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Creating a Magical Library Inspired by Harry Potter in 3ds Max

On April 29th, CG Boost announced the winners of its 14th 3D challenge, Library Challenge, which was sponsored by the TPN-Accredited cloud render farm, Fox Renderfarm. You will never know what magical and interesting stories are going to happen in the library until you see these amazing award-winning artworks. We are so proud to have an interview with the champion of the Library Challenge, Krzysztof (Chris) Fendryk, a CG Supervisor & CG Artist from Poland, whose artwork The High Room received unanimous praise from the judges as its top-notch composition and lens perspective. Krzysztof (Chris) FendrykCG Supervisor & CG ArtistFrom: Poland The High Room © Krzysztof (Chris) Fendryk Clay render Chris’s inspiration came from visiting Trinity Library in Dublin (an iconic place) and re-watching Harry Potter movies with his daughter. The artwork was created using 3ds Max, Marvelous Designer, RizomUV, Substance Painter and Nuke. Trinity Library in Dublin Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire “The biggest challenge for me was to create all of the assets within the time given. I’ve made roughly 60 different books to avoid repetition. Technique wise, it’s a typical edge/box modeling, UV’s, textures painted in Painter, all rendered with V-ray with a sprinkle of volumetric fog on top. I’ve used Nuke to rebuild shaders and color correct the composition adding glow and vignette,” according to Chris. Now let’s find out what went on behind the scene in the exclusive interview. Fox Renderfarm: Hey Chris, thank you so much for accepting our interview! Could you briefly introduce yourself? Chris Fendryk: Hi all, my name is Krzysztof but pretty much everyone calls me Chris due to the fact I've been living abroad for 12 years before I've moved back to Poland. I'm currently working at Platige Image as a CG Sup, balancing time as best as I can between family, work and CG. Fox Renderfarm: How do you feel about winning the 1st Place in the CGBoost Library Challenge? Chris Fendryk: It's a really great feeling and experience to have your work recognized and awarded. I didn't expect that I could take the win. Fox Renderfarm: How long did it take to finish the artwork? Chris Fendryk: It took me roughly 10-14 days on/off work, juggling kids activities, work and sanity ;). Fox Renderfarm: The fisheye lens distortion contributed greatly to the success of the artwork, why did you use the lens distortion in your work and how did you make it? Chris Fendryk: I do set up my cameras and basic lighting at the blocking stage, it helps me a lot to focus on the most important parts of the image. I've decided to use a fisheye lens as I felt it will add a lot to a rather static image. I've achieved the effect by using V-Ray camera with properly set up distortion. Fox Renderfarm: The symmetrical composition and the cold lighting make the library magical and mysterious, any idea behind that? Chris Fendryk: Regarding symmetrical composition, I've always loved this kind of framing, in the previous studio (Brown Bag Film) friends tend to joke around: "Ease out with the symmetry you not Kubrick" :). Lighting took much longer than I expected besides creating all of the books that was the most challenging part of the process. I had around 20 different lighting iterations all of them set up in the same mood (cold outside + warm interior). I felt that this kind of lighting scenario will have the best mood, and both colours will nicely complement each other. I would say that every single step of creation has something unforgettable in it. But if I had to pick one - lighting would be the number one. Fox Renderfarm: When did you encounter CG? Could you briefly tell us the story of your educational and work experience along your CG journey? Chris Fendryk: I think the first time I've become aware of CG was around the mid 90's. That's when I first encountered a Polish CG scene. I was always involved in a lot of artistic activities, from being a professional dancer for most of my life to painting, architecture, calligraphy and so on. If I would have to pinpoint the exact moment when I knew CG is what I really want to do, I would say Computer Arts magazine special edition on how to create tags in 3D. That was it, I've been sold. It also happened around the time when I was working as DTP for a printing business and I felt that I needed a change. In terms of education, I did two years of Game Dev in college, then I did it with Bachelor of Arts in Animation and VFX at Irish School of Animation. Work wise, I've been lucky enough I didn't struggle to look for work. I've put a lot of "bum hours" into my portfolio which secured my first gig. After that, everything happened more or less through word of mouth. Fox Renderfarm: As a CG supervisor and artist, which artwork or project impressed you most, why? Chris Fendryk: I would have to say that