Having previously watched David Lesperance’s Gnomon Workshop DVD; Environment Production Workflow: Tips, Tricks and Concepts I was very interested to see his other instructional video on environment sculpting.  It becomes obvious very quickly how much David Lesperance enjoys what he does for a living.  He is a passionate artist and teacher who can convince you that modeling rocks is fun (he will convince you) and you can hear his exuberance at creating environment assets.  Throughout the DVD there are three ideologies David is constantly reinforcing; efficiency, experimentation and iteration.

Image Source: davidlesperance.blogspot.com

Efficiency

Working efficiently is a key part of being on a production team.  Many times David talks about the importance of being efficient in the way you work.  A review of David’s work by industry peer Vitaliy Bulgarov reveals that David is always searching for new and better ways to create his assets.

“David is famous for his technical approach for 3d art and his constant search for more efficient ways of doing things.”

Image Source: thegnomonworkshop.com

David’s method for creating assets efficiently is constantly evolving. By his own admission, his technique is not the best available, but he constantly searches for and incorporates new and better techniques.  Through the use of non destructive modeling methods in 3ds Max, David is able to efficiently make changes quickly and globally to his entire scene.  David is constantly trying new tools in different software packages, or techniques, which allow him to create assets more efficiently while also improving quality.  I particularly found his use of particle systems to create foliage very interesting.

Image Source: thegnomonworkshop.com

Experimentation

While watching David build multiple assets, bouncing between 3Ds Max, Zbrush and Photoshop, you can really see that he doesn’t have everything figured out from the beginning.  What I mean by that is, the DVD is not presented like a cooking program where he shows us ingredients and then suddenly there is a finished fully cooked environment asset.  The viewer is privy to seeing all the experiments throughout the creation process that David pursues and sometimes abandons.  It is very refreshing to see an artist work through ideas and scrap them almost as quickly as he thinks them up.  David Lesperance demonstrates that great 3D assets can be created through a “you don’t know until you try” attitude, proving that experimentation in creating assets is an important part of being an environment artist and essential for any artist’s personal growth and knowledge.

Image Source: thegnomonworkshop.com

Iteration

David stresses how important iteration is to the creative process, especially in a production environment.  Showing process along the way allows for your art directors to help give direction of where pieces should continue to be developed or not.  Providing iterative updates also allows for the assets to be seen in context with other team members’ assets.  Viewing the 3D assets you create in the context of the video game, or film that they will ultimately be a part of allows each artist to see where more or less time should be spent in the development of those assets.  This process helps increase efficiency of the entire project.

Image Source: thegnomonworkshop.com

Besides those three major topics of discussion, David has filled this DVD with more tips and tricks for creating highly detailed environment assets.  From using Zbrush’s Zspheres for sculpting plants onto geometry, to always trying to focus on the silhouette first for the objects he is creating.  I highly recommend this DVD, especially if you are an environment artist.

Yep!  More reference!  You all are going to start thinking that I made a similar deal for “reference” that cranberries made with the other juices.  We have already had reference for 3D modelers, drawing, texture artists, and now lighting artists as well?  Get out of here.  Simply put, it is because reference is a key part of any kind of visual development, and it always works best when used early in the process.  Reference lets you build up a visual mental library of forms and details of the type of assets you are trying to create, or in the case of a lighting artist, the mood and overall level of lighting in a scene.  Lighting artists use reference in a few different ways, and different methods can be used for finding reference, but  one of my favorite methods is to gather reference out in the world, perhaps with a nice pint of Guinness…

Image Source: Photo by Daniel Fleming

Reference for Story and Everyday Life

While the Guinness may be nearly empty, it still provides me with a lovely visage of how the material left on the glass appears when lit with candle light shining from behind. Jeremy Vickery, a very accomplished lighting artist, teaches in his tutorials that using reference to help decide on composition and ambiance should be one of the first steps taken by a lighting artist.  Looking at images of different lighting situations can help determine what kind of lighting will help the story.

Image Source: Photo by Daniel Fleming

For instance, if you want to create a little mystery and tension, then perhaps you want your character or scene to be backlit.  In this photo a man walks away but because the sun is in front of him it creates a very strong and dynamic mood.

Image Source: socialbrite.org

Sometimes you just want to evenly light your character so that their faces can be seen and understood easily.  The character’s purpose is to relay information in an easy to understand way both aurally and visually.

Image Source: ryanmagno.blogspot.com

One of the most popular ways 3D lighting artists gather reference is through existing movies.  By studying what film cinematographers accomplish with their composition and “painting with light”, 3D lighting artists can learn to improve their own work from master cinematographers.  Whether using the still frames directly or doing quick speed paints of the lighting, it is an incredible resource.

Reference for Lighting Phenomena

Light can interact with materials in 3 basic ways.  Light is either reflected, refracted, or absorbed, so then how can there be any phenomena?  Sometimes the phenomenon is generated by the light interaction, and sometimes it is created by what is viewing the light.

Caustics

Image Source: Photo by Daniel Fleming

Lets take this beer for instance, “mmmm beer”, late on this sunny day with the sun shining from an angle closer to the horizon  We can see the shadows are longer, and the nearly full beer glass has a solid shadow.  However in the middle of the shadow is a golden caustic where the light has refracted through the beer and come out the other side.  This is a good image to study how light refracts through a colored liquid.

Bokeh

Image Source: Photo by Pia Gandolfo

Sometimes a phenomenon is caused because of a camera or particular lens that the subject is being viewed through.  Like the phenomenon of Bokeh in photography, or out of focus areas in a photograph.  Depending on the lens, light sources in the out of focus area can create interesting visual patterns and shapes as well as the extreme difference in focus creates interest.

There are many reasons for a 3D lighting artist to use reference, from lighting phenomena to creating ambiance.  Reference helps CG lighting artists create more accurate and dynamic lighting and provides a map for how to get there.

Reference! Reference!  Get your reference here!  So far we have talked about artists using reference for 3D modeling and drawing, and how it can improve productivity and accuracy.  Well surprise surprise the same rings true for texture artists.  There is a reason that cameras are a texture artist’s best friend.  The amount and quality of texture reference photos and texture images that artists can have easy access to when they create their own is endless.   Texture artists use reference images in a couple different ways in order to improve the quality and productivity of their work.

Image Source: Photo by Daniel Fleming

Reference for Reference Sake

Texture artists are required to create textures for many different kinds of characters and 3D assets.  Sometimes the assets are everyday objects, and sometimes they are completely made up.  When the objects are things that we are used to seeing texture artists may look at the actual object or objects similar to get a good idea of the subtle details that are involved with the texture.  Where does normal wear and tear occur?  How does this material age?  What does it look like wet?  These are questions that when answered give the artists the information they need to create textures that are believable.  Similar to how a 3D modeler will use images to see how something is built, a texture artist will reference images to see how a texture changes and how it blends from one to the other.

