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How to Create a Hail Phoenix with Cinema 4D and ZBrush

FGT3D Santa’s New Ride Challenge organized by the TPN-Accredited cloud rendering services provider, Fox Renderfarm, was started in November, 2020 and sponsored by our amazing sponsors, including XP-Pen, Corona Renderer, Redshift, TopoGun, Friendly Shade, Graswald, Raysync, Textures.com, Texturebox and iCube R&D Group. In early January, 2021, twelve finalists were received votes by our jury and three winners and three honorable mentions were picked! Congratulations to all the winners! And thanks to everyone for participating! One of the Honorable Mentions goes to Santa's New Ride: A Phoenix Hope, created by our dear friend Kay John Yim. The artwork is made with Cinema 4D, ZBrush, Redshift and Character Creator. “I was immediately drawn to this image. This work took the idea of a "new ride" to a very different level. If Santa Claus, who brings wonderful joy to all children, wishes for a new ride, it might be a supernatural one like this. It looks as if it can go anywhere beyond the speed of light. The sense of the three-dimensional space, scale, lighting, and details of the image are excellent, and they all contribute to the happy feeling of the scene.” One of our judges, Miho Aoki said, who is the Associate Professor of Computer Art University of Alaska Fairbanks. Here’s the interview between John and Fox Renderfarm, in which we can find out how he created this wonderful 3D render. - Kay John Yim - Chartered Architect based in London - CGI Artist - From: Hong Kong Santa's New Ride: A Phoenix Hope © Kay John Yim Fox Renderfarm: How do you feel about winning honorable mention in FGT3D Santa's New Ride Challenge? John: I feel really honored winning the honorable mention, and thank you so much for having me for the interview! Fox Renderfarm: What inspired you to create the work Santa's New Ride A Phoenix Hope? John: In light of a turbulent and disruptive year, I believed Santa’s New Ride for Christmas had to be symbolic for 2020’s Christmas, a motif bringing hope across the world. Phoenix, a legendary creature well-known worldwide was well-suited for that particular role. This led me to re-imagine the traditional Phoenix in a more festive and seasonal form - the Hail Phoenix - made up of both ice and fire, it was an embodiment of warmth and cold, a personification of sublimation and reincarnation. Fox Renderfarm: How long did you take to finish the work? John: It took me about 3 weeks to finish - a week on the backdrop buildings, a week on sculpting the Phoenix, and another week on set-dressing and designing the final composition and lighting. Fox Renderfarm: Could you tell us how you make the modeling so appealing? John: I set out to do quite a large scale scene at the beginning, so I knew I would have to focus on assets/part of the assets visible to the final view/camera or else I would easily run out of time. Part of the background building components were procedurally modelled in Houdini, part of them were from an asset library that I built up in the past, assembled with Houdini’s Building Generator. The Phoenix model took a lot of trial and error - although it was sculpted in ZBrush in reference to body proportions of an eagle and a peacock, the wings and the tails were exaggerated in scale to make it look more heroic and surreal. Santa's New Ride WIP Fox Renderfarm: We’re all impressed by the lighting and composition of the work, could you introduce how you make them? Any references? John: Glad you like it! The scene was created in reference to Paris high streets and Christmas Markets - I personally loved the abundant festive lightings found in a lot of European Christmas markets, which I replicated and had them scattered around the scene. Composition wise it was actually a reference to my own personal artwork, “Thousand Cherry Trees (千本桜)” - a centered main subject surrounded with a symmetrical backdrop and foreground character(s). Coming from an architectural background, I personally love using central perspectives - although not often as realistic - I think they leave the deepest impression and are the easiest to design and iterate on. Thousand Cherry Trees © Kay John Yim Fox Renderfarm: The shading and texturing are brilliant. How did you make it? John: The shading and texturing were done in Cinema 4D (Redshift) and they were relatively simple. I used mostly Megascans materials for the buildings and the street props with a bit of color correction and material blending. The festive and window lights were subtly randomized emissive materials - I originally lit a lot of them as diffuse lights but had to swap them out for emissive materials instead due to excessive render times. As for the Phoenix, it took a lot of trial and error to arrive at the final look without exact real-world references. I originally planned to groom it as if it were an oversized eagle, but I figured that the grooming would take up too much time on top of the sculpt, and it would have covered up a lot of the background lights and buildings. This was the primary reason why I ultimately made it a translucent “living ice