technical skills. Some people
get really obsessed on the technical stuff and forget that what will
make the difference at the end of the day is their personality.
Also, try to
absorb as much as possible from all types of artistic disciplines, be
open minded about cinema in general, art, sculpture, literature…
that´s only going to help you being a better and more complete
artist.
Would you like to see more? Check Headless work online, on their website, Vimeo channel and blog.
Novedge: Tell us a bit about who you are and what you do. Kelly Nedderman: Well, I do quite a lot of things. I am a surface/textile designer (mostly commercial work in fashion and home), artist, jewelry designer, and I teach metalsmithing at The Crucible and Academy of Art University. My work has been included in a handful of publications and I have exhibited nationally. I came to the San Francisco Bay Area over a decade ago for school and never left. For the last several years I have been self-employed and really thrive on the multitude of possibilities that it offers with regards to projects and people.
Novedge: What are some of the rewards and challenges of owning your own business? Kelly Nedderman: Some of the best parts of owning your own business are also the most challenging parts. Schedule flexibility is a huge plus for me. It is also a huge challenge to hold yourself accountable and stay on track. The ability to choose projects is wonderful, but when you are in between things and the paychecks are not rolling in, it can also be nerve racking.
Novedge: What is a recent project that you worked on? Kelly Nedderman: One of my current projects is a collaboration with a local wallpaper company. The pieces will be for commercial interiors such as restaurants and hotels. While I create repeating imagery every day, this project is a bit different. The patterns will end up being 52” across with no vertical limits, so I can design something to float in the center of the wall or something that is 15 ft tall. It’s exciting.
Novedge: What software do you use? Kelly Nedderman: In my line of work, I primarily use Photoshop, Illustrator, and Nedgraphics. Nedgraphics is a CAD program specific to textile design that facilitates the development of repeats, wovens and knits. These programs allow me to draw and develop repeating patterns ready to be printed by clients onto thousands of yards of fabric or wallpaper. I also do hand illustrated artwork for graphic t-shirts. Recently, I took two great courses in Rhino, and am learning to model jewelry designs that would be very difficult to execute in metal, mainly because of their crazy shape and size. I have also been playing around in Hex Fiend, GIMP and Audacity and using them to “break” tiff and jpg files in interesting ways to produce new imagery for my designs.
Novedge: Where do you find inspiration for your work? Kelly Nedderman: Just about everywhere. Magazines, blogs, photos… even just walking around, but the more offbeat the better. I have a soft spot for silhouettes, textures and magazines from the UK.
Novedge: You are the Co Director of Programs at the San Francisco Bay Area Metal Arts Guild. What is the Guild and what does it do? Kelly Nedderman:The Metal Arts Guild of The Bay Area is a non-profit organization that focuses on promoting the recognition of metalwork as an art form and offering Bay Area jewelers and metal artists a network of information, education and support. That’s the official answer, but it is so much more than that. It’s a community, support group, and network of friends. We organize artist lectures, museum tours, exhibits and workshops all aimed at inspiring the group. We have around 250 members of all ages and backgrounds. From the student to the retiree and the hobbyist to the large business owner… The guild provides a common ground for all of those who love making and exchanging ideas.
Novedge: How important is it for professionals to be involved with their community? Kelly Nedderman: I think it’s incredibly important. We were all beginners once. I was very lucky to be able to work with and learn from people making their living doing what their passion was. It had a huge impact on me. I try very hard to encourage students and professionals to get involved. Another great benefit of community is feedback and interaction. Our lives and creativity do not happen in a vacuum... I think people forget that even just being in an office environment is still a community. The office community is the one most people are familiar with, but we need to branch out past that. I have had some amazing brainstorming sessions with new people whom I have met at events and many of my clients have found me through word of mouth and my network. Take the time to get outside of your bubble!
Novedge: How are new technologies changing jewelry design? Kelly Nedderman: One of the most obvious ways is that a fine jewelry store can have most of its inventory exist digitally now. They will have some great samples that customers can touch and try on, but without having so much money invested up front. For someone who is more into the sculptural aspect of jewelry, like myself, 3D printing and laser cutting allow for an amazing level of experimentation. Forms that are extremely challenging or maybe impossible to create in metal, can be worked out with relative ease and then manufactured in a huge variety of materials. This grey area where traditional skills and new technologies meet is very exciting right now.
See more of Kelly's work on Flickr and don't forget to join our Rhino Jungle community, if you are a Rhino user.