Image Source: Photo by Daniel Fleming

Take for instance this outdoor bronze statue of King Philip III riding a horse in the center of Plaza Mayor in Madrid, Spain.  Now this photo does not provide a good image for trying to create a texture from, however it does illustrate how this statue and others like it would age and show wear and tear.  There is bronze patina occurring in the areas that receive the most water coverage from natural rainfall.  These are the areas with surface facing towards the sky allowing the rainfall to strike it.  There are also drip lines depicting where more water flows down the surface of the statue.

Image Source: Photo by Daniel Fleming

In this texture reference photo I have found some wild tomatoes growing near a stream out of the rocks.  There are a few things that this photo informs me of, that if I were texturing the tomato without reference, I would not have incorporated naturally.  For instance, reflective quality of the skin of the tomato, you can quite clearly see where the sky is reflected in the skin of the fruit (yes it’s a fruit).  There is also a color shift from a deeper red into orange and then a golden yellow near the stem.  By far the most surprising for me was the tomato plant itself, and how all the green parts look very prickly and sticky.  Nothing is smooth like you might see on other plants.  Even the leaves have light fuzz to them as well the leaves have much deeper relief between the veins and the flesh of the leaves.  This is all information that helps a texture artist make decisions about how to portray the surface of the assets they are creating.

Reference for Texture Map

The other manner in which texture artists use reference images is as actual texture maps.  Snapping photos to use them for textures later, or simply going online to sites like CG Textures is how texture artists begin to build and paint their textures.  The purpose of starting with images as textures is to add subtle detail that occurs naturally in the world.  Use images to add changes in a color so it is not a perfect solid tone.

Image Source: cgtextures.com

Using reference images as a texture artist is the beginning step in creating textures.  Gathering reference for the materials that your asset is made of, and then gathering texture maps that offer a good base to start from is a method for speeding up your productivity and increasing your accuracy.  Reference can also provide variety to your visual library of what certain materials look like.  For Instance, this is a basket of oranges in Spain.  Note the varied sizes, colors, and ripeness of the fruit and you will see the value of the information a single reference image can provide.

Image Source: jbdanza.wordpress.com

Image source: Letstalkvideogames.com

What is the most important skill for a 3D artist? No, it’s not your ability to navigate Photoshop or your ability to create lifelike 3D models. At the end of the day, your single most important quality is your creativity. That’s your quintessential spark that helps you make truly memorable artwork and it helps you stand apart from all of the other artists in the industry.

Art school can teach you how to be a better artist, but harnessing the power of creativity isn’t quite as black and white. How does somebody come up with an idea? How do you differentiate between a good idea and a bad idea? How can you inspire yourself?

Image source: Izismile.com

The creative process is different for everybody, but in general there are a few tricks that you can use to catapult your creativity to the next level. Today we’re going to focus on your work environment. After all, your immediate surroundings could help or even hinder your creativity.

1 – Eliminate Distractions

Some people can’t work without music playing. Others can’t tolerate any noise whatsoever. Whatever the case may be, it’s always a good idea to eliminate distractions. The best way to achieve this is to be honest with yourself and get a good understanding of what distracts you. There are three types of distractions:

-Distractions that are annoying and hurt creativity (the sound of a baby crying or a flickering light that is breaking your concentration).
-Distractions that are enjoyable and hurt creativity (a video game or texts from your buddy).
-Distractions that help creativity (a conversation between coworkers about art techniques or a colorful toy that helps you brainstorm new ideas).

Image source: Supershuttle.com

The first two distractions are generally bad, but the third type of distraction can actually be helpful as long as you use it in moderation. Interacting with your environment and coworkers can help you come up with good ideas, but too many distractions will eventually cut into productivity.

2 – Make Your Work Environment Stimulating

There’s a fine line between creativity and inspiration. Creativity is coming up with something out of the blue, while inspiration is allowing somebody else’s creativity to influence your own creative process. Many artists fill their work environments with colorful, playful objects that get the creative juices flowing. Just look at the office of a video game company, marketing firms, or Google. The offices are basically set up like playgrounds for adults.

Image source: 1dak.com

3 – Try New Scenery

If you’re stuck on a project, then you might want to try thinking about the problem in some new scenery in order to free yourself of your typical distractions in favor of something new. Go on a walk. Eat lunch and play with your food. Talk to a coworker about the problem. Visit websites that might inspire you. Take your laptop, go outside, and do some work under the shade of a beautiful tree.

Image source: Ravenwoodforest.blogspot.com

You see, there’s this weird thing called contextual memory that makes you think about certain things when you’re in that location. Like, if you go to a bar and have a unique experience, then you might totally forget about that experience until you visit the bar again. Science has proven that your environment has a major impact on how you think. Logically, one of the easiest ways to get new ideas is to go to a new environment.

Ultimately, it’s important to figure out what type of environment works for you. My ideal office might drive you crazy and vice-versa. Experiment with different ways to inspire yourself so that you can create a work environment that helps you do your best work!

Image source: Digitalprefect.wordpress.com

All roads lead to Rome.

Once you have an idea for a piece of 3D art, there are a million different paths that you can take to flesh out that idea and turn it into a reality. We generally call this process brainstorming, but that can be a little bit misleading. People generally think of brainstorming as sitting in front of a desk and thinking really hard about a bunch of different ideas. In fact, there are countless ways to brainstorm — some are cerebral, some are hands on, and some take more of a trial-and-error approach. This guide can help you gain a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of your artistic style and it might open you up to new brainstorming approaches that you might not have considered before.

The Classic: Thinking Really Hard and Scratching Out Notes

This is easily one of the most popular ways to brainstorm. That’s when a person or a group of people get together and write down ideas until one sticks. This method allows you to focus on a single idea and collaborate so that everybody can combine their best ideas. Here’s a fun fact: Pixar workers came up with the ideas for most of their movies during a single lunch. Apparently, some of Pixar’s biggest films started out as a few notes on a restaurant napkin. That just goes to show you: always have a sketchbook on hand!
 

Image source: Shelter.inthekoots.com/

Brainstorming with friends is a great way to overcome roadblock, because verbalizing your ideas will help you work out the problems and your friends can give you pointers.

Diving Right In

Some people skip the brainstorming phase and dive right into creation, making things up as they go along. That’s my preferred method — I like to feel things out as I go and let my creations evolve over a long period of time. I may not always end up with what I originally set out to create, but I feel that planning things out in the beginning doesn’t leave much room for surprises or unexpected inspiration.
 

Image source: Stayhealthyfitness.blogspot.com

This method is great because the very act of creation can inspire you in ways that scribbling out ideas on paper never could, but the one downside is that you could potentially waste a lot of time. Believe me: there have been a few times when I’ve spent a hefty chunk of time working on a project only to eventually realize that my initial idea was kind of sucky, so I had to start over from scratch. I wouldn’t recommend this strategy if you’re under the clock.