every project I was/I am involved in brings certain moments that make all of them special. But the most memorable one would be working on Black Sails Season 4 - a trial by fire for me ;). Black Sails Season 4 Fox Renderfarm: How did you keep yourself inspired and motivated? What do you do to improve your professional skills? Chris Fendryk: I do tend to stay on top of what’s currently happening within the CG scene, from browsing art to listening to podcasts, etc. Being motivated most of the time requires rigour and determination. We all have downtime either due to being burned out or simply having troubles finding an inspiration. I would suggest that starting even a simple asset will get you going in no time. Also having an "outside CG" activity or hobby helps a lot, cycling, gym, etc. Ford GT 40 CG © Krzysztof (Chris) Fendryk Cave study © Krzysztof (Chris) Fendryk ED 209 - Robocop fan art © Krzysztof (Chris) Fendryk Fox Renderfarm: Anyone or any artwork inspires you the most in the industry? Chris Fendryk: There are so many amazing artists out there, but definitely Marek Denko, Fausto De Martini, Peter Sanitra, to name a few. From the closest circle that keeps me going, Darko Mitev and Rory Bjorkman - those guys don't know when to stop ;). Fox Renderfarm: Any other things you wanna share with CG enthusiasts? Chris Fendryk: I would like to say thanks to everyone who liked my piece and showed the support, and let's comment and give feedback not just "like" someone’s art, it does help a lot and shows we do care for other artists too :). Cheers.

Creating a Hyper Futuristic Robot Under an AI Generative System in Blender

Sponsored by the TPN-Accredited cloud render farm Fox Renderfarm, the CG Boost “Baby Robot” Challenge collected so many cute and adorable little robots for the 9th challenge, smashing the record with 170 submissions. In the “Baby Robot” challenge, Karel Schmidt, the 3rd prize winner, created his baby robot in a creative way. The image stands out for its simplicity and suggestive quality. It merges the cold realism of the surrounding with the strange-looking artificial embryo, creating fantastic tension while remaining calm in composition! What’s the story behind while creating this artwork? Let’s figure it out together! - Karel Schmidt - Motion designer and compositor - Manama, Bahrain “I wanted to create a hyper futuristic robot, from an era where technology is grown organically. This robot is the project of a human working in his garage clean room, grown using an AI generative system.” © Karel Schmidt Fox Renderfarm: Hi, Karel! Thank you so much for accepting our interview! Would you please give us a brief introduction of yourself? Karel: Yo. I'm an online video editor/finisher by profession, motion graphics and VFX specialist in my 5-year plan, a fine artist at heart, and musician in my free time. I spend most of my time editing corporate films and banking ads. Fox Renderfarm: How do you feel about winning the 3rd place in the CGBoost ‘Baby Robot Challenge’? Karel: To be honest, I was stumped when I read the announcement. I started learning Blender a month before entering the challenge (thanks to Blender Guru’s donuts). Entering the contest was just a little personal challenge to add a goal structure to my learning process. Fox Renderfarm: Your artwork delivers a futuristic experimental feeling, what’s your inspiration for it? Karel: I tried to imagine what a robot would look like if it was grown in some guy's garage cleanroom a few decades from now. You know, when AI will be doing most of the heavy design thinking. Fox Renderfarm: The whole picture is neat and concise with stunning details, any ideas behind the composition and background setting? Karel: My education was in Fine Art, and I’ve liked the minimalism of an art gallery. The idea here was to present to the robot in a similar space, to really make it feel like it’s on display. Regarding composition – minimalism requires good layout and that’s hard to get right. I probably spent 50% of the time on this project just trying different layout options. Blender viewport screengrabs Fox Renderfarm: How did you achieve the mesh-look of the baby? And what’s your consideration behind the lighting design? Karel: The baby's skin is a basic node setup in Cycles with Voronoi texture node driving everything. Lighting went hand-in-hand with the composition process – a basic three-point setup that I built to look good on a clay render, then a few fill lights to highlight important details. Node setup for the robot's skin material Fox Renderfarm: The wires and the shell outside the baby are very realistic, how did you make that happen? Karel: The Tree Generator add-on that comes bundled with Blender :) Work in progress renders (from the initial concept onwards) Fox Renderfarm: How long did it take to finish the artwork? Karel: Around 3 weeks (squeezed into any downtime I could find in my work schedule) Fox Renderfarm: What software and plugins did you