Novedge: Tell us about yourself and what you do. Chris Waner: First, I wanted to say thank you for putting the time and energy into creating a forum for showcasing and inspiring students and professionals. I know how much work goes into that.
It wasn't so long ago that I would have said that I was a 3D visual effects artist. But over the last couple of years I've been forced to abandon that description because if I honestly assess what I do, I have to admit that the term 3D visual effects is too narrow. Nowadays I find that I'm called upon to design--design for anything and everything; design for print, web, interactive, packaging, do style frames for commercials, write copy, even compose music or do a costume design. Of course I still do visual effects; I still love visual effects, but quite honestly it has simply become another tool for enhancing a broader creative endeavor. Because I work for agencies, studios, and direct-to-client, I'm forced to view what I'm creating in light of the client's larger and more generalized brand trajectory. I call this kind of work principle creative, and quite honestly it took me a while to figure out that this is the kind of work I wanted.
I've always been in the arts in some way, but somewhere along the road I decided to follow after other goals; I received a degree in English Literature and Secondary Education, taught for a while, and left because the politics of education were more than I wanted to deal with. And after a five year hiatus I came back to design. I started doing personal projects to get a small portfolio together, did some free work for people I knew, and used that work to become a junior graphic designer at a print house in Tulsa, OK. I then leveraged that work into a freelance children's book illustration job. Then took that portfolio to NYC, received my MFA in digital media, and became a visual effects artist.
Now I help people move their businesses forward in beautiful ways, and I love it.
Novedge: How do you find inspiration to stay ahead of the curve? Chris Waner: As cliche' as it might sound, inspiration is everywhere. I was inspired by a kiwi fruit at lunch today; I had some fun looking at a shadow on the wall that resembled Kermit the Frog. On a more pragmatic level I've always considered staying up-to-date in design, color, technology, and cultural trends a part of my job. I unapologetically spend at least an hour a day looking at others' work, new technology, industry news, design blogs, etc. Ultimately, I'd have to say that what inspires me to stay ahead of the curve is the desire to create great work more efficiently. From a technological point of view, I want tools that are fast, efficient, and flexible; from the art/design side I see the work of others as iron sharpening iron, taking unrefined edges off my own sensibility. There's an efficiency that comes with refinement.
Novedge: What is a recent project that you worked on? Feel free to talk about more than one project! Chris Waner: Certainly one of the most interesting and unusual projects that I've done was for Stark Collective, a start-up agency in Kansas City. On the surface the project was pretty straightforward, a launch video that spoke to the agency's intellectual ideals. However, the project was novel for a couple of reasons. In the first place the typical internal brand identity for agencies is white, graphic, and minimal. Stark, whom I would find as time went on to be breakthrough in a number of areas, had chosen a look that was black, raster, and active. In the second place, and perhaps even more astonishing, Stark did not want anything even remotely didactic but, rather, something abstract, even esoteric.
Unlike many launch videos where the plain communication of core values is sufficient, Stark wanted a visual piece that spoke symbolically and even emotionally to those values; and especially visually they wanted to avoid a concrete or literal exposition. This, I think, is a powerful way to work, a resonant method of communicating ideas, and a very modern, forward-thinking approach to design. As it would happen one of the reasons I was asked to work on the Stark launch video was because of a piece that I co-directed and executed with Claudia Chagui, a brilliant creative located in Chicago. The piece was for a Kansas City organization called CinemaKC, who is dedicated to providing a forum for local film makers. In that piece we told the story of an idea that grows, blooms, takes flight, and finally finds an audience in the land of CinemaKC.
This symbolic storytelling caught Stark's attention, and I was brought on to design and execute a piece that encapsulated their creative philosophy. I did a few style frames, and to my amazement they just said, "Okay, go crazy."
That level of trust is utterly uncharacteristic of, well, really any client I've ever had, and that this client was an agency really kind of blew my mind. The one challenge thrown into the mix was that the piece needed to be a minute and a half long, and after the boards were complete I only had a little over four weeks to create it. Thanks to Bazillion Pictures in Kansas City who provide some much needed support in production, manpower, and infrastructure, we completed on time and on budget. The response to the launch video has been great, and Stark, mostly due to its own talent and perspective, is thriving with a host of new clients, in spite of the fact that as of the writing of this, they are only a little over a month old.