If you’ve got the time for trial and error, then diving right in has the added benefit of helping you practice your skills while you think. The hour that you spend working on a failed prototype might not help you get a finished product, but it will help you grow as a 3D artist by encouraging artistic flexibility and constant practice.

Brood

Do you get the best ideas in the shower? Do you wake up in the middle of the night with epiphanies? Then that probably means you’re a brooder. Brooders like to sit on an idea for a while and let it slowly percolate into something meaningful. Brooding is a great way to get through the 3D equivalent of a writer’s block because focusing on other things will allow you to clear your mind. Even if you aren’t a brooder, taking breaks is a great way to approach art with a fresh perspective. You might want to try it out if you’re out of ideas and everything you come up with doesn’t quite feel right.
 

Image source: Commons.wikimedia.org

There is no such thing as a perfect brainstorming solution. Everybody is a little bit different, so what works for one 3D artist might not work for others. The important thing is to be open to new options, especially if you’re stuck and your current solutions aren’t working. Just keep at it, and whatever road you’re taking will eventually lead you to Rome!

Image Source: relationship-economy.com

Collaboration is at the heart of all film and game projects being produced and completed.  Because of peoples’ different opinions, ideas, and methodologies for producing work, there can be many obstacles to collaborating successfully.  While good project management is a large part of successful collaboration, there are also a few ideas that artists producing the work should incorporate in order to facilitate better collaboration.  Here are three keys to better collaboration with fellow creators.

1 – Trust

As with any kind of relationship, trust is one of the most important requirements of a successful collaborative team effort.  There are many ways for coworkers to invest trust in each other.

-There has to be trust within the team that everyone is committed to completing the project.

-Their must be trust in each others ability to complete project as well.  If team members doubt another member’s ability to do the job correctly, then time is spent worrying about their production which is distracting to all those working.

-That includes having the most trust in your project manager.  If a team does not trust their leadership, then they will be less likely to follow the tasks set out for them.

-Increased trust allows coworkers to give and receive authentic critiques.  If there is any mistrust between collaborators, then it is harder for critiques to be an effective method of improving the project.

2 – Communication

Clear and consistent communication is one of the best traits of a good project manager, and it improves the entire team’s ability to collaborate more successfully. Communication also helps to maintain the trust with your fellow artists by eliminating sudden surprises and scheduling conflicts.  Good communication requires all collaborators to be both active and passive communicators through written and spoken communication as well as listening.

-Consistent status updates keep the team up to date with progress, and allows for future scheduling.

-Daily, or weekly critiques help artists learn where their work is getting better, and where it still needs to.  Critique sessions also help maintain the focus of the project.  If an artist is spending too much time on an area of lesser importance then that can be addressed more quickly and less time is wasted.

3 – Combined Knowledge

With artists of many different backgrounds and skill sets collaborating together, sharing knowledge becomes very important to the success of the team.  As the technology of the industry evolves at astounding rates it is key for collaborators to share knew knowledge and skills they acquire.  Whether the knowledge is shared though a formal tutorial or just an informal sit-down, that exchange of knowledge is crucial to improving collaboration between artists.  Combining knowledge can also be seen by different visual effects studios working on one film.  There were 17 VFX studios that worked on the recently released Iron Man 3.

Image Source: collider.com

The importance of good collaboration can be seen in the video games and movies that we enjoy.  It can be seen in the long list of credits of the many VFX studios used in the creation of one film, as well as in the stories of those films and games themselves.  While Tony Stark may be renowned for his working alone attitude, it isn’t just with the rest of the Avengers that he collaborates.  He collaborates with his AI Jarvis on everything.  In video games, the collaboration can be seen in another seemingly lone hero of the Master Chief from Halo.  Throughout the franchise of games the Master Chief collaborates with Cortana.  I am starting to think that lone heroes might have a thing for artificial intelligence.

Image Source: eklettica.com

Project management, a necessary part of any production process.  From manufacturing fighter planes, to the snacks you nibble at throughout the day, they have all had a project manager involved at some point to help that product get released.  The same is definitely true for the video game industry and film, where many times a project manager is listed as producer.  I have talked a little about ways that people can become better project managers, but why is it so important that project managers be good?  What impact do they really have on a product or a company?  According to this business journal article bad project management costs companies and national economies billions of dollars.

Image Source: conceptships.blogpsot.com

If you find yourself thinking that project managers don’t seem to have that large of an impact on a team’s production, then you could very well be lucky and already have a project manager that is already doing a fantastic job.  At its most basic execution, a project manager’s job is to deliver a project on budget, on time, and to all the specifications that had been agreed upon.  Well if they can do all three of those things then wouldn’t they be a GREAT project manager? No.

Great project management goes beyond delivering the minimum of on time, on budget and as agreed.  A great project manager:

• -Anticipates future problems
• -Assures production of a high quality product
• -Increases efficiency of team through better communication
• -Encourages and fosters creativity from their team members
• -Keeps team morale high/span>
• -Listens to issues and mediates for team
• -Protects team from unnecessary interruptions
• -Trust and empowerment of Team
• -Makes and manages everyone’s expectations/span>

Image Source: octanner.com

Great project management is the realization of ideal collaboration between all parties in order to achieve the best result for the production process.  With more and more production teams being spread out over the world, a great project manager harnesses the power and technology available to make the team’s job easier. With new project management products like Binfire and Trello project managers are able to collaborate more easily and efficiently with their teams, wherever they may be.

Employee satisfaction and happiness in the workplace is one of the most difficult, but important part of a great project manager’s job.  Team morale is an incredibly difficult thing to fix once it has gone bad.  If you are hearing how unhappy your team is then it has probably been that way for a while.  The best method for keeping team morale high is a preventative one, instead of having to try and make your employees happy again after the fact.  Open communication between the team is a key tactic to keeping in touch with a team’s work satisfaction and overall happiness level.  Employee overall happiness is very important to a company’s ability to produce quality work, and can increase profits.  Studies show the more engaged employees are the happier they tend to be in the workplace, as well as better production and less turnover which helps contribute to higher profits as well.

Image Source: kootation.com

Great project managers are a rare and an incredible commodity to a company.  They help get the best out of employees while, keeping things organized for all who are involved.  A great project manager means the difference between a successful company and one that under performs and languishes in mediocrity.

Drawing isn’t the only medium that artists use reference for.  In fact it is used in every facet of creating art, and especially in the creation of video games and visual effects.  Reference is an important part of the creative process and today we are going to talk about using reference for 3D modeling in everything from environments to characters and vehicles.

