The KeyShot 3D Rendering and Animation Contest is on!  It’s two weeks into the competition with over 60 submissions already and with only another two weeks to go. KeyShot are giving away two seats of KeyShot Pro with Animation – one for Best Rendering and one for Best Animation.

The KeyShot rendering competition is a chance for KeyShot users, and those interested in using KeyShot, to compete among each other, displaying their ability to create the most stunning composition using KeyShot. The theme of this year’s competition is style and class with the challenge to render and/or animate a watch design. The goal? Use all the creative juice you can muster to render a captivating scene with the materials and environments of your choice. Free watch .bip provided or use your own!

Many renderings have been submitted and the first animation by Abed Sabeh is a must see! More entries can be viewed on the 3D rendering contest forum or seen all together on the  KeyShot Pinterest board.

Visit the forum to see more details about this competition!

We are very excited to announce the first initiative from the V-Ray Anniversary campaign – the V-Ray Anniversary Challenge!  

Chaos Group and CGSociety are inviting artists to create an image which tells the story of a Decisive Moment – a moment that changed a person’s life or the course of human history. Perhaps a knockout punch in a heavy weight championship. The first human to step on the moon. The last block placed on the Pyramids. A wrong step, a gunshot or a glance, the decisive moment that changed the big picture or had an impact on someone’s life.

Chaos Group is offering a great prize pool for the winners. Thanks to their partners the winners will get a package of prizes worth more than $25,000.

V-Ray users from all industries are welcome to participate! Visit the Challenge page to learn all about it.

Indigo 3.2 marks the latest release of Indigo Renderer, the world’s most photorealistic rendering system. Indigo 3.2 introduces new features such as direct integration into Cinema 4D, the groundbreaking new sun & sky system,  and major performance improvements. All these features, together with new tutorials and new documentation, make this the most powerful and easiest-to-use Indigo yet.

NEW SUN AND SKY SYSTEM

Indigo 3.2 introduces a new sun & sky system based on our highly accurate atmospheric simulation. Unlike the classical sun & sky model which breaks down when the Sun is at low elevation, the new model remains true to life.

Computed directly from the physical laws which produce blue skies and red sunsets in nature, the new system produces extremely realistic skies at any time of day; not only is it more realistic, but it also renders faster.

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS

Pure CPU rendering speed is up to 2.5x faster in CAD scenes and 20 – 50% faster in most architectural scenes, as a result of significant optimisation efforts in the core since Indigo 3.0.

Start-up time has been dramatically reduced in many cases, especially when using environment maps and many light sources. This enables much faster feedback when creating scenes and greatly accelerates animations of simple scenes.

Network rendering efficiency has been greatly improved, scaling much better with added computers.

STREAMLINED MATERIAL EDITING

Realistic rendering crucially depends on the ability to create realistic materials, and we’ve been working hard on improving the material editing capabilities introduced in Indigo 3.0. The new material editing interface is more compact, easier to use and places a stronger emphasis on workflow.

The online material database browser has been complemented with an offline material database, which holds all materials you’ve downloaded from the online database. The new material painting tool allows you to apply materials to objects simply by clicking on them.

NEW DOCUMENTATION AND TUTORIALS

Learning Indigo is easier than ever, thanks to a new 230 page PDF manual included with the Indigo download, and also available online.

Many new tutorials are available, including video tutorials on material editing and installation, and comprehensive tutorials on Indigo for SketchUp (SkIndigo).

View the tutorials

For more information click here.

Pixologic recently interviewed the amazing Bioware team that’s behind the spectacular game, Mass Effect 3. The artists talk about the progression within Zbrush that has helped move the process faster for them and the new and improved tools that have contributed towards these fantastic characters. Here is some of what they had to say…

Of course, the software industry moves at lightning speed, so the tools have evolved dramatically since you began work. How has that impacted you the most?

Herbert: Polygon limitation is now a thing of the past because now most software can handle millions of polygons without any major lag. My primary modeling tool for hard surface modeling is XSI and a lot of my models are millions of polygons in my XSI scenes. There is a lot of software to choose from and they all have their own strengths and weaknesses. For example there are now great tools for generating AO, UV’s, etc. It is because of this that I feel character artists spend less time dealing with technical issues, allowing them to focus more on the art creation process.

Rafael: Tools that have been developed which speed up the process affected the pipeline a lot. ZBrush tools like Decimation Master, SubTool Master and UV Master are very handy on every model. Most recently, DynaMesh is a very amazing tool that helps a lot when sketching a new idea for a character.

Rodrigue: The biggest impact was on time and quality. We can now really go to town with the details on our characters. ZBrush and 3DS Max allow us to work faster, yet also put more and more details and love into our characters with a lot of flexibility. (Layers, etc.) But of course having great high-res models is not enough and you need a good engine with nice rendering and nice shaders to really show all the hard work put into the high-res models. On that side we were very lucky on ME3; we had a very nice budget for the polycounts of our characters and I was able to re-work some of the shaders to add more reflection and sweetness to our armor. If you compare the rendering between ME1, ME2 and ME3 you can see a big jump in terms of character details and quality between each installment.