Novedge: What software do you use? Why? Chris Waner: I've found that different software applications approach the same problem from different points of view. I recommend downloading free trials of everything, and see what feels right. Adobe has really cornered the market for suite based workflow and is an industry standard. For me the folks at Alias|Wavefront just spoke my language back in 2002-2003 when I started on Maya 4.5. Maya is still my app of choice because it strikes a nice balance between a procedural and artist-driven workflow (yes, artists drive procedural processes too). In the near future I see Houdini making a real in-road in the middle range commercial market; it's procedural tools are second to none, and I can see real possibilities because it has all the pieces in place to solve one of the major hurdles in commercial work, rapid iterations--turning versions on a theme around quickly for approval. I'm hoping to dive into Houdini in the near future. Finally, I can't leave out RealFlow. Although very few of my projects start out needing fluids, I find that I often end up there; I'll be in Maya thinking, "Hmm...how should I make this effect," and I'll realize that RealFlow has a tool to get me there.
Novedge: What are the rewards and challenges of working freelance? Chris Waner: I think anyone considering going down the freelance road should remember that freelancing is not one job but ten. As a freelancer it is challenging enough just completing projects, keeping track of hours, billing, keeping and organizing receipts, dealing with clients, etc., but people who are successful at it must also keep pounding the pavement, so to speak, looking for new work, meeting new people, making new connections, keeping up with existing clients, promoting recently released work, and many other things. I think in many ways freelancing is much more similar to running a small business than being a visual effects artist, illustrator, designer, or whatever; you are CEO, CFO, CMO, and the grunt labor in many cases.
The market makes a big difference too. The market in NY or LA is very different than it is in KC, for example. One market might let you specialize where another market might demand that you generalize. In my market in Kansas City, I will go from being an Art Director or a Creative Director, to a motion graphics artist or visual effects TD, to an interface designer or print designer within a month or two. Freelancers need to know their market in order maximize their offerings.
That might seem like a whole lot of trouble, but freelancing has it's perks too. Quite often it carries with it a lot of creative freedom. If you work from home, your commute is shorter. Many costs are reduced like transportation, food, and there are many tax benefits if you are organized and researched on how to take advantage of that. Quite often freelancing carries with it a higher money-to-time-spent-ratio than a traditional staff position. You rarely have to deal with the same difficult personalities for very long; often I can work when I want to in the day, I sometimes get to work when I want to in the week (i.e. a day off now and again), and on rare occasions I can just turn down a job that seems, well, torturous. You can't tell your boss at work that you're not going to do that job because it looks boring...unless you're wanting to become a freelancer really soon.
Novedge: What would you say to young people who want to work in the visual effects field? Chris Waner: After graduating with an MFA from Pratt in NYC, I went on to teach courses in visual effects to undergraduate and graduate students. I have a real heart for those who are learning and a desire to help them make the jump from academia to the workforce. I say that because it's true and because I'm about to dodge this question. This industry is changing so much and so fast that it is almost impossible to answer this question without feeling that I might have led someone astray. The only comments I can really give young people starting out in this industry is to first, be self-reflective about what you want and why you want it. The design/visual effects industry needs people who are serious about their art and/or science, are willing to work hard, and are also level-headed enough to know when they are being abused. And second, I might get some emails about this one, don't feel like you have to do the NY or LA thing to have a happy and rewarding career. I started in NY, worked on some big jobs with big clients and agencies on their terms, but I left after six years because there's more to life than that. Now three years later I'm starting to work with bigger clients and agencies from NY and LA again, but this time I work my own way. Some of my favorite projects, and the best projects, were for clients that most people would call "small." There are some local business people out there with great vision and also some brave people who will follow you in your great vision for them. The world is a big place, don't settle for a small box.
See more of Cris Waner's work on his website and Vimeo channel.
Today we we talk to Gavin Goulden, the author of our March Book of the Month, about his work and inspiration.
Novedge: Tell us a bit about who you are and what you do.
Gavin Goulden: My name is Gavin Goulden, I am the lead character artist on Bioshock Infinite and have contributed art assets in the past to titles such as Dead Rising 2, The Bigs 2, Dragon Age: Origins, F.E.A.R. 2 and Damnation. My main focus is on character art (modelling, texturing and rigging) for games on current generation platforms. I also have a keen interest in creating art pipelines, teaching character art, and toy sculpting. On top of the the game projects that I have been a part of, I have contributed dozens of articles to 3DArtist and 3DCreative magazine as well as authoring The Swordmaster.
Novedge: What is a recent project that you worked on?
Gavin Goulden: Throughout my career, I have been involved with nearly a dozen titles ranging from “kids games” to first person shooters. As part of that, three big projects stick out to me.