Image Source: thegnomonworkshop.com

So much of 3D modeling involves creating the world around you.  Many times a modeling artist will ground concepts given to them by incorporating real world objects into the model.  What was perhaps just a loose scribble of something in a drawing is now a bolt, or a decorative vase, etc.  Whatever the addition is, it is built through use of reference.  3D modeling artists surround them selves with reference images of whatever content they are creating as well as historical influences they can draw upon for inspiration and increased accuracy.  If a 3D character artist is tasked with modeling samurai warriors, then the reference used will be everything they can find about samurai as well as maybe a visit to a museum to see an actual ancient samurai armor, mask, katana, and all that accompanies close up.

Image Source: chaouch.se

Reference is extremely popular and helpful with artists modeling mechanical hard surface objects.  Referencing how pieces fit together provides purpose to the form and function of the model being created.  Especially with mechanical objects and machines, there are so many small pieces that create the whole; it is worth it to make sure the initial pieces modeled are done well, as they will be reused many times.

Image Source: turbosquid.com

For artists who are just beginning to learn the skills of 3D modeling reference is even more important to the modeling process.  Reference helps artists visualize how things look 3D dimensionally.  One of the first steps modeling artists will do is create reference planes in their scene for them to build off of.  Whether it is a character, environment, or vehicle it is incredibly helpful to have the drawings, photos, or even blue prints that you are going to build from.  Besides sites like 3D.sk and morgue file which I have mentioned before, there are also great sites like The Blueprints.  The Blueprints is a site completely dedicated to collecting and sharing templates, drawings, and blueprints for 3D modelers and other artists to recreate from.  For the most part, the collection is vehicles, weapons, and electronic devices like phones and PSPs.

Image Source: colacola.se

Image Source: the-blueprints.com

Another reason less experienced 3D modelers should use reference is to improve geometry flow, and efficiency.  I have talked before about how important flow of geometry is for animation purposes and proper deformations.  One of the best ways to try and learn good geometry flow or topology is to look at how experienced 3D artists build their assets.  Look through forums, portfolios, blogs and tutorials, get the reference images you need saved and then when you are modeling keep those images nearby and refer to them constantly until the good topology becomes second nature.

Image Source: skif3d-eng.blogspot.com

Using reference is just another way to train your artistic eye to be able to build more accurately and more freely.  Eventually 3D modelers don’t need reference planes in their scene to build from because their prior experience has taught them how to visualize in 3D space the object they are modeling.  But reference is definitely still used and it is first thing an 3D modeler looks for before starting their work.

“AZIZ!  LIGHT!!” Much like the professor in the Fifth Element needed light to see the hieroglyphs, audiences need animated characters to be lit in order to see their performance. Light is the physical phenomenon through which humans perceive the world around them.  It is the soft light that puts a toddler at ease to allow them to drift off to dreamland.  It is the warming light of a campfire that groups gather round and sing songs, and in the 3D industry it is light that reveals the characters and environments in the stories we fall in love with.

Image Source: kootation.com

I have a confession to make, sometimes I have little day dreams of Pixar characters like Woody and Buzz singing to the Pixar lighting  artists, “Alone in the dark…But now you’ve come along,  And YOUUUUU LIGHT UP MY LIFEEEEE!”  I know, cheesy, but still you would have to imagine that the characters are grateful for the skill and artistry with which lighting artists do their jobs.

Lighting artists have to be part physicist and part artist.  The physics comes into play with understanding how light works and reacts in different situations.  Light reacts in three basic ways with the world.  Light is reflected, refracted, or absorbed.  When setting up digital lights, lighting artists must take into account the basics and make sure that there is refracted and reflected light being represented, as well as absorbed light.  In his Efficient Cinematic Lighting DVD, Jeremy Vickery explains that the goal of a lighting artist is to portray realistic lighting without it having to be a hundred percent realistic.  Using bounce lights to accurately light a room, or at least the space around your character.  Shadows with falloffs also help convince the audience of the realistic lighting, and then you use the light to artistically achieve what is needed for the scene.  Using light to create ambiance, set mood, and heighten drama is a large part of what lighting artists do.

Jeremy shows how you can use lights to recreate what light does naturally in the real world, bounce and carry color and spread out.  With the way technology and software are evolving there are now many different options for rendering with global illumination.

Global illumination is a general name for a group of algorithms used in 3D computer graphics that are meant to add more realistic lighting to 3D scenes. Such algorithms take into account not only the light which comes directly from a light source (direct illumination), but also subsequent cases in which light rays from the same source are reflected by other surfaces in the scene, whether reflective or not (indirect illumination).

Thanks wikipedia!  So there is software that will calculate the bounced light and refracted light, and you can adjust how many thousands of photons of light you want to bounce around…Physicist anyone?  Now these algorithms can create very realistic lighting, but also come at a cost of render time.  Global illumination rendering solutions can take much longer to render than without.  Efficiency in lighting becomes vital to maintaining productivity, which is why there are also those that would argue against global illumination for a production pipeline.  While global illumination is increasing in speed and efficiency with more updates, the seemingly easy setup and one click realistic lighting leaves many images with realistic lighting, but no artistic touch.

Just because GPUs are helping to reduce render time, and global illumination is becoming faster, does not mean that the artistic side of lighting should be ignored.  In fact the technological improvements should do the opposite and free artists to be able to go through more lighting iterations to pick out which light setup is the right one.  Efficiency is an important part of a rendering pipeline, and lighting is a major part in determining render times.  Large companies like Pixar don’t use global illumination unless they deem it necessary, and Jeremy Vickery mentions that while that could change in the future it hasn’t for now.  Light it up!

Reference, reference, reference.  Drawing from reference of some type is highly encouraged when in art school, and really by all established artists.  Reference can be photographic or live, and when used properly it becomes a tool that enhances productivity and the skill of an artist.

Image Source: thegnomonworkshop.com

There tends to be a stigma related to using photos or images for reference when drawing.  Many young artists think that it is a sign of inability perhaps, or that the reference becomes a crutch.  While the latter is a possibility, using reference images helps to build up a mental library of what you can later draw from your imagination.  It is an important part of an artists learning process and crucial to their development.  Using reference early in art education helps to instill correct proportions as well as inform the artist of forms and how they change when moving etc.

It is stressed many times throughout an artists’ education, that anatomy knowledge is a key part of being able to draw living things competently.  That is why so many art classes involve life drawing and studies of skeletons, muscle groups and trips to zoos to draw animals that are living.

Image Source: biocreativity.wordpress.com

Using Life and the world around you as your inspiration and reference is not a crutch, it is a tool.  There is so much detail in the world that it is really ridiculous for people to presume that to be a great artist you must be able to draw without reference. I believe what happens is the great artists that we see, have used so much reference in their lifetime, that their own mental library is flush with the information needed to create from memory.  Artists who are just learning should work very hard not to burden themselves with the idea that they cannot use reference if they are to be a great artist.  Comic artist Steve Lieber wrote a blog about the benefits and methods of use for reference images in an artists work.

