Worth Reading

# 1 06-10-2008 , 06:11 PM

Lead Modeler - Framestore
Join Date: Feb 2003

Location: UK

Posts: 6,287

Hey Guys n Gals

I saw this interview over on 3d total and thought it was worth its weight in gold as it was a nice eyeopener for the noobs and the dudes who want to get in the industry. He hits the nail on the head on the second page for sure!!

https://www.3dtotal.com/team/intervie...s_Busby_01.asp

take it on board
Jay

Quote

# 2 06-10-2008 , 06:21 PM

Moderator
Join Date: May 2003

Location: London

Posts: 1,001

Bang on.
Nice article Jay, I agree that CGI techniques makes it easy for people to focus on the wrong skills first, bypassing all the foundation skills needed.

Quote

# 3 06-10-2008 , 06:46 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2007

Location: IL

Posts: 738

Thanks, great article! Amazing work, nice site as well...
It amazes me how many there are I haven't even heard of.
Benny

When in doubt, delete history and freeze transformations.

My latest snake game
(Requires DirectX9 SDK and Framework)

Quote

# 4 06-10-2008 , 06:58 PM

Lead Modeler - Framestore
Join Date: Feb 2003

Location: UK

Posts: 6,287

Laurie

Yeah absolutely Im in total agreement. Theres way too much of people getting lost on the latest fad because its cool and yet fall at the first hurdle when it comes to the basics, zbrush aside, one of the biggest ones is rendering, the old 'lets use fg and GI, even though I dont have a clue about the basic 3 point light set up'!! yeeehaaaa!!

..... that boils my chicken every time.

Benny K: no probs dude, theres lots to be found over there as well, though I dont feel the community in the forums is as helpful as here. The industry news is always available there and its updated quite regularly too, more so than CGS or CG Channel

cheers
Jay

Quote

# 5 06-10-2008 , 07:17 PM

Moderator
Join Date: May 2003

Location: London

Posts: 1,001

Lighting is horrible for that, i dont even know how to use FG and GI properly and ive been doing maya for 6 -7 years. When i light i try and match the imagery, drawn or photographic which is suitable for my work.

What do i want to stand out, how far away is it from camera, where will the most appealing 1,2,3 shadows go.

I find Gi confuses the essence of the asthetic goal, and leaves the things that should be decided down to automation.

Oh lets rant!!!!

Design is my other biggy, often people model somthing without having a goal or end product in mind. This makes the process aimless and much time is spent on ambiguous tinkering.

People should consider so much more, the purpose of an object and emotion or mood of a character or scene.

Like with characters, silhouette is the number one biggy, biggy biggy and is constantly looked over.

... cue next rant, get it out your system guys user added image

Quote

# 6 07-10-2008 , 03:05 AM

Moderator
Join Date: May 2005

Location: Manchester Uk

Posts: 6,300

Yeah lighting, its like. one person "I want a good lighting set up" Person 2 "ohh just get MR on and a HDR in there" Person 1 "ohh yeah it looks so cooooool, lots of reflections and blown out lighting, cool cool cool!!!"

I agree with him with Z, now theres nothing wrong with using just Z then making a mesh form that IF you know what your doing. But you need to know what your doing.

Suppose the easy way's the easy way even though its not the best.

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

Quote

# 7 07-10-2008 , 06:23 AM

Super Moderator
Join Date: Dec 2006

Location: South FL

Posts: 3,522

Originally posted by Jay

Benny K: no probs dude, theres lots to be found over there as well, though I dont feel the community in the forums is as helpful as here.
Jay

Originally Posted by

I second that.

I think Zbrush caught like a brush fire because it allowed people who couldn't or had a lot of difficulty modeling organics to really start pumping them out, especially in the online world where for some people a lot of 'views' is whats important, so I'm not surprised when I see the stereotypical "big veiny guy + big gun" or the general "look what I can do" stuff. As he said, its the lens flare effect, cool factor = imitation, and the fundamentals aren't cool and like most things its a big popularity contest. If anything Zbrush should be the icing and not the cake itself.

I think GI and FG have their places, nice clean renders but for mood lighting, volumetric effects etc no, I say take a traditional approach, for control's sake. And I agree with gster, HDRI (just like physical sky) isn't a cure all (it has its place but I think its abused lol), personally I'm not a fan, I've seen many a cell phone renders that would've been better off with a studio setup use that same tired kitchen HDRI, you'd think for a technique so popular people would start making their own :s

Wow ok thats a lot, shutting up now lol
:blush:

- Genny
__________________
::|| My CG Blog ||::
::|| My Maya FAQ ||::

Quote

# 8 07-10-2008 , 02:51 PM

Lead Modeler - Framestore
Join Date: Feb 2003

Location: UK

Posts: 6,287

Yeah I agree it should be the icing for the cake. I recall a Zbrush rep saying that zbrush is more a complimentary piece of kit to other software, and that it fits right in with any work flow, which essentially is right - same as Icing. I mean its great to do nice work in ZB by itself as well as take it into say Maya but I feel the flexibility of the software is shortened whereas taking dis maps and models into another app really expands the artists pallette even more

Another thing with dudes using zb or mb is the fact that they flood the damn meshes too soon with too many polys, they dont build up the form in a layered style, Ive seen it here countless times, the models look lumpy because brush pressure is too high coupled with too many polys.

Jay

Quote

# 9 07-10-2008 , 11:43 PM

Moderator
Join Date: May 2005

Location: Manchester Uk

Posts: 6,300

Yeah Jay, the problem is the temptations there, bang it up to level 6 and go for it as its easier and faster, though the proper route is to build it up level by level.

Another one that gets me is UV mapping, the fundermentals are really needed there as well as a lot of time to get it right, yep theres software that can map for you, or do pelting or even not bother with UV's at all but you still need to know what the things doing behind the scenes to get the best of it.

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

Quote

# 10 08-10-2008 , 01:00 AM

Lead Modeler - Framestore
Join Date: Feb 2003

Location: UK

Posts: 6,287

Yeah ya cant beat a good 'hand job' when it comes to uv's. Automatically doing it and AUV tiles are fine for a quick one if its rush job, but ya cant beat doing it by hand

Jay

Quote

Worth Reading

Posting Rules Forum Rules

Similar Threads

Topics

Free Courses

Full Courses

VFX News