My most recent project, which should be on store shelves soon, was BioShock Infinite. While on BI, I created many of the general population seen in the game as well as enemies you encounter during combat scenarios. During this project I also entered a lead role which required me to start managing schedules, maintaining best practices, and conversing with other departments about their needs and what our team could do for them. This is, by far, the biggest project I have been apart of – though I can't go into too much detail about it – it was certainly rewarding.
Before joining the team, I was working with Capcom on Dead Rising 2. While on DR2, I took care of many “psychopath” characters, player outfits, and weapons seen in game. Definitely a fun project given the genre – Who doesn't like zombies?
Before Dead Rising 2, I was working with Blue Castle Games (which later became Capcom Vancouver) on 2K Games' The Bigs 2. While I am not a sports fan, this project taught me so much in the way of structuring a team, managing schedules, working within a pipeline, etc. that previous projects did not. So, while not exactly a game that I would play on my own, the entire experience helped lay down a foundation of lessons that I still practice today.
Novedge: What software do you use? Why?
Gavin Goulden: On a day to day basis I use 3ds Max, Zbrush, and Photoshop. I generally supplement these programs with more specialized apps like CrazyBump, xNormal, and Wings 3D. For the most part, I'm just a creature of habit. The work flow for game assets, especially characters, generally requires the same exporting point, or at least a common ground so that problems are not introduced for other departments. So, for that, we are all required to use the same software as a project standard. 3ds Max has generally been the accepted program for the studios I've been with, along with Maya which I previously used for the same reasons. Zbrush and Photoshop, for pretty much the same reasons, they are industry standards.
For the more specialized programs, I tend to use them because they are just quicker and/or more efficient than what is out of the box when it comes to major applications. Like the baking speed (and the need to not have to load models into a viewport for baking) within xNormal saves hours of work, Wings takes less time to unwrap objects, CrazyBump produces nice cavity maps in seconds – it's just quicker and easier.
Novedge: Your book, 3D Masterclass: The Swordmaster in 3ds Max and ZBrush, is our March Book of the
Month. Can you talk about how it came about?
Gavin Goulden:The Swordmaster was a long running series for 3DCreative. I was originally approached by the magazine to do a few short articles covering the process of current generation character art. Once I was approached, I jumped on the opportunity. I had written a bunch of smaller articles in the past, and tutorials roughly covering my process in a few pages – but this time I really wanted to go in depth. And I did. Eventually, we realized that we were producing A TON of content which would make a great book. So, we added even more information, created a set of new renders, bonus material, and brought all of the pieces together.
Novedge: How do you find inspiration to stay ahead of the curve?
Gavin Goulden: I think there's a few different things going on here. Where I find “inspiration” is the same place I found it as a kid doodling poor renditions of imps from DOOM, and Spider-Man. There are things that I nerded out over which have shaped my personal tastes that still have some degree of influence over the choices I make now. As a kid, I wanted to be the guy who created these characters, that was the dream and, in a way, I still am that person – it's just that now I get to do it as my career. What “motivates” me to do that and to stay where I am within my industry is that I am extremely competitive. I always want to stay relevant, I don't want to fall behind. I've worked incredibly hard to be where I am now, so, if I didn't pay attention to the next great thing – I would be doing a disservice to myself.
Novedge: What are some of the rewards and challenges of working as Lead Character Artist?
Gavin Goulden: My goal is to make life easier for everyone. By establishing and maintaining a process that empowers artists but also encourages quicker turnaround times and easier iteration, everyone can walk away happy – and that's a good feeling. One of the challenges I face, personally, is that eventually you will have to say, “No” which can be tough. Sometimes, there just isn't enough time or resources to do everything you had hoped to do – which is common on all projects.
Novedge: What is the best advice you have ever received?
Gavin Goulden: While I don't think I've ever had a heart to heart conversation with someone and received a solid life lesson, I do think that the collected advice regarding portfolios from the game art community has been incredibly valuable and is a mindset that I try to share with people breaking into the industry. Simple things that, to an industry veteran, may seem obvious but may be slightly shocking to students. The biggest point that stands out to me is that you are not competing with your classmates and the ones in your immediate circle of artist friends. You need to consider yourself in the same market as the ones you idolize, like the people in your reference folder could be looking for the same job as you. While it's one thing to be the top of your class, there are other people out there who have years of work under their belt applying for the same job opening. You need to wow potential employers. You need to learn to self edit and really compare yourself to heavy hitters. Rather than having an expansive portfolio full of school projects, life drawing, and works in progress , you need a handful of solid pieces that are relate-able to the projects you want to be a part of and better than artists in the industry that currently have the job you want. Not a lot of schools will tell you that, and it can be a little demotivating – but it is a competitive industry where you need to stand out of the crowd.