It is important to note that reference images can be searched out or created by the artist themselves.  Many famous artists over the years have used photos for reference.  Norman Rockwell’s famous paintings come to mind, and now the photos that he took for reference can be seen as well.
 

Image Source: Dailymail.co.uk

Image Source: Dailymail.co.uk

Norman Rockwell’s mentor J.C Leyendecker was known to use live models as reference.  Whether the reference used is photographic or live observation it is still immensely beneficial.  Many artists will collect books for reference to keep around their work areas, always within reach if needed.  Books, Photographs, magazines, real life, or websites, there is always reference available.

- 3D.sk is a image and video reference site (some nudity) specifically for 3D animation and VFX.

- Art Morgue is a collection of images sorted making it easy to navigate to what you desire

- Morgue File is a free photo archive for creatives by creatives.  A great varied selection of free to use images is available for download.  The main idea behind the free images is that illustrators and artists of all kinds will use and alter the images to create their own work.  I also prefer Morgue File’s seemingly random layout of images for browsing and search function if I am looking for something particular.

Image Source: morguefile.com

The world is full of reference material that will help develop artists’ skills and knowledge.  Learning how to effectively use reference to improve your drawing ability and productivity is a key step to developing as an artist.

There are a few questions that CG artists are commonly asked by people interested in learning more about the VFX and 3D trade.  What software do you use? What kind of computer do you have? One of the most common question working 3D artists receive is, where should I go to school to learn 3D skills?  With all the options of traditional art schools, 3D animation schools, online schools, and hours upon hours of tutorials available the decision of where to get ones education is more complicated.  There are three main factors that prospective students should take into account when choosing their CG education.

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1 – What is Your Learning Style?

A learning style is an individual’s natural or habitual pattern of acquiring and processing information in learning situations (wikipedia).  There are many different models of learning styles.  In Memletic styles there are seven different learning styles:

• Visual (spatial): You prefer using pictures, images, and spatial understanding.
• Aural (auditory-musical): You prefer using sound and music.
• Verbal (linguistic): You prefer using words, both in speech and writing.
• Physical (kinesthetic): You prefer using your body, hands and sense of touch.
• Logical (mathematical): You prefer using logic, reasoning and systems.
• Social (interpersonal): You prefer to learn in groups or with other people.
• Solitary (intrapersonal): You prefer to work alone and use self-study.

Why should prospective students take into account their learning style?  I don’t believe learning styles are a cut and dry practice where you are one style and that is it.  However some of these learning styles can help people figure out their optimum personal learning environments.

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2 – Fiscal Awareness / Finances

While deciding what track to take for your CG education, money must be a consideration.  The industry with its software and hardware requirements is costly for universities to maintain updated licenses and computers.  That being said the range of price for being able to educate yourself for a year or however long can be quite different and is something to be considered.  Unfortunately with the current status of our banking system, student loans can become very large very quickly and managing that during and after education can be quite stressful.  There are tools to help students manage their loans; however debt is one of those things that is hard to escape from, and many times the companies who offer their help in settling debt are not successful.  While taking on debt for the education of your future career isn’t a bad thing, it isn’t something that should be done without thorough research into all options first.

3 – Schedule / Location

What will your schedule be like for learning?  Will you have to work while attending school in order to afford it?  Will you be working a day or night job?  Will you have to move to attend the school that you want to?  With technology and online courses now, artists can receive their education anywhere they have an internet connection.   These are all things that should be heavily considered in association with the other two topics.

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Using the combination of these three factors prospective students can help guide their choices. If you are someone who learns better in a classroom environment, and socially interacting with fellow students, then a more traditional school might fit your needs best.  Maybe you desire the traditional classroom environment but cannot afford to relocate to where the school is geographically located.  Then perhaps an online university, with online interaction between students and teachers is the best option.  There are also some prospective students who are hesitant to jump fully into these kinds of programs with the investment they require.  In their cases, a smaller monetary investment upfront while investing the time and effort in self training with tutorials may reinforce their desire and interest in the industry.

Good project managers are a desired commodity.  Great project managers will have companies lining up and bidding for them like crazy.  The Visual Effects, Video game, and Architectural Visualization industries are all very creative based industries, and they all seem to suffer from poor project management.  I am speaking generally of course, there are always exceptions, but why does it seem that creative industries suffer a bit more from poor project management?  I believe that as a whole, visually creative people tend to have less success with managing their projects.  Let’s look at three basic things that  for better project management.

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1 – Good and Consistent Communication

All projects need communication in order to be completed.  A good project manager will keep both the client and the artists working on the project up to date with its status.  By consistently communicating status updates, daily, weekly, whatever your project requires, it is easier to spot any possible problem areas for meeting set deadlines and goals.  Communication is the foundation of good project management.  As a freelance artist it is especially crucial keep consistent communication with your client to keep them engaged and understanding the current progress.

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2 – Setting and Managing Expectations

Each project will have different goals associated with it, and it is vital that everyone involved with the project have a clear understanding of what those goals are.  From the start, a good project manager will issue a well written document setting the expectations for what will be required from their team, as well as what the client should expect.  This also allows time to set a timeline and explain why certain tasks take longer for the team to complete.  With these conversations early in a project, and continued consistent communication there are less surprises between the production team and the client.  In the VFX and game world the client can be your developer or perhaps the film director.

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3 – Involving Your Team Only as Needed

To try and maximize your teams ability to maintain focus and productivity(link) a good project manager knows how to protect their team from outside distractions.  The best creative work is done when artists are in the zone and one of the more frustrating aspects of working can be to finally get in the zone, only to have it interrupted for something either unimportant, or that could have waited or even been answered by the project manager.  This also includes the client.  The client should get status updates from the project manager so that they do not distract the artists with untimely questions or critiques.

You can see from these three tips that  communication is very important   A project manager must be constantly communicating and listening to their team in order to produce the best product, on time and on budget.
What is it that makes great project managers great, however is a different series of traits.  99u had a great list of 10 characteristics of great project managers, and my particular favorite was number seven.

“7. Possess domain expertise in project management as applied to a particular field.

It’s not just that they (great project managers) have generic project management skills; they have a deep familiarity with one or multiple fields that gives them a natural authority and solid strategic insight.”

A project manager is at their best when they have a solid understanding of the work that their team is producing.  They are able to schedule more accurately, as well as the team will respect them more, and respect any input provided by the project manager.

Whether at a large company or running your own freelance business, project management is always necessary, and if done right can be a positive influence on work.  Individuals can take simple steps like using excel spreadsheets to keep projects on track and ensure their completion.  Is project management important? Yes.  In the IT community over 50% of IT projects fail as a direct result of poor project management.  Yes IT is different than 3D graphics, and VFX but they both involve technology that is evolving very quickly and good management of all the factors can help ensure that the projects are done at the highest quality possible within the budget and time frame.