Tools and tech are very important but on top of it the biggest impact for us came from the Art Director and the concept artists. It’s a great feeling to see a new concept and think, “Wow! This guy looks awesome I want to work on it!” and you know that ZBrush and the ME3 engine give you all the tools you need to deliver it without losing quality.

You’ve also seen significant advancements in ZBrush since you first started using it. How have those changes affected you?

Herbert: Greatly! I remember the first ZBrush version that I used was 2.5. I had to sculpt my characters in pieces because of the polygon limit and there was no SubTool Master or Decimation Master at the time. I sometimes like to generate my normal maps outside ZBrush and my AO with Mental Ray. Without decimation master, getting the best results outside ZBrush was very difficult. The new selection of brushes is awesome as well. With each update, sculpting in ZBrush feels more like sculpting in real clay but with symmetry, undo and “save as” enabled!

Rafael: I kind of adapted my workflow when I first started using ZBrush, so all the changes haven’t really impacted my work. But for sure tools like the new DynaMesh, SubTool Master and Decimation Master, sped up my pipeline like crazy.

I use DynaMesh a lot to concept new characters and ideas. Decimation Master is a must now for the pipeline in all my projects.

Rodrigue: Again, speed. The workflow is getting smoother and all the new brushes and layers give us so much flexibility and creative freedom. One of my favorite parts is the sculpting feel. I don’t feel like I’m moving points around anymore. Now I feel like I’m actually sculpting. That feeling is great and because it’s so fun I try to stay inside ZBrush as much as I can.

How much were you able to carry forward from ME2? Was there anything that you significantly re-worked like what you did for the Salariens with Mordin?

Rafael: We had to re-work almost all the assets we used from ME2. I had the pleasure to re-design the Keeper and Rachni Queen. I did this by using the same base model and with ZBrush I changed all the details and textures. For other models like civilians and romance bodies we added more details on top of the existing models using ZBrush and re-working normal maps and textures.

Coming Soon from KeyShot!!

Webinar : Render settings explained.

To register to this free webinar click here.

This third major Flamingo release is based on completely new technology. Designed to provide the highest possible quality images with the minimal rendering technology expertise. Flamingo nXt is also designed to minimize the time and effort required to set up a model for rendering.

With nXt you don’t need to be a professional renderer to get realistic results quickly. You provide materials and lighting and press the Render button. nXt provides the simulation. Unlike many rendering products, there are very few settings to worry about or understand.

To see more information or if your interested in buying the lastest version of Flamingo go to CAD Software Direct.

This annual competition, which is sponsored by Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. and MAXON Computer GmbH, recognizes today’s top architects and designers from around the world, and their abilities to visually render Vectorworks® models with Renderworks® or CINEMA 4D. Professional and student designers can submit entries to the 2012 Inspired Visions Global Rendering Competition. Submissions will be accepted from April 17 to August 16, 2012, in the following categories:

• Rendering with Renderworks 2012
• Rendering with CINEMA 4D
• Monochromatic model (rendered in Renderworks or CINEMA 4D)

The panel of judges includes Daniel Jansenson, principal at Daniel Jansenson Architect and author of Remarkable Renderworks, from Santa Monica, Ca.; Tyler Littman, principal designer and owner of Sholight, LLC, from New York; Nicholas Dunand, freelance designer and sculptor, from Melbourne, Australia; Erik Recke, freelance architectural visualizer at Datenland, from Hamburg, Germany; Alejandro Nogueira, CEO at DECC Arte 3D from Tecamachalco, Edo. de Mexico, Mexico; and René Racz from Lichtmaschine Multimedia GmbH, Basel, Switzerland.

Each category winner chosen by these judges will receive $2,500 USD and will be featured in an official media release and on Planet Vectorworks. Winners will also be promoted on the Nemetschek Vectorworks and MAXON social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

In addition, the public will select their “Fan Favorite” from all entries, which will be posted on the competition’s website. Voting will take place directly on the site.

Designers may enter multiple categories. However, all entries must be built on a Vectorworks model. Interested competitors who lack the current versions of the software can request a free, 30-day version of Vectorworks with Renderworks software at www.vectorworks.net/trial/form or student.myvectorworks.net (for students), or they can download a 42-day free version of CINEMA 4D at www.maxon.net/downloads/demo-version.html.

To enter, vote or learn more about the competition, visit inspiredvisions.vectorworks.net.

Pixologic recently published another great example of just how important ZBrush is to the design workflow within a live action film and an amazing effects studio. Kevin Hudson talks to Pixologic about how he and his team at Double Negative use ZBrush to create the fantastic characters in the recent sci-fi fantasy film, John Carter.

How did you come to be involved with the John Carter project? What was your role in the production?