use to make the artwork? Karel: Blender 2.81 and a few bundled add-ons. (Tree Generator and node wrangler). The grade and composite were done in After Effects, since that's been my bread and butter for the last few years. Fox Renderfarm: What’s the most unforgettable experience in the production process? Karel: Hoping like crazy that the final render doesn’t crash before the deadline. I guess that's where render farms will come in handy ;) Fox Renderfarm: Have you met any difficulties? How did you solve it? Karel: Yes, I wanted to create a kickass environment for the robot. Everything I tried just cluttered the concept, so I stripped it down to the clean gallery space. With more time I might have done something different. Fox Renderfarm: How did you come up with entering into the CG industry? Karel: As a kid I started dabbling with 3d software because of the physics simulations. Pair that with a love for good design and an editing job where I’m doing motion graphics and VFX cleanups more than actual editing, and you get where I am now. 2017 Dailies © Karel Schmidt Fox Renderfarm: Could you briefly tell us about the education and career experience along your 3D journey? Karel: I studied Fine Art, did a post-grad in Media Studies and Film Production, then spent two years shooting and editing wedding videos. From there I got a job doing hard-sell retail TVCs, which got me fluent in After Effects and dabbling with Cinema 4d. Blender 2.8+ is currently getting me into whatever will be next. 2016 Dailies - Cinema 4D © Karel Schmidt Fox Renderfarm: Who or what project inspires you the most in the industry? Karel: Coldplay’s Up & Up has been a massive influence. Cyriak’s early work. Cyriak’s later work. Strong motion design in branded content (like the last few years of Nike ads) also does something for me. Coldplay - Up&Up (Official Video) Baaa © Cyriak W/ Bob & David - Opening Credits © Cyriak The IT Crowd - Series 4 - Episode 3 - Spaceology © Cyriak Bonobo: Cirrus © Cyriak Fox Renderfarm: What do you do to get inspired and motivated? And how do you improve your professional skills? Karel: The outdoors keeps my head fresh. I’ll binge Vimeo content every once in a while, and work through tutorials and online courses when I find the time. On-the-job learning is the biggest one for me though – with every project I’ll try to find something new I can learn and implement somewhere in the workflow. Fox Renderfarm: Have you ever tried Fox Renderfarm cloud rendering services? If yes, how do you feel about it? Karel: Now that Apple dropped support for anything that enables GPU rendering in Blender’s Cycles, I think I'll start using Fox Renderfarm :) Fox Renderfarm: Any other things you wanna share with CG enthusiasts? Karel: Stay active, spend as much time as you can away from your screen, and don’t ever stop learning.

A Senior Thesis Animation Film by Harvard Student, Showing the Communication Between Digital Natives

Fox Renderfarm is deeply committed to supporting education with fast and easy cloud rendering service and making it accessible to everyone around the world. Memie Osuga, from the Art, Film, and Visual Studies department at Harvard University, is supported by Fox Renderfarm to render her senior thesis animation short Keep In Touch in April 2020. Memie Osuga Student from Harvard University From: New York Keep In Touch by Memie Osuga https://www.artstation.com/artwork/A90gVV The animation film tells a story between 2 best friends, Min and Lillian, and the only place they've ever met is in the online world of the fantasy novel they're writing together over the internet. This film was a culmination of about a year's worth of work. Memie spent the first several months for concept drafting and story development, and the last 4-6 months for the bulk of the image development. She was in charge of all the works including concept, direction, animation and music. Here’s the interview between Memie Osuga and Fox Renderfarm, in which she talked about the inspiration and creating process of the short. Fox Renderfarm: Hi Memie! Would you please give a brief introduction about yourself? Memie: Hello! I’m Memie, an animator born/raised in NYC. I’m a graduating senior at Harvard University in the Art, Film, and Visual Studies department. I really love CGI, but actually only got started in it about three years ago, though it’s been a great three years since then! Back in the day, I was a huge science kid and also did a ton of music (parents are both piano teachers). On the side, I do taekwondo. Fox Renderfarm: Congratulations on your senior thesis film Keep In Touch, could you introduce the inspiration for the film? Memie: This film came from a lot of stories of people in my generation who are increasingly finding ways to connect online. Though this is the experience for so many people right now during the pandemic, it’s a larger shift I’ve felt growing up as a digital native in this generation. For the personal origin story, I’ve