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As with any industry, if you have been working in the 3D or VFX industry for any amount of time you will be asked by someone how you got into that industry.  It seems to happen a little more vigorously with a creative field like game development and Visual FX which are associated with so many of people’s memories and current love of playing video games and watching movies.  What is the best way to break into the 3d modeling, game development, and visual effects industries?

Most CG artists are asked that question at least once, but more likely between one-five times per week.  Whether the question comes face to face, or through an online message board, or even just an email, it always happens.  The funny thing is, for the most part, the answer is always the same.  The answer is,” there isn’t a best way, there is no key, there is no shortcut”.

The budding artist will ask, “What software did you create that awesome render/model/animation/painting in!?”

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The established artist replies, “I created it in software X”

Budding artist replies again, “OMG I need to get software X so I can make cool arts like you! And do what you do!”

I may be exaggerating slightly for effect, but I imagine there are many of you nodding your heads at having seen many a similar post on different forums.  There is nothing wrong with asking what software was used, or asking technical questions, or even for software recommendations.  The problem is the, perhaps unconscious, assumption by young budding 3D and VFX artists that it is the software that makes the art, and not the artist.  It isn’t important what software you use, but rather how you are using it.  3D and VFX software are simply tools, very complicated tools, but tools none the less.

Each tool has its strengths and ‘weaknesses’, but the more important part becomes how you use the tool.  All artists, whether digital or not, will tell you the only way to get good with a tool is to use it, a lot.  Similar to a painter using oil paint, or acrylic, or watercolor, you can achieve very similar results with each of them, but they all have tasks and workflows that they lend themselves better to.

Pixar Lighting artist and Technical director Jeremy Vickery says on his website:

“What software do I use? Firstly, let me say that it doesn’t really matter. No tool will make you a better artist. I’ve seen people make awesome art on a napkin with a crayon, and people make terrible art with $10,000 software and all the latest gear.”

So then what should a young budding artist do to help break into the industry?  Well Jeremy had an answer for that as well.

“Draw, create, draw, create! Spend more time creating than talking about creating. Draw and paint as much as you can and create from real life. Find inspiration everywhere you can. Oh… and one more thing…. create some more.”

I couldn’t agree more with Jeremy.  There is inspiration everywhere around us, and the only way to get better is to do it.  The software and technology side of VFX and 3D art is getting more and more powerful, while also freeing artists to be more creative, so focus on creating better and better art.  In an interview with CGChannel, Weta lighting artist, Matias Menz, while talking about the Tintin film mentioned how lighting artists need to be more creative and artistically trained similar to cinematographers,

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“After all, we’re in the business of making a good image. Which implies that software tools need to be easy enough for creatives to handle scene complexity, and workflows made easier so they can focus on what they do best.”

The better you are with traditional mediums, the more of that knowledge and those skill sets you can translate into a 3D software package.  Enough talk, hit the throttle because its time to create.

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The 3D artist, with hands raised in the air declared “Let there be light!” and it was so, because otherwise everything would have been dark.  Light is the very method in which we visually see everything in the world.  In the 3d animation and VFX industries if there is no light, then you cannot see the 3d models and animation that has been created.  I was going through some of the DVDs of the Gnomon Workshop library and I was interested in two particular DVDs about color and lighting.  Jeremy Vickery’s two DVDs, Practical Light and Color & Efficient Cinematic Lighting, looked to be what I personally needed for my own development; an easy to understand artistic approach to lighting in digital art.

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Jeremy Vickery is currently a lighting artist/ technical director for Pixar, where he has helped create The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, Wall-E, and Brave.  Jeremy’s artistic skill set has enabled him to work as a modeling and texture artist, a CG generalist, as well as now being a lighting artist and technical director.  The two DVDs Jeremy produced with the Gnomon Workshop are complimentary to each other.

Practical Light and Color

In this DVD Jeremy is very good at explaining how light works, and how artists should use that knowledge to improve their own work.  His ability to remain direct with his explanations and not become too technical is very welcome for an industry whose technology is always expanding and evolving.  Jeremy makes it a point to stay away from getting into too much technical detail about what software and hardware he uses because that detracts from the artistic approach he is trying to teach.  He uses many photos to help demonstrate how light interacts in the real world using the only three ways light can; reflecting, refracting, and absorption.

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Jeremy does a lot of speed painting during the DVD which helps him demonstrate his ideas and workflow to his audience.  Workflows can be different between artists, but it is always interesting to see how they are different and to hear an artist explain what their reasoning is for choosing one method over another one.

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Efficient Cinematic Lighting

In Jeremy’s second DVD with The Gnomon Workshop he focuses a bit more on the 3D application of the techniques learned on the first DVD.  Once again he uses many photographic references to help teach about light, color, atmosphere, and camera based composition.  3D camera angles and shots are based on real life photography and the different lenses that can be used, which then create effects like depth of field and bokeh which help an artist define the mood.

My favorite part of this DVD was when Jeremy goes through his development images for a couple different 3d illustrations he did.  Starting with his digital painted sketches, and all the refinement and adjustment that those went through with the client, to then recreating the 2d sketch in 3D.  He explains how getting the ideas out quickly is so important when reviewing the work with your clients.  The only way to achieve something both parties are happy with is to have that back and forth collaboration happens more quickly.

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It was also incredibly educational to me to watch Jeremy show lighting setups without using Global illumination, and just placing lights where they need to be for the realistic sense, and the artistic effect needed.  Showing where those lights are placed, and then the corresponding effect it had on the render was great.  I also would have never guessed that Pixar still doesn’t use Global Illumination (at time of Dvd’s production at least) in their productions.

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I would highly recommend both of these DVDs, because Jeremy is an exceptional artist, and a very good teacher.  Here is a quote from a colleague of his at Pixar.

“Jeremy has a deep understanding of the craft of CG lighting. His technical knowledge is strong, but his passion lies in creating artistically gorgeous images. As a senior lighting artist at Pixar, he uses these strengths to create breathtaking and memorable imagery. This DVD is a special treat since Jeremy is also a very capable and generous teacher and mentor, he truly loves to share what he knows.”

-                Sharon Calahan
Director of Photography
Pixar Animation Studios

You can also see his love for teaching and sharing his knowledge with others in published magazines, as well as just through his interaction with the art community.  A look at his deviant ART page will show his love for art, creating, and helping others create as well through his constant critiques and interaction with other members.  At the end of Jeremy’s Efficient Cinematic Lighting DVD he also mentioned that he is working on a lighting DVD specifically for animation, and lighting moving objects etc, and I am looking forward to that!

A workflow consists of a sequence connected steps.  In the VFX and 3D animation industries artists tend to develop certain habits or methods of completing their work.  Workflows change from artist to artist, but there are always some standard processes that each artist uses or incorporates at some point in their workflow.  Artists will develop their own custom keyboard shortcuts to suit their own workflows, but one of the most important aspects that artists try to include in their workflow is flexibility.

