3D Art

BE INSPIRED BY 3D DIGITAL ART

Discover New Sci-Fi and Fantasy Worlds

DIRECT

Inspiration for 3D digital artists

Insightful interviews

Vibrant galleries and portfolios

Issue 19

July 2012

Premium Edition

3D

ArtD

ire

ct.c

om

Summer Galleries

Don Webster

Isidore koliavras

Models, Kit Bashing & Greebles

2

3D Art

BE INSPIRED BY 3D DIGITAL ART

Discover New Sci-Fi and Fantasy Worlds

Direct

Paul Bussey

Editor

paul@3dartdirect.com

Main cover art : “The Chamber Portrait” by Don Webster

Mickey Mills

Assistant Editor

mickey@3dartdirect.com

Brian Christensen

Article Writer

brian@3dartdirect.com

Copyright © 2012 3D Art Direct. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means

electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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3

Editorial

Models, Kit Bashing and Greebles!

0404

CONTENTS

Summer Galleries

Brian Christensen

Suzi Amberson

Artur Rosa

Danny Gordon

Arthur Dorety

Junior Mclean

2828

Interview : Don Webster

“Vue is my central application that everything else feeds.

It is in many ways my movie set with Poser bringing in the

people, Modo bringing in the sets and

props, ZBrush in the makeup room with

detail touch ups and Blender provides

Interview : Isidore koliavras

“Many fans around the world can easily tell which image

is based on a 3d model and which is not. After a lot of

practicing I think I have managed to

eradicate as much as I can of the plas-

4444

0606

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4

DON WEBSTER

Editorial

The problem with virtual models can be that

they’re too perfect, too abstract, so how do you

overcome this?

Going back to Industrial Light and Magic’s (ILM) early

history may provide an answer. When they started out,

they had to innovate because the budget for the

original Star Wars movie was relatively small. So they

employed “Kit Bashing”, using pieces from hundreds of

plastic models to build the needed Star Destroyers, Y-

Wings and so on for the movie. The bare surfaces of the

base models were jammed with pieces of model kits and

even the odd plastic soldier – anything to break up the

flat planes. Allegedly, Industrial Light and Magic model-

makers originally created the term “greebles”. There’s

also an equivalent geeky sounding term banded about

“nurnie”

So “Greebles” were used to make physical models look

less bare. Model-makers, whether working with physical

models or virtual for that matter, run into the same

problem – and can employ the same solution. It’s

basically saying they fix the issue by

“gluing lots of junk to bare surfaces”.

One example of this is the original

Imperial Star Destroyer from Start Wards.

It was constructed from a plywood

frame and covered with sheet styrene.

Panel lines were cut into the sheet

styrene, but essentially that left the ship

looking extremely bare. Hundreds of

model kits were purchased and the

model department promptly took

pieces of the model kits and cut them

up and stuck them along with more

sheet styrene to the surfaces of the

ship. The ultimate effect was to make

the ship appear more believable to the

viewer through the addition of these

large areas of ancillary details. The

greebles themselves served no purpose

other than to fill space and individually

had no definite function to the design

of the ship, although later each

greeble was given a specific function

by either fans or technical illustrators for

fan guides.

Another example of greeble application was the

Battlestar Galactica model for the original 1970s series,

which featured on its hull pieces from a wide assortment

of kits, including Apollo orbiters, Saturn rocket boosters, F-

16 fighter jets, and various tanks.

What’s significant is not only that these provide realism by

adding detail or making things look rougher, but that

they add a sense of scale.

One of the biggest issues with looking at virtual models is

that there is nothing against which one can find scale.

The expert model maker is partly able to make their work

convincing by the use of “forced” proportion, achieved

using extra detail with those Greebles.

As time moved on, extra random detail for models

became a standard to gain that additional realism, and

not just for spacecraft. Remember Jurassic Park?

Dinosaur skin textures were lightly roughened with

computer- generated chaos to give them the

impalpable level of detail that characterizes real-world

images.

Models, Kit Bashing & Greebles

5

In 3D computer graphics,

greebles can be created

automatically by specific

software, in order to

avoid the time

consuming process of

manually creating large

numbers of precise,

custom geometry.

