I guess that I was just too disturbed by the thing(s) in The Thing, to think about the visual effects sooner. Yes, it was gross but the much needed update from the 80s.
Image Engine, who has done some great work on District 9, etc. have this feature on their site, regarding their part in the VFX. Read [...]
Yes, this is a question we have all the time in the studio when doing international work. Now you too can have the answers – visit this smart little site: http://whatsideoftheroad.com/
It’s an idea – and if you already have an image you’d like to submit, why not? Submit your image (one only) before 24 December. Entry is free. Click through to CGarena here for the details.
View this year’s calendar here.
Apparently a very popular sushi restaurant in Mexico City, Tori-Tori sure makes an impact. Now, the chances of me ever making it there to eat the sushi is pretty slim so I’ll enjoy the design instead. Architect, Michel Rojkind and Esrawe Design Studio are the designers behind it.
The noticeable exterior facade is made of 2 steel layers [...]
Pythagasaurus – two cavemen and a dinosaur… you have to watch it!
The short is a self-funded Aardman film.
- Link from 3D World
We’ve come so far. Fine artist, Susan Kare was brought onto the Apple team back in the day to basically make things pretty. You know the Steve Jobs/calligraphy link by now and this is how Susan Kare made her contribution to the icons and interfaces we know today. She designed the first proportionately spaced digital [...]
I’m sure you’ve seen this image around?
And now, found out the details behind it.
This image has an amazing feel to it and Ronen Bekerman’s site features 3Dnotos’ breakdown of House on the Coast. They touch on the modelling, lighting and texturing.
View more of their work here.
Well, model trees at least. TreeSketch for iPad allows you to model 3D trees. Watch the videos here – it looks easy, doesn’t it? Use it to add to your model library while you’re waiting in line
Get it here.
Does this ever get old? Since the late 70s Star Wars has been watched, treasured, criticised and more. (Off on a tangent - Lately, I discovered that my nephew is also a fan. He’s 13. That makes him 1 year old, when Episode 1 came out right?)
Have a look at these awesome Star Wars blueprints:
If you’ve built Star Wars scale [...]
Watch the trailer below for Aardman Animations‘ new stop motion film – The Pirates! Band of Misfits. Featuring voices from Hugh Grant and Selma Hayek, this is directed by Peter Lord.
Even if this type of animation isn’t your favourite, you can’t not acknowledge the work that goes into it.
Viz-People has released their latest people pack – Casual People V3 (and yes, we have it!) – This casual people pack does not fail to deliver on Viz Peoples track record. If the PDF catalogue isn’t enough to get you drooling, view the samples here.
There are 14 different people (men and woman, no children) each [...]
Download this Eileen Gray table for free from Flying Architecture. LINK.
This tutorial by Arnab Bhadra, will go through making 3D stereoscopic renders using Max 2012. This, by using a free script by Andrew Dour. Link through here to watch the video.
Have a look at this script that relinks missing files in Max. Apparently it’s easy, fast and reliable. And it’s free – so why not try it out? Watch the demo video below and visit their site to download.
Relink Missing Files Demonstration Video from Nick Moutafis on Vimeo.
Visit Ronen Bekerman’s site for the Making of Taliesin Mod.Fab, by Matt Guetta. Matt is a 3D artist based in France. LINK TO MAKING OF.
The trailer for the new Need for Speed – directed by Michael Bay
Snow White and Huntsman (cool looking VFX)
Today’s post it short to make room for the 100 quicktips!
Click through to read Jamie Gwilliam’s 100 3Dmax quicktips here.
This music-themed hotel concept in Latvia looks very creative, don’t you think? Made up of wooden posts and glass, the wavy look of the building is a rather unique combination. Architects Jevgenijs Busins and Liva Banka.
I’m sure you’ll recall the competition to make it on the cover of the next cover of 3Dmax? Winners announced today on CGarchitect. View them here.
Yes! 21 of them! Say thanks to CGdigest that took the time to put these together. Some you may have seen and some not, but take the time to go through them. Especially if you’re needing some inspiration today.
Link through here.
After seeing this link on CGArchitect yesterday, I visited Texture Pilot. Not the usual textures, so worth having a look at. Hopefully they will keep adding to the existing collect they have. Sign up for the free account where you can download 20MB a day.
Have a look at MPC’s VFX breakdown of the work they did on X-Men: First Class.
Thanks to CGrecord for the link.
It seems all the rage now to have a ‘cutting edge’ building. Yes, yes, excuse the pun but I’m noticing these types more and more! That doesn’t mean that they don’t look really great. There are many design interpretations and variations in finishes and angles – some even shaped for specific sites.
Below are a few [...]