Image Source: Image by Daniel Fleming

Non Destructive Workflow

One of the best methods for increasing your flexibility as a production artist is to incorporate non destructive methods into your workflow.  So what is a non destructive workflow?  It is a term primarily used with Photoshop artists, but can be applied to 3D as well.  A non destructive workflow adds flexibility for the artist to be able to make changes quickly, by affecting the layer or asset in non permanent ways.

Photoshop Non Destructive Workflow

In Photoshop, artists use a combination of adjustment layers and layer masks to affect the images without making permanent changes to the pixels.  This method maintains original content so that if your client or art director decides that they want to change something that you do not have to redo steps to get to the point that you can then make the change.  For instance, changing the color, brightness, saturation, etc. of an image is a large part of what photo retouch artists do.  Selecting pieces of the image and adjusting them individually to create the end product desired is a common process.  Now if you do those adjustments all on the same layer, you have limited your ability to make quick changes, and schemes.

Image Source: Image by Daniel Fleming

As well as the layer masks and adjustment layers, added flexibility can be added through setting changes.  Meghan Farrell suggests increasing the number of undos Photoshop will remember, and having Photoshop create a new snapshot every time you save your file will also add to the flexibility an artist has when things are changing quickly.   This kind of workflow is part of a linear rendering workflow, which artist Stephen DeLalla also talks about in his V-Ray Fundamentals Gnomon Workshop DVD.
 

3D Software Non Destructive Workflow

Flexible workflows within production 3D software can vary.  Software that has a modifier stack like Autodesk 3ds Max offers the artist flexibility similar to that of Photoshop.  The modifier stack enables the artist to place adjustments to the mesh on top of each other so that adjustments can still be made through out the stack and layers above where the change is made still have effect.  As you can see in this image below, I have started with a box of certain dimensions and as I add different modifiers to change the object I am able to still in the end go back down the stack to the original box to make an adjustment, and immediately see how that affects the modifiers above.

Image Source: Image by Daniel Fleming

When rendering out images from a 3D software package, the file type saved is an important step in adding flexibility to your workflow.  3D packages have the ability to save images in 16 and 32 bit image file formats, similar to RAW files for photographers.  These formats are uncompressed and as such contain mountains more of information than other file types, like a jpg or tga.  This extra information allows for the artist to make lighting adjustments in real time.  You can turn down lights that are too bright, and adjust each light to figure out what the lighting setup should be.  Tim Jones talks about that in his environment lighting for production DVD which has many fantastic tips and tricks to increase efficiency and flexibility in your workflow.

Non destructive workflows are necessary tools when working in a production environment.  These types of workflows make collaboration with coworkers and art directors more fluid and  help to speed up the iterative design process.

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It seems like more and more entertainment genres are borrowing from each other’s intellectual properties and franchises.  Video games being made based on films, films based on comic books, comic books based off of television series, and so on and so forth.  There is even a television show and video game using the same intellectual property at the same time in order to enhance each experience.  Sometimes there are crossovers in genres that many of us have not paid as much attention to, like board games.

For my family the board game was something we would gather around from time to time, usually a rainy weekend afternoon or one where it was so scorching hot outside that moving a playing piece around a board seemed like an appropriate level of energy output.  When most people think of board games, they think of the standard, Monopoly, Life, Clue, Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, Candyland, etc.  or at least I did.  Recently a friend of mine has been introducing me to new card games that play like board games and new board games that I had never heard of.  This got me wondering more about board games, and what games had been made from existing franchises and the problems associated with making one, so I asked a board game aficionado.

Josh Edwards runs a board game blog, Board Game Reviews By Josh, in which he has reviewed over 200 different board games!!  I asked him about the possibility of video games being ported or converted into board games, and vice versa.  I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised when he replied,

 “Recently we have seen several different popular video games turned into board games (World of Warcraft, Doom, Resident Evil and Gears of War all come to mind).  I think that the biggest hurdle in converting a board game to a video game is that, though both are games and often appeal to a similar audience, they are truly different forms of entertainment, and neither one can be directly ported to the other.   However, there was one important factor in all of these conversions – they did not try to directly reproduce the video game.   Instead, they attempted to make a quality board game that would feel thematically similar to the video game.”

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Well then what about a board game converted to a video game?

“I think that if you were to take a board game and make a video game based off of it, then you would need to do something similar.”

I think Josh and I can agree that any way you try to use an existing world or universe in another medium; you must stay true thematically and honor the original content while still creating a good product for the medium which you are working in.

Looking at all the games that Josh has reviewed, it also became clear to me that there is an immense amount of artwork generated in the board game industry, as well as an endless supply of inspiration for artists.  Using a board game as a template is a fantastic way to give an artist structure around which to create.  That is just what one artist did when he made a Red Dead Redemption themed Monopoly.  Many games are card based and are full of great illustrations by artists from all over, so maybe next time all its raining or its too hot out, instead of playing your favorite video game maybe you will play a board game based on your favorite game.

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The Gnomon Workshop proudly welcomes senior concept artist Joe Peterson to our ever growing tutorial library. In his debut release Mechanical Character Design, Joe demonstrates the tools and techniques he uses daily in production to design the amazing mechanical characters he is known for. Read the Press Release

This title is available as a digital download and is also featured in our training subscription plans.

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With so much static between the film industry and the visual effects industry these days, more and more conversations pop up about the part that VFX play in films.  Do movies need visual effects?  The short answer is yes.

Going to the cinema to see a film used to be about telling stories and entertaining the audience, because film makers are story tellers and story tellers just want their stories heard or seen.  Even in the beginning the cinema was a place that people saw the impossible, a train coming right at them surely going to come through the screen and into the cinema smashing the chairs, but it didn’t   As the film industry has evolved so have the special effects to go with it.  Visual effects are a means of helping a director better tell their story.  Sometimes the help needed is extreme, like in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button or Life of Pi, and sometimes it is more subtle, like Forrest Gump and Amelie.

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Now statistically less people are going to the cinema, but movies are still made, and there are definitely still people going to watch.  With flat screen TVs in most homes and families investing in small home theater systems, the allure of the cinema becomes less.  That is not to say that seeing films on the big screen with the large theater surround sound system doesn’t have its merits, because it does.  However I feel that with the rise of home entertainment and viewing of films at home means that the film’s that make the best use of large screens and big sound systems; tend to be ones with very large VFX budgets.  It is also these movies that do the best in the box office sales.  This is the same box office sales that have become the measuring stick for whether not a movie is successful.  With all the friction between VFX and film studios, I am sure there are film executives who would like to say that visual effects are not needed to make a good profitable film, however, if using the all-time box office sales is any indication, then VFX play a very large part in the success of a film.  Going through that list of top box office sales, I notice two things; one that you must go a fair way down the list before you find a film you think might not be heavy with visual effects, but secondly many of the top films use VFX masterfully to help tell great stories.