sculpture”, shaded with an ice material mixed in with a lot of roughness noise for reflection and refraction. Fox Renderfarm: Did you meet any difficulties when creating this work? And how did you solve it? John: The most difficult part was managing rendering time. Refractive materials like glass and ice were computationally expensive to render - caustics in particular could easily double or triple rendering times. With such a large refractive object in the scene (the Phoenix), my original estimated rendering time would be well over 2 weeks (for a 4K image) with caustics on! I had to turn off caustics and place in some fake spotlights with caustic textures as a “cheat” to speed up my rendering time at the end. Fox Renderfarm: How do you feel about Fox Renderfarm cloud rendering services? John: I have tried a lot of rendering services and I think Fox Renderfarm is one of the most helpful renderfarms; the file uploading speed is particularly impressive. Fox Renderfarm: What do you think of the FGT3D Challenge, any suggestions for us? John: I think the FGT3D Challenge is great, as the topics are really flexible and thus allow for artists’ own interpenetration. Fox Renderfarm: Do you have any advice for future participants in the competition? John: To render a good image, I think it is most important to train one’s artistic sense, attention to detail and proportions, which could be as simple as watching good movies. Technical-wise, there is really no defined path for learning since CG softwares is advancing so quickly these days. In general I believe it is essential to practice effectively and regularly. I try to spare as much time as I could everyday on personal CG projects, and when I am learning a new software myself, I would pick a photo or an object that I really like and try to fully replicate it as a 3D rendering. https://johnyim.com/projects/EL4Lln

How To Create A Nostalgic Alfa Romeo Racing Car With 3ds Max

Alfa Romeo is a company with a long history in the automobile and motorsport industry. As a huge car lover, Jason Raptopoulos, the 3rd place winner of Hum3D Car Render Challenge 2020, chose a rare model of Alfa Romeo that few will know of as his inspiration. Alfa Romeo G1 A hidden treasure © Iasonas Raptopoulos Made with 3ds Max, Substance Painter, Marvelous Designer, Adobe Photoshop and After Effects, the project took Jason about one and a half months, which brings a feeling of warmth and nostalgia. Let’s find out how he made the beautiful 3D artwork in the exclusive interview with the best cloud rendering service provider, Fox Renderfarm. - Jason Raptopoulos (Iasonas Raptopoulos) - 3D artist / Generalist - Greece Fox Renderfarm: Hi, Jason, could you give us a brief introduction about yourself? Jason: Hi! My name is Jason Raptopoulos, I am 34 years old, I live in Greece and, specifically, in Athens. I have been meddling with computers since a very young age and for some years now, with photography too. At the age of 27, I graduated from SAE Athens’ 3D animation course and I have been working as a 3D generalist ever since. I love my job and I enjoy discovering new techniques which, later on, I apply on my projects. Fox Renderfarm: Congratulations on winning 3rd place in the Car Render Challenge 2020, how do you feel about it? Jason: Thank you very much. In a word...excited! At first, when the results came out I could not believe it. Haha. Learning that my project, in which I invested a sizable amount of time creating, stood amongst the top 3 qualifiers was a huge satisfaction for me. Fox Renderfarm: What’s the idea behind your artwork 'A hidden treasure'? Jason: Prior to the beginning of the project’s creation I had plotted a story in my mind from which I did not want to deviate. My goal was whoever viewed my project to feel very emotional and nostalgic but without the need to include human presence. I wanted it implied. These were the thoughts behind the descriptive text that accompanied my project at hum3d. An Alfa Romeo G1 1921 model, stored in a barn where its owner used to take care of. For reasons unknown, though, he had to stop. Fox Renderfarm: The car render shows your great level of modeling and texturing. Any references and how did you make it? Jason: 3ds Max was utilized for the creation of about 90% of the project. This includes the modeling of the scene, the car, the props and all of the scene’s materials. An interesting fact is that the car has been designed entirely using photos found on the Internet. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried, I wasn't able to acquire any blueprints for the specific model. Also, Substance Painter was used for the basic "dusty" look of the car. But, in the end, the material was evolved through 3ds Max. Fox Renderfarm: This render has so many details with all the tools, the dust on the old racing car and the light falling in the old barn, which make it look very nostalgic. How did you make them? Jason: I started the creation of the project with an image, a first draft if you will, in my mind in which I had given greater emphasis to the front part of the car, where the light would shed, in a tighter frame. But, while proceeding with the project, that image shifted and I decided to open up the frame a little bit in order to show a further view of the barn and, also, more elements in the scene.. At first, I started with the basic geometries of the barn, the “camera’s” angle and a source of the light too. I used Clay mode in realtime rendering in order to decide where to locate the source of the light. So, by using lots of references, I designed each element, studied their “behavior” when they age and that is when I met a huge challenge. To recreate them in the best way possible. As I have already mentioned, the whole scene was created from scratch using 3ds Max and I also used Redshift as a rendering engine. Pflow was utilized for the dust in the air, the general scene’s lighting is managed by a HDRI dome map and there has been one more light used so as to emphasize the volumetric light on the car. Fox Renderfarm: Which part of this work are you most satisfied with and why? Jason: Mostly, with the car itself. But I don’t think that I could say that there is something in the whole project that I am not satisfied with. Maybe I could have spent some more time refining the resulting version of the ground. But as it is natural I was always more focused on the main subject of the project, the car, to which I spent the most time designing and detail-refining. The second most important aspect of my project is the lighting which was heavily altered from my original idea trying to manipulate and create this nostalgic atmosphere. Fox Renderfarm: Did you encounter any difficulties when creating the artwork? And how did you solve it? Jason: Of course, as anyone does, but…I didn’t solve it! Haha. To be honest, my greatest encounter was the rendering time (during trials) and in order to overcome this I needed new equipment. lol. When someone gets the rendering results quicker, they can notice and improve their mistakes a lot faster. On a more technical note, I devoted a big part of my time to the designing and refinement of the ground. I met technical difficulties with Displacemaps and, ultimately, I am not so satisfied with the result. Also, as any designer would agree, one of the slowest aspects, from a creative point of view, of the process is the pre-designing stage, the research for the history of the model and the drafting of a working plan. But after the first steps have been taken, everything gets in a flow finally. Fox Renderfarm: Could you briefly tell us your educational and work experience along your CG journey? Jason: In 2013 I decided to enroll in SAE Athens’ 3D Animation course and since 2015 that I graduated I have been employed by or collaborated with various companies. For the last two and a half years I have been working in an animation studio in Greece (Kent-Films, pixelfarm.gr) as a 3D generalist with a specialty in lighting and shading. Pannacotta CGI © Iasonas Raptopoulos Fox Renderfarm: How do you enhance your professional skills? Jason: I keep trying to discover and experiment with new software and techniques all the time and my goal is to apply those on my projects (if each project’s special conditions and schedule allow it). Social media is the ideal tool to keep track of all the field’s news, learn about new software from companies and, if someone participates in groups or fora, there they will find an endless “library” of knowledge in addition to discussions and queries of colleagues. Alfa Romeo Giulia in Iceland © Iasonas Raptopoulos Fox Renderfarm: Anything else you would like to share with CG enthusiasts? Jason: Above all, in order to have highly creative results we must love what we do. We must always try to discover and meddle with new techniques and never rush to deliver a project. Details (even small ones) are what make a project stand out. Airbus A320neo © Iasonas Raptopoulos Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/k_johnyim/

How To Create A Realistic Doomsday in 3ds Max

Have you ever imagined what the world will be like if there are endless pandemics in the future? As the 2nd place winner of Evermotion Challenge 2020, Neil Cross, a 3D Artist from London, hopes to warn us about the future world challenges by his artwork “Final Stand”. As he mentioned, ”We need to accept these challenges and learn from our mistakes before it's too late.” Final Stand © Neil Cross Using 3ds Max, Corona Render, Quixel Megascans and Photoshop, Neil took 2 months to finish this powerful and thought-provoking artwork, In the interview with Fox Renderfarm, Neil introduced in detail how he created the award-winning artwork. - Neil Cross - CGI Artist - Senior 3D Artist at The Boundary Architectural Visualisation - London, United Kingdom Fox Renderfarm: Hi Neil, thank you so much for accepting our interview! Could you give us a brief introduction about yourself? Neil: Hi Fox Renderfarm. I just want to thank you guys for giving me this opportunity. I also want to thank you guys for the service you offer. Cloud rendering plays a huge role in our community. My name is Neil Cross. I'm originally from South Africa where I started my career as an Architectural Draughtsman working in the construction industry focussed on delivering projects