We’re only human after all and I found this very touching. Not only did he affect the way the world is today, but it’s great to see a closer side to a great mind.
A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs
By MONA SIMPSON
Published: October 30, 2011 – New York Times.com
I grew up as an only child, with [...]
This ‘making of’ by Brandon Martynowicz as featured on 3Dtotal. Brandon uses 3ds Max, Photoshop, Maya, V-Ray to create this image. Read here to find out how.
Also – CGtuts has there next quiz up – General CG
About two months back we posted up DBOX’s trailer for Rebuilding Ground Zero (did anyone catch that on TV? I saw a piece.)
CGArchitect’s Jeff, posted up his Q&A with Keith Bomely from DBOX. There are lots of questions
Read it here.
Glass Canvas is a studio based in London, who have been around since 2001. Watch their showreel below.
Glass Canvas Showreel from Glass Canvas on Vimeo.
Researcher, Kevin Karsch and his team at the University of Illinois have created a new software system that allows you to realistically add objects to photographs. Watch their video below.
Rendering Synthetic Objects into Legacy Photographs from Kevin Karsch on Vimeo.
Louis Vuitton, Singapore looks like a giant, but very cool, display case. It’s located on it’s own ’shopping island’ and was designed by architect, Peter Marino. This architect has worked on big fashion brands like Chanel, Dior, Donna Karan and Fendi.
Have a look at the video flyaround here below. Would love to see inside.
Where is the perfect medium when it comes to a reflection in render? In search for realism, reflections often become overpowering. Somewhere between what the artist and client is happy with, is my most diplomatic answer. Below is a comparison between buildings and renderings.
Strong real life reflections:
Rendering reflections:
…and it’s in Midrand, SA. I did notice it while in Midrand a while back – difficult to miss, in fact. It’s dome risies 32m into the air, with 55m tall minarets. It has been modelled off an existing mosque in Turkey that was built in 1574.
Read more here.
View more images here.
Illustrator and concept artist, Matt Kohr was featured on 3Dtotal to discuss the Power of Line Weight. Watch the video below.
The Power of Line Weight from 3DTotal.com on Vimeo.
Mosaic can make a major statement, in my opinion. They aren’t just for swimming pools anymore
Can you tell it’s about lunch for me?
Since watching Alex Roman’s animation a while back, I’ve had an eye out on food in renders. Below are some still renders I’ve come across with food items as a focus.
2 things caught my eye today, so here they are…
1) The week before last I posted The Art of VFX’s Q&A with Ed Bruce who worked on Game of Thrones. They now have another post up relating to the beautiful title sequence. Read their interview with Kirk Shintani from a52/elastic. The opening took 4 months to [...]
3dtotal has redone their website – more graphic orientated and clearer, in my opinion. Have a look here and review their site to be entered into a competition.
Foster + Partners have just released their design for the new Kuwait International Airport. This proposed airport will be able to handle 13 million travellers a year. The design gets its inspiration from Kuwait’s traditional Dhow sailboats.
PS. Love the mood of the renders.
Read this post by Preston on Youthedesigner.com.
“I’ve been freelance designing for a few years now and there’s one thing I never seem to have enough of:
Time.
And since I know for a fact that there are only 24 hours in the day no matter where you live on the planet, I bet you’ve run into the [...]
In the spirit of saying good bye to Steve, here is the evolution of Apple products or link here.
PIRANHA was commissioned by Silverstein Properties to create a short film depicting the completion of The New World Trade Center site. Piranha wrote, produced, art directed, filmed, and finished all VFX.
A few stills above from their site, but watch the video. Visit this link for more info.
This work, Reading between the Lines is a project by Gijs Van Vaerenbergh, a collaboration between Belgian architects Pieterjan Gijs and Arnout Van Vaerenbergh.It’s made up of 30 tons steel and metal blocks and looks beautiful at sunset. Read more…
Buildings seem to creep up slowly as we pass them day by day but when you make a comparison, it’s great to marvel at urban development.
Whether you’re talking about the enthralling book series or series masterpiece – I lurve Game of Thrones! Even the title sequence is a masterpiece. Focusing on the effects of the actual footage though, The Art of VFX has a Q&A posted on their site with Ed Bruce (read it here), VFX supervisor at Screen Scene.
Video posted via Ed [...]
Perhaps these 3 plugins from 3Dworld will make your workflow more efficient? Have a look at them below:
“If a common task seems long-winded or complicated, it’s worth spending time finding a script or plug-in to help.
Anything that can speed up regular tasks in a production environment is worth its weight in gold; a well-thought-out plug-in can [...]
Could this be the concept that takes it’s place in France? Interesting isn’t it?
Sosno, a French sculptor and architect, Rytis Daukantas have proposed this 22m high building.