I was recruited by Double Negative Visual Effects in London from Los Angeles to head up the modeling effort on this major Character piece. To date, it was the largest project they’d tackled. While in California, I first tried out ZBrush while working on Ghost Rider. I expanded its use to build the sixteen Zombie creatures for I Am Legend. I then used it to sculpt Dr. Manhattan for Watchman. But with over forty characters, John Carter was going to be the largest scale ZBrush character project that I’d ever attempted. It was also going to be Andrew Stanton’s first foray into live action film making, which meant we had to do an outstanding job.

What was the overall pipeline for your work on this project?

We received ZTools of character concept sculpts from Legacy Effects that had been developed with Andrew Stanton in California. We then took these and retopologized them in Maya using some basic Maya shrinkwrapping tools. I don’t use anything tricky for my retopologizing, but use Maya’s World Space Transfer Attributes tool to shrinkwrap my retopologized model onto the concept sculpt.

We then used ZBrush’s Projection tools to extract as much data as possible from the initial concept sculpt. The model was then reposed into a more standard pose and we began resculpting with an eye for preserving as much of the concept sculpt’s intentions as possible. Everyone would have a say at this point and often revisions to the anatomy to better serve rigging would be done.

We also made modifications to proportions based on animation tests using the basic model. All of this would lead us towards our final production models and sculpts.

ZBrush did a great job when reprojecting new topology onto our sculpts over the many generations of revisions throughout the show. I found that by taking the Blur setting down to 1 we preserved a lot of good detail. Andrew, who had spent a lot of time with Scott Patton at Legacy Effects, was very much in love with his characters and was always there to smack us if we varied too much from the original concept.

Was ZBrush used for environments at all?

The Environment team — headed by Guy Williams — also used ZBrush to touch up all the environments to give the stone a weathered and chipped look. They built intact structures, then used the Clipping brush to chip and flatten sections in order to make them appear old and broken. These chunks were then retoplogized before more subtle weathering was done.

What character posed the greatest challenge for you?

Tars was the biggest challenge and a lot of modelers all had an impact on Tars. He is on screen a lot, and there was a lot of talk about the character looking like Willem Dafoe, or at least his essence. We did a lot of exploration on how much it should look like Willem Dafoe — at one point we did a reworking of Tars to incorporate a lot of Willem Dafoe’s facial characteristics. This was often refered to as the “Eleven” version. Ultimately, we backed off from this almost completely and returned to the original concept.

In the film industry, this process of coming back to the original concept isn’t uncommon. Sometimes, the director needs to explore all the variations to confirm that the original inspiration was the best. Or at least, what they really wanted.

The White Apes were a technically challenging character because of their size and ZBrush poly count. I really took ZBrush to the limit and ultimately had to break the model up into separate UDIM pieces in order to export the displacement maps. For the most part, all of the characters were able to be exported using the Multi Map Exporter from ZBrush, but because of the high poly count on the Apes we couldn’t do this. I used the Group UV tool to create separate groups for each of the UDIM tiles. I then then used the Groups Split tool to break the White Ape mesh up into separate SubTools. Even with splitting the model up, it was a challenge exporting the maps, as I maxed out the RAM on my machine.

To read the full interview in detail click here.

With this article, we begin a series of posts taking a closer look at ZBrush – and specifically what it can be used for. ZBrush is one of the most versatile packages available. From a consumer perspective, it can look a little expensive; however, from a business perspective, it is one of the best value applications available.

While most people consider ZBrush a modeller, they may simply associate it with character modelling. Although this is one of ZBrush’s strengths, in the last couple of years, Pixologic have evolved ZBrush into something much more capable.

ZBrush is a 3D application that is more intuitive to use for most designers than traditional 3D packages. Most designers from product design, industrial / transport design, furniture design, jewellery design and a wide range of other design disciplines are familiar working with materials, moquettes and models. Coming from this background, ZBrush can feel immediately familiar. Plug in a Wacom tablet and you find yourself fully emerged in the virtual equivalent of a clay studio or workshop.

ZBrush is an efficient polygonal modeller – much more so than most 3D applications. It makes very efficient use of model data to provide detail whilst keeping overhead to a minimum. This means that users can continue modelling and adding detail without expecting increases in lag as the depth of data increases.

A couple of the key principles/features:

Dynamesh – the underlying technology that allows continuous reshaping, modelling and extension of the initial polygons. In ZBrush, sculpting results in a contstant, intelligent rebuilding of the underlying model. There’s simply no need to worry about the number of polygons or their integrity under reshaping. Think of it as ‘digital clay’.

Fibermesh – this technology provides very impressive tools in the creation of fibres and fibre-like media such as hair, fur and grass. Fibermesh can be used to create a much wider variety of fibrous or strand-like surfaces and models. For example, Fibermesh is ideally suited to the design of fabrics, soft furnishings, toys and such like; realistic plants can be created to reside in interior design products; in fact – Fibermesh becomes invaluable in a range of situations where existing modellers and renderers fail. Genuine 3D topography is much more convincing than bump maps.

Rendering – with a powerful, and realistic built-in renderer, ZBrush not only makes your pipeline simpler, it also reduces costs further.

Why not take the time to get familiar with ZBrush if you haven’t already? Visit the ZBrush product page and use the download button to trial ZBrush today.