As 3D visual effects are conceived and executed by artists, they use many methods for speeding up their work, but their is no getting around the fact that for good VFX it takes new technology, talented artists, and time to complete.  Visual effects artists are talented individuals all working together to help a director visualize their story.  A harmonious partnership between film studio and VFX studio creates great storytelling, and fantastic movie going experiences for all.  In order to smooth the relationship between the industries, there will have to be changes and compromises made.  A couple years ago the Visual Effects Society wrote an open letter about the problems that were facing the industry as a whole, and more recently another open letter was written by a VFX artist, but to Ang Lee.    There is no doubt in my mind that visual effects are a major part of the television and film business and art form, and will continue to be for many years to come.  Hopefully like the actors, sound engineers, electricians, etc, the visual effects artists will have the same rights and privileges of those other careers within the film industry.

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What are hobbies?  Many of us may remember them as the way we got into this industry.  Drawing, painting, sculpting, photography, all these things started out as activities we did in our leisure time solely for the pleasure.  Then we found out our hobbies could become our careers, but many people then forgot to get new hobbies.  Hobbies are important, and they help give back to your career through inspiration and experience.

Company Encouraged Hobby

I was interviewing for my second job in the 3D Industry when I was asked, what I thought was, an unexpected question.

“Besides 3D animation and Modeling, what other interests and activities do you have or participate in?  Do you have any hobbies you would care to share?”

I was caught off guard but answered honestly that,

“Yes I enjoy playing soccer and guitar, and have recently become a fan of trying all different kinds of craft brewery beers.”

My future employers were happy to hear that I engaged in extracurricular activities, because to them it meant I had more interests and more background from which to draw inspiration from for my work.  The company itself would also arrange for people within the company who had certain skill sets to give workshops and teach the rest of us those skills.  We learned some watercolor techniques, as well as an introduction to welding, which both those experiences then fed back into work created later.  The best companies know that providing employees ample personal time for their own projects and hobbies is beneficial to the company itself.

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What kinds of Hobbies?

A hobby by definition should be something you enjoy doing.  Though that doesn’t mean that you cannot try to pickup hobbies that you think will also lend advantages to your career.  I have talked before about animators taking acting classes, but as a hobby an animator may join a local theater group.  Those experiences on stage will only help the animator in portraying a performance of a character on the screen.

There are many people who enjoy working on old cars and fixing them up or maybe just taking apart transmissions and putting them back together again is something you are interested in.  Working on mechanical repairs is great hands on experience for 3D modelers, especially hard surface modelers.  There are also things like woodworking which work well as a hobby for a 3D modeler.  Some woodworkers even use 3D software to plan their builds and cutlists.

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Some hobbies may seem harder to get into, but there are always websites and classes that can be looked at and taken in order to help you get started.  For instance, perhaps you want a hobby as well as a fairly low maintenance pet?  If so then maybe starting an aquarium is something you would be interested in.  I wouldn’t be surprised if a few more Pixar artists got aquariums while working on Finding Nemo.

image Source: doblu.com

While it is beneficial to have hobbies that can be related in some fashion, to your career, I believe it is most important to make sure it involves a different environment.  If you spend most of your work day behind a computer screen then a hobby that is also behind a computer screen is not as beneficial.  Try to find something that perhaps gets you outside or working face to face with people as opposed to through the computer.  Hobbies can be a great way to relax and inspire future creations as well as offering stress release.

Image Source: Photo by Daniel Fleming

There is an old adage in the design industry that there are three sliding factors that are involved with producing work, but you can only give the client two.  The work can be done quickly, with high quality, and or a low cost.  This means that a client can ask for a piece of work to be high quality and have a rapid production schedule, but then the price must increase.  This formula can be switched around as long as you only keep two of the three.  A low cost, high quality product will not be done as quickly, etc.  This is a method for helping artists maintain sanity as well as good business sense.  There are many ways that artists can adjust their workflows to increase speed and maintain flexibility to account for inevitable client or art director changes that will be requested, but one of the most basic is learning keyboard shortcuts for software.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are an essential part of speeding up an artist’s workflow.  There are many tutorials out there where part of what is stressed is learning your keyboard shortcuts.  Most software these days comes with default keyboard shortcuts (also known as hot keys), and even better is the ability to completely customize your shortcuts.  Software like Adobe Photoshop and Autodesk 3ds Max offer PDFs or websites of all the shortcuts as well as ways to customize your own shortcuts.  It is obviously a pretty popular topic of discussion as there is an entire website dedicated to shortcut keys.  There is also free software for generating your own keystrokes for general use and not necessarily in a particular software.

Customizable keyboard shortcuts are perfect for VFX and 3D animation industries since there are so many different jobs and tasks that are completed with the same software.  With shortcut keys and custom work spaces  one artist may use certain tools all the time, while another will use different tools more often. The ability to be able to tailor your work space to the type of work you create helps improve quality and efficiency.

A large part of deciding what keyboard shortcuts to use is determined by the work you do.  Artists who are constantly using a tablet and stylus will only have one hand on the keyboard, which means they want their hot keys to be one handed as much as possible, while also using the buttons built into the tablet.  There are also plenty of times when artists will use just a regular mouse with the keyboard.
 

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Adobe Photoshop

Within Photoshop you can create actions, which are like scripts, which can then also be given a keyboard shortcut.  Many concept artists make a script that simply flips the canvas horizontally to check progress, and that way with a easy key stroke that process happens.

Some of my favorite Photoshop Shortcuts:

Ctrl + Shift + C = Copy Merge – Merges all visible layers onto the clipboard to be pasted.
[  or  ] to adjust brush size down or up
Shift  + [  or Shift  + ] to adjust brush hardness.
(with layer selected) hold alt while clicking the trash can to delete layer without double checking if you are sure you want to delete layer.
Shift  + alt + + or – cycles through blending modes with tools that use them.

And last but far from least, everyone’s old favorite friend
Ctrl + Z – Undo
Ctrl + alt + Z – Step backward in history
Ctrl + shift + Z – Step forward in history

Autodesk 3ds Max

3ds max is immensely customizable from the quad menus, to hot keys and script writing an artist can adjust the work space to their liking.

Some of my favorite, perhaps lesser known, 3ds Max shortcuts:

Right-click on any up and down setting slider, and it will set it to zero, or the lowest default.
Ctrl + alt then right-click on animation timeline to slide the end of timeline to either add more or make less
Ctrl + alt then left-click on animation timeline to slide the beginning of timeline to either add more or make less
Ctrl + alt then middle-click on animation timeline to slide the entire timeline to the left or right

Image Source: Image by Daniel Fleming

Shortcut keys over the long haul can save hours a week in production time.  That alone makes it worth it to at least learn a few basic ones, because if anything goes wrong you can always undo.  What are some of your favorite or most used shortcut key combos?

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