You ever read CG Arena’s free magazine? The latest issue and backissues available to download. Here is the link
Now this could work out to be a very useful tool for our industry.
You search by various building criteria, and photo references come up from your search. Great for referencing building materials or specifics for renders. And for ‘mood boards’ too, I guess, as the images are free to use in presenations.
Building Butler - check it [...]
We’ve seen Anne Hathaway in her skintight outfit, Bane and shots of the Batmobile lately – all in anticipation. We wait. We wait for Chistopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises.
The latest are the (apparent) set images of the Batcave.
View more here.
Now this is pretty pointless, but cute nonetheless.
Visit Draw a Stickman and see what adventures he/she gets up to.
Now, this is way more appealing that the ordinary icy igloo. This Igloo Village in Finland is made up of these glass igloos, where you can cuddle up warm inside while looking at the Northern Lights through thermal glass.
Visit Hotel Kakslauttanen’s site.
While they sound pretty obvious – hard work, etc. – sometimes you just need a reminder and perhaps some motivation. Read Philip Humbert’s Top 10 Traits of Highly Successful People. Here’s to the week!
If you recall 3DWorld magazine had their voting open a while back for their own 3D awards. Winners announced, and you can view them here.
They’ve named Vyonyx’s image as Best Arch-Vis Image of the Year:
While that one has come to a close, Ronen Bekerman has announced his new one – City Life challenge. Get all [...]
This idea by Arch Group is so simple and, I’m sure, will be successful too. Introducing the Sleep Box.
Includes plug points, TV, Wi-Fi router, alarm, safety deposit box and built in pay station. Not to mentioned place for luggage and the ever-important bed (Yes, I have been that desperate to lay down flat on a [...]
…a rock superstar and live large? A big house, five cars? (Giving away my age there )
3D Max is asking if you’d like to be their next hero though. A 3D hero. By submitting a 3D scene using Max 2012 it could make the cover box of the next 3D Max version. Awesome!
An you [...]
If you recall, CGtuts recently had a quiz on testing your CG knowledge, the lastest on PSDtuts- Test your Photoshop knowledge
See how well you do.
Here is CGtut’s roundup of 50 amazing architectural renders – LINK. Would you believe that I’d already started compiling this as today’s post, when I saw image 6?
Burn’s very own interior (Yay for us!). I’m proud that we’re amongst such amazing renders.
If Transformers 3 was WAY too much for your eyes to handle, then perhaps Robert Zuckerman’s behind-the-scenes photos will do. Visit Michael Bay’s website for more… there are quite a few.
Now we’ve done our fair share of louvres! Mostly they make a building more interesting (apart from the practical use). Today’s post is just a collection of images from my side
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Graphic artist in Italy? Heading there? You might want to head to the VIEW Conference in Turin, Italy from 25 – 28 October 2011.
Covering topics that include animation, gaming and VFX it might just be worthwhile. As all of these events have, there will be workshops and talks by big names in the general industry.
Opening [...]
Mark Lee from Uniform gives 11 archvis tips to 3dworld.
“Architectural visualisation is a fast-growing industry.
Just by looking at sites such as cgarchitect.com, it’s clear there are many companies and individuals offering their services.
As with all industries, there are some excellent companies out there, producing outstanding visualisations; but there’s an even greater amount of mediocre work doing the [...]
The Sandcrawler is LucasFilm’s new Singapore headquarters. Designed by Aedas, this building will include a 100 seat theatre, LucasFilm offices, a public podium along with other spaces. Should be there for all to see sometime next year.
As for the rendering below – awesome glass! See more here.
Now, I’ve seen a orangutan and gorilla up close (safely from behind glass though) and I can say that the CG in the Rise of the Planet of the Apes was amazing. Have a look at the featurette below.
Read Robert Herrick’s (founder and MD of Visualhouse) article on how to communicate your design differently. Robert has worked for Eric Kuhne & Associates and Hayes Davidson (one of my favourites so thumbs up from me).
“They all look the same to me….?
The design visualisation industry has changed quite dramatically over the past 8 years; studios have come [...]
What? This is a filling station? A stylish one at that.
Italian architects, Damilano Studio Architects are the minds behind it. More images here.
The video was shot with a Panasonic GH2 and the post work was all done with Final Cut Pro.
Factory Fifteen surreal animation around London’s Battersea power station. Modelling and animation using 3D Max and Vray, compositing in After Effects.
The Battersea Experiment from Dan Tassell on Vimeo.
The 10 year anniversary of 9/11 coming up next month. Dbox has done the graphics, etc for the Discovery Channel’s series, Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero.
Rising from Tyler Korba on Vimeo.
Thanks CG Record for the details.