identified strongly as an introvert for most of my life. Talking out loud has never been the most natural way for me to communicate, and I wanted to highlight the beautiful things that can happen when we allow people to express themselves in the ways that are most natural to them. So it was a mix of all these ideas that came together for the film. Fox Renderfarm: In the film, we know the story between two friends who keep in touch online, are there any ideas you would like to express through this story? Memie: Besides trying to showcase the wonder of online connection alongside the feeling that it’s always missing something - because in person facetime is still irreplaceable, yes, there were a few other ideas I was trying to convey. One is my own enchantment with imagination and fantasy creations: I’ve always loved art that allows you to escape to other worlds. Another is that the creative collaborations you have with others can be some of the most powerful things in this world! Fox Renderfarm: About the models of two main characters, how did you design them? Any reference? Memie: I started with 2D sketches of the characters, and sculpted them from the drawings I had made. I would say they’re an amalgamation of a lot of my friends, actually! It was important for me to have Asian characters. One thing that has personally haunted me is of Asian stereotypes in the US of Asians being robotic, boring, or non-expressive. In my high school, even, this could be seen by kids being called ‘random Asians’. It’s very depersonalizing. So I wanted to push back against that idea by showing even non expressive or small-eyed characters with big imaginations and really rich interiors. People who think other people are boring or not worth their time just don’t really know them. 2D concept & 3D character Fox Renderfarm: What software, renderers, plugins did you use in this work? Memie: A bunch! It was a challenge to learn a lot of the different software, but also so cool to expand my capabilities with these amazing tools! I used Krita, Illustrator, and Photoshop especially for concept art. I sculpted, rigged, and animated in Maya. For texturing, lighting, and additional asset creation, I used Substance Painter, Isotropix Clarisse, and WorldMachine. Then final renders were with Fox Renderfarm and Maya’s Arnold Engine. I put everything together finally in After Effects (which I also used for the 2D animation), plus Red Giant’s Trapcode suite. The last bit was recording, generating, and processing sounds in Adobe Audition and composing my own music in Logic Pro X! Fox Renderfarm: What’s the most unforgettable and interesting part of the creation process? Memie: I think creating my characters was definitely the most intense part (combing their hair was so difficult!), but putting the time into their look really paid off for me. Fox Renderfarm: Did you meet any difficulties when creating this work? And how did you solve it? Memie: So many difficulties! As per usual, most of my troubleshooting came from asking questions to google and reading through documentation and webforums and watching online tutorials. My mentor at Zero VFX Dave Pietricola was also a huge technical help; my advisor at school Jie Li gave fantastic creative feedback and support as well. Fox Renderfarm’s tech support was for sure helpful during rendering issues. And for final picture issues, good old frame by frame cleanup was the answer. Fox Renderfarm: We can see that the style of your artworks is lovely and unique, anyone or any artwork that inspires you the most? Memie: Thank you! For this film, I reached into my favorite landscape photography, and my favorite fantasy novels. I just love the whimsy of the whole Oz series, and I was inspired by Michael Ende’s books as well. Some recent films I had seen also pushed me into using UI elements to tell the story. Afterschool by Memie Osuga https://www.artstation.com/artwork/EVxKke Fox Renderfarm: Would you please give a brief introduction about your major and courses in the Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies of Harvard? Memie: My major is kind of the catchall Art major at Harvard. So we have studio courses of a whole range, some film classes, and just 2-3 animation workshops. The department gives great support and I’m grateful to it for being the place I really got started on my animation journey. As far as CGI animation goes, there’s very little, but I’m hoping that’s something that changes in the future. Fox Renderfarm: How do you feel about Fox Renderfarm’s cloud rendering services? Memie: It got the job done very well! And I wouldn’t have used the service if they didn’t have the free trial credits to make sure the pipeline worked. Thanks to the customer service team who helped me smooth out all the technical issues with rendering. Fox Renderfarm hopes to support and help more students to create excellent CG artworks. In this special time, please work from home and work with Fox Renderfarm.