Learn more about Gavin's work on his website and blog and don't forget to connect with him on Twitter.
Gavin's 3D Masterclass: The Swordmaster in 3ds Max and ZBrush comes out in June. Read about ithere.
Dave Schultze: I am an industrial designer focusing on a dynamic range of products, most of which have a technology component. In the last few years, I have designed robots, computers, cell phones, science and educational products, housewares, furniture, and lighting. I even designed a musical tooth brush for Hasbro called “Tooth Tunes”, which became the number one-selling toothbrush on the market when it launched in 2007.
Novedge: You have a Design Manifesto. What is it and how did it come about?
Dave Schultze: Funny story! The manifesto is not even complete yet, but somehow people have noticed it on my website and starting asking about it. It was initially inspired when I tried to build my own 3D workstation computer. I never found a PC case that was even remotely attractive as an Apple product, which really surprised me, since so many companies are prolific copycats of Apple. Out of this frustration, I started sketching a retro-inspired computer that ended up becoming the Philco PC. The goal of the design was to create something that was both new and familiar, but above all, had a unique and compelling personality with a touch of humor.
By contrast, if you look at the current lineup of smart phones; they are all black, shiny slabs that are indistinguishable from each other! I wanted my design to have more of an emotional connection and allow easy upgrades for sustainability purposes. Above all, I wanted to make a commodity computer less of a commodity and inspire people to hang on to it long term. As the Philco PC design neared completion, a competition came up from V-Ray, makers of the popular rendering plug-in. I entered the computer renderings and won Top Three honors. I then decided to share the news and wrote a press release, sent it to a few of my favorite websites and that is when the coverage exploded. The design was featured in the New York Times, on the front page of Engadget and Gizmodo, and ultimately in 25 magazines, including one cover.
Novedge: What is a recent project that you worked on?
Dave Schultze: A recent project that is just hitting the shelves is Nancy B’s Science Club. It is a line of educational / science products aimed at younger girls and designed for Educational Insights of California.
The force behind the line is Nancy Balter, a former science teacher with an MA in Education whose mission is to spread the joys of science to kids everywhere. For this line, she observed that both boys and girls have equal aptitude for science at a younger age, but somehow the girls end up getting pink microscopes and they deserved better. Five products later, we have a full line and the sales are going great!
Novedge: What software do you use?
Dave Schultze: My primary 3D & design software is Rhino and I’m loving the new version 5.0 that just came out. Since compelling visuals can make or break selling you design, we couldn’t work without the V-Ray plug-in for rendering. The other mandatory plug-in is T-Splines, a brilliant set of tools that handles organic modeling beautifully. Of course, we have the entire Master Collection of the Adobe products to prepare and present the work. My favorite is After Effects, which we use to create all of our videos. I found After Effects so incredibly useful and just plain FUN, that I added it to the curriculum where I teach at Otis College of Art and Design. In the series of 3DVisualization classes that I teach, it’s the students favorite thing to do.
Novedge: What keeps you inspired?
Dave Schultze: Fortunately (or unfortunately), I am inspired by almost anything that captures my attention, which can get very distracting. I love great design of any kind, but I’m also inspired by architecture, movies, books, photography, museums, and now my latest hobby, paragliding.
Novedge: What are some of the rewards and challenges of owning your own business?
Dave Schultze: The reward is having total freedom with my schedule, but that is also a challenge since I frequently have the ‘freedom’ to work seven days a week. But, the freedom does allow me to work on one design research project or competition per year. Our most publicized design research project was the Philco PC, but the first one was a cell phone I designed for an LG Design Competition in 2008. My ‘Roto Retro’ cell phone design came in first place amongst a total submission of over 500 entries. It was extremely cool to win, but it also told me I was on to something with a re-thinking of current design aesthetics.
Novedge: If you could go back in time, what would you say to your younger self before embarking in your current career?
Dave Schultze: I might suggest not working so hard, but then again, I enjoy what I do too much to slow down. So, to answer the question, “nothing different.”
Jim Newton,
an uber-DIYer and lifelong maker, created TechShop because he needed a
place to build his own inventions. His ideas are now more relevant than ever, so I asked him to share his story and philosophy with us.