You’ll remember ‘Pixela’s‘ work (click here to refresh your memory). Below are images from a recent personal project. LOVE the wooden floor texture.
Charles Leo, from LunarStudio shares his views on architects’ jobs and rendering on his blog.
“I just got off the phone with one of my clients. With a little laughter in his voice, he remarked, “renderings are ruining work for us. All these television shows are showing cabinets getting dropped into place, and everyone seems to [...]
AK3D has released a new scattering script/plug in for 3ds Max that allows you to use bitmaps to distribute objects across a surface. A more favourable use – character control in an animation or the distribution of trees.
ScatterFX video below. Costs around $70.
Have a look at the amazing works from The Foundry:
The Foundry Showreel 2011 from Hieronymus Foundry on Vimeo.
I might have mentioned this a few times before (actually, I have) – I really like the feel of this guy’s work. Here are renders he did for Ewerk, a converted power station in Berlin, using 3ds Max 2012 and Vray 2.1. Read more here
3D Artist interviews Mark Lee from Uniform in issue 31.
“3D Artist: Tell us a bit about the company
Mark Lee: Uniform was set up over a few pints of beer back in 1998; since then we’ve grown up, changed and evolved. We currently employ 20 full-time staff in our Liverpool studio. Over that time we’ve established [...]
XOIO has released a free pack of fantastic 2D people. I’m not sure how long they will be available so get them quick!
You can grab them from here: http://xoio.de/blog/
The direct link (250Megs) is here: http://www.xoio.de/public/cutout_people_V1_xoio.zip
San Fanscisco’s Clift Hotel – design by Philippe Starck. While this hotel has been open for a decade already, it’s still great to have a peak inside. (Thanks to mymodernmet.)
Tablet evolution… quite clever! What sort of tablet does Motorola have in store for us?
According to 3Dworld these are the 5 books 3D animators should read.
The Animator’s Survival Kit by Richard Williams
The Art of 3D Computer Animation and Effects by Isaac Kerlow
Ideas for the Animated Short: Finding and Building Stories by Karen Sullivan et al
Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right by Jason Osipa
How to Write for Animation [...]
Head over to 3Dtotal (who have an occasional ’making of’) for Mackiewicz Maciek’s breakdown of the White Street Loft.
Using Cinema 4D, V-Ray and Photoshop. Read it all here.
(LOVE Bono on the pillow btw!)
Watch Seth Donald’s 2d visual effects/compositing work he did for Stargate Studios.
Seth Donald Compositing Reel – 2011 from Seth Donald on Vimeo.
Watch the layering and elements that Johan puts together to create this image. Don’t you just <3 photo-editing tools? He uses Photoshop, 3DS max and Vray.
Artists Haven – PS Breakdown from Johan Gustavsson on Vimeo.
As featured on Renderspirit, there is a post by Lukasz Gradzki from Renderare.com on how they put together this final image. Read it all here.
Is this a race? Or a case of ‘mine is bigger’? Here is the proposal for the Kindgom Tower in Saudi Arabia which, if built, will be the world’s new tallest tower. It would be 828m taller than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
Read more about it on Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture’s website. These [...]
Not just your conventional yacht - Yacht Island Design has come up with… well, this:
Interesting, huh? Well, how about MONACO on a yacht!
Watch here how Industrial Light and Magic did it. Yes, most of the movie was an over-the-top, Michael Bay madness of effects.
Also read these 5 facts you might want to know about the movie, from Scott Farrar (of ILM), like how The Driller consists of 710 051 parts!
Movies! Movies! Movies! A favourite past time of those of us at Burn. Personal story and VFX analysis is a must!
According to 3D World mag, these are the 10 VFX scenes you have to see. Here they are (in no particular order, I’m assuming).
The Dark Knight: Watch Harvey Dent become Two-Face, the big injury [...]
Korean sculptor, Yong Ho Ji, uses an unconventional material – tyres! Regardless, they look mean and unusual.
Read more about him here.
Apparently Post-it notes are useful for more things than leaving messages stuck to your PC monitor!
Watch this stop-motion video using 350 000 Post-it Notes. It took 25 animators, 5 months to complete – to promote the Melissa Gallery in Brazil.
Try your hand at these 20 questions on Cgtuts and test your CG knowledge – link to quiz
Are you a an expert in;
ZERO-G WELDING
MEGA STRUCTURES
QUANTUM NETWORKING
ZERO G COUPLING
MULTI GENERATIONAL PLANNING
You have to check this out: http://www.armadyne.net/
Coming Spring 2097
More about the film…
Stefan Antoni (and associates) always do an amazing job of their projects. Pure modern luxury. Here are a view images from a project done in Senegal, completed this year. This cliff side property includes an office, guest room, gym, numerous terraces, family/game room – the whole lot.