around Africa. After a few years starting off as a draughtsman I found draughting wasn't for me and wanted to be more creative, so I started to get into 3D. There wasn’t a lot of opportunity for 3D artists in South Africa so at that moment I decided it was time to pack my bags and move to London. I knew this city was filled with talents and moving here would only help me progress as a 3D artist. I'm currently working full time as a senior 3D artist at The Boundary. I also spend a lot of my free time working on my personal images allowing me to express my creative side. Fox Renderfarm: How do you feel about winning second place in Evermotion Challenge 2020? Neil: After seeing all the entries, I'm very proud to have made second place. To be honest, I was just hoping for a special mention, so to make the top 3 means a lot to me. I also have a lot of respect for Evermotion. Their articles have helped me grow my skills, so to come second in an Evermotion Challenge makes it more special. Fox Renderfarm: As this year’s theme was "My own 2020", what inspired you to create the work Final Stand? Neil: 2020 has been a tough year for most of us. There's a good chance future pandemics will happen more often where more people will get ill which will wreak even worse damages to the global economy than Covid-19. This challenge inspired me to share my vision towards the future because If there's no fundamental shift in how humans treat nature, these are the things (my render) we could face. I might be over exaggerating but I wanted to send a message. Fox Renderfarm: How long did you take to finish the work? Neil: I spent around 30 mins to an hour a day which took around 2 months in total. I was aiming for 2 days but that didn't exactly work out! haha! Fox Renderfarm: We’re all impressed by the strong lighting and composition of the work, could you introduce how you set up the lighting and composition? Neil: Thank you! Unlike modeling and texturing, I find lighting and composition less forgiving. It can either make or break your image. I have little experience when it comes to photography so I generally keep things as simple as possible to avoid destroying an image! I'm using Corona Sky (fully desaturated) with no Sun. I've also placed a plane light at the window to help light the interior. In addition, I'm using volumetrics. Regarding the composition I wanted to go with something simple but powerful. Getting the light set up correctly and having my camera focus on the girl was key. Fox Renderfarm: There are so many details in the image, which make the scene more realistic and attractive, could you show us how you make them? Neil: I'm always referring back to reference images to help achieve realism. I generally add chamfers and imperfections to everything. The biggest stand out for me was the floor. There’s no better way achieving this than using Real Displacement Textures. They are by far my favorite textures. I also push my displacement settings to the limit. I tend to drop my displacement screen size (px) as low as possible for the best results. Fox Renderfarm: Did you meet any challenges, and how did you solve them? Neil: My biggest challenge was having patience. When I first started working on Final Stand I realised I was in it for the long run. I didn't want to spend hours on the image and come back the next day tired. I ended up cutting my time down to an hour a day which actually helped. Fox Renderfarm: You work as a CGI artist for more than 10 years, could you briefly share with us your work experience along your CG journey? Neil: I started my CGI career at a construction company where I initially started as an Architectural Draughtsman. The company entered numerous tenders to try to win new projects. During that period I started to get more involved with 3D to try to impress our clients. 5 years later I decided to join my first studio. I knew I had made the right move knowing I'd be working alongside other artists. It was crazy how quick my skills improved. I wanted to take my career further so I decided to move to London. I first started my career in London with a well known architecture firm. Working alongside different architects was a good experience. During my time there I spent a lot of my time attending events such as 3ds London which helped me grow even further. After some time there I realised that I was best suited to work in a studio so a year later I joined The Boundary where I have grown to become a Senior 3D Artist. Whilst working for The Boundary, I've had the opportunity to go to both State of Art and D2 which were both amazing events to attend. Night Time © Neil Cross Fox Renderfarm: Do you have any suggestions for CG artists to improve their CG skills? Neil: Choose a niche you enjoy and master it! Whether you enjoy using ZBrush sculpting characters, 3ds Max visualising architecture, or unreal creating blueprints. Don't try to learn everything unless you are a complete genius. Fox Renderfarm: Any other things you want to share with the CG enthusiasts? Neil: Just enjoy what you do. If you like my Final Stand Image please follow me on ArtStation for future images. https://www.artstation.com/neilcross