Novedge: Tell us about yourself and TechShop.
Jim Newton:TechShop
is a membership-based workshop and fabrication studio where we teach
hands-on classes to equip anyone to operate industry-standard machines
and technologies for use on their personal projects. Each of our
facilities includes a full wood shop, metal working shop, machine shop,
plastics and electronics labs, welding stations, and laser and water jet
cutters. No experience is necessary to take a class or become a member
at TechShop.
Members
are given unlimited access to the space, which is open daily from 9AM
to midnight. They can use any of the tools after taking a one-time
Safety and Basic Use (SBU) class. These classes typically run between
one and three hours and prepare members to safely explore a machine's
capabilities on their own. They also have open access to high-end design
software including the entire Autodesk Design Suite.
TechShop
also offers personal consulting and prototyping for an hourly fee. All
locations are staffed with experts who can be paired with members who
require special help or guidance.
We
teach hundreds of classes every month at each TechShop location.
Classes cover topics in everything from laser cutting to sewing to
electrics design to stained glass and injection molding. We also offer a
variety of CNC classes including the ShopBot wood router, Tormach CNC
mill, and the FlowJet CNC waterjet cutter. We will be opening our seventh location in March.
TechShop was created because I
wanted my own dream shop, so I tried to think of a way I could put it
together, that would not require me to perform prototype work and
fabrication services for customers. I thought about the health club
membership model, and applied it to a do-it-yourself workshop. The rest
is history.
Novedge: What inspires you?
Jim Newton: Ben Franklin inspires me, and people who become brand new makers.
Novedge: What is a recent project that you worked on?
Jim Newton: Here are three recent projects.
Electric Cargo Trike
This was a project that I built as transportation for myself for the
2011 Burning Man event. I took a new electric bike that I bought at a
local auto parts chain store, and hacked off the motor, controller and
drive train and fabricated a frame and box that looked a lot like an ice
cream vendor trike. It had a large cargo box in the front with two
wheels, and had one wheel in the back. It worked great, but I only had 4
days to pack for the trip and build the trike.
Extreme Pinewood Derby Cars
My
sons were both in Cub Scouts so they built Pinewood Derby cars each
year. In our pack, we also had what we called an "Outlaw Derby" and the
reason was so the dads would build their own car to compete with the
other dads, and they'd let their son build his own car. It worked
great. I have build a number of "Outlaw" cars over the years, but in
the last few years I made a self-steering car that would sense the
center guide rail and steer away from it to reduce drag and friction,
and my car from last year was designed in Autodesk Inventor and printed
on a 3D printer. That car also had jewel bearings on all four wheels,
which reduced the wheel and axle friction to practically zero. I am now
working on my car for 2013 that has both active automated self steering
and jewel bearings, as well as a ducted air induction system that
directs incoming air onto vanes on the wheels to add a small rotational
force.
Amphibious Armored Personnel Carrier
Before
I started TechShop, I build an amphibious armored personnel carrier for
one of my clients. It was a scaled version of a Marines troop carrier.
It had tank-style steering, eight wheels, propellers in the back, a
machine gun turret, and could carry 6 adults with full combat gear.
Since I didn't have a TechShop yet, I built it in the driveway of my
house. I'm pretty sure the neighbors loved it.
Novedge: What software do you use?
Jim Newton: I use Autodesk Inventor for 3D design, and Adobe Illustrator and
Photoshop for 2D designs. I like Inventor because it really is a
virtual workshop, and feeds particularly well into 3 printers and into
CNC equipment. Illustrator and Photoshop I use because I produce a lot
of 2D graphics work, and I have been using each of those programs since
before they were released so I know them really well.
Novedge: What innovations do you see in your field?
Jim Newton: I think there are a lot of future tools that have not even been dreamed
up yet. Laser cutters and 3D printers are very new in the history of
tools, and it was not very long ago when nobody had thought of those
yet. We are going to see some amazing tools come out in the near future
that are going to add capability that humans have never had before.
Also, I think that we will see 3D printing technology advance to the
point that it is competitive with traditional injection molding. A lot
has to improve with 3D printers for that to happen...specifically print
speed, print quality including the ability to print smooth glossy
surfaces without any "pixel" resolution, and the ability to print
objects that match the color and luster of objects with which they will
need to mate in the final product assembly. I think we are a long way
from any of these things happening, but it will happen at some point.
Are you a member of TechShop? Leave a comment for Jim.
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