This can often be

tedious, and repetitive

work, and some consider

it a task best suited to

automatic, software

based procedural

generation, particularly if

a great degree of

control is unnecessary or

the greebles will not be

particularly large on screen. Most greeble generating

software works by sub-dividing the surface to be split into

smaller regions, adding some detail to each new surface,

and then recursively continuing this process on each new

surface to some specified level of detail.

Paul Bussey

Editor

paul@3dartdirect.com

buzzGreeble for modo

Greeble plugin for 3D Studio Max

Greeble plugin for Realsoft 3D

Greeble plugin for trueSpace

Greeble plugin for LightWave

Greeble Script for Blender

Greeble Script for Autodesk Maya

Plugins

6

3DA: We are honored to be joined by the very talented

Don Webster, a 3D artist of extraordinary skill. His diverse

gallery of images shows savvy techniques across a wide

variety of 3D applications. Welcome to 3D Art

Magazine.

DW: Thank you for having me participate.

3DA: Before we jump into the art let’s get to know the

artist. You’ve been working with images of some sort for

most of your career. According to your bio you were an

aerial surveillance officer in the 60s. Tell us what that

was like and how it prepared you for future art works.

DW: As a young Intelligence Officer stationed in

Frankfurt West Germany, I ran an imagery interpretation

group whose mission was to keep a watchful eye on

the movements of East German forces through the use

of aerial photography. This involved looking at very

large dual image film strips using a device to view these

in stereo. The ability to view things in 3D greatly aids in

figuring out what is going on, on the ground. Each

frame was about 10 by 20 inches and viewed on large

light tables with reels at both ends. Using film positives

was the typical surveillance activity for a group at a

Corp Headquarters supporting the G2 Intelligence

Officer who reported to the Commanding General of,

in my case, V Corp, 7th Army Europe. This was also the

days of U2 flights controlled directly out of Washington,

and something new in our area: SLAR, Side Looking

Airborne Radar. A long torpedo shaped device

INTERVIEW: CANYON OUTPOST

Don Webster has made a career around images

and digital technology. From his army officer days

as an aerial surveillance officer in the 60s to an ex-

ecutive management position at a technology

company in the 90s, he has built a diverse experi-

ence base uniquely suited to the field of 3D art.

Don’s love of period history spanning multiple gen-

erations is a pallet of inspiration for a gallery of dig-

ital art to be envied. From the streets of Rome and

the time of Emperors, to the battlefields of the

American Civil War, Don has an eye for period art

and uses a wide array of 3D tools to bring his vision

to life.

Enjoying his retirement in the lush hills of Virginia’s

Shenandoah Valley, Don blends his free time with

taking care of his beautiful home, traveling with his

wife of 34 years, Shirley, and working in his exquisite

studio creating digital art of the highest quality.

He is a long-time Mac user and uses Vue, Modo,

and Zbrush, along with several other software

packages as the primary tools of his handiwork.

Don Webster’s Home Page

http://www.websterandsonsstudio.com/

DON WEBSTER

7

attached to the side of, in our usage, Mohawk aircraft

that would fly alongside an area of interest while the

radar beamed out for miles watching movements.

Now you have to understand that I was a young married

officer stationed at a level that makes this more of a

Pentagon type day job with free weekends and time to

travel the roads of Europe in my 69 XKE. (Oh, to have her

back now.) The G2 is an intelligence section watching

not only what was going on but signs of new

technology. Back home we were putting men on the

moon using scientists that came from Germany, that

place where strange new weapons had been

developed, so with a world of history, castles and

Formula One racing at every turn it was a natural

response that I would buy my first real camera and then

include film processing. After several years in Europe, I

returned to the states to be discharged and ready to

start a new career in the visual world with my wife and

first son.

Those years gave me a chance to see things I had been

looking at in books at the library as a teenager and only

dreamed about. A texture of life, art, and an

appreciation for life that came after years of war for the

people I met there.

3DA: You also state you spent sometime in the 70s,

“Conceptualizing technologies.” Considering the times,

pre-PC and post energy crisis, it sounds like an exciting

project for a budding computer artist. What were some

of your technology concepts hits and misses? Has most

of your tech predictions come true?

DW: I joined a graphics company in Washington DC

and brought with me my photographic equipment,

35mm, 120 and 4x5 view cameras, studio lighting and

lab processing hardware. I liked having full control from

start to finish and I wasn't really interested in normal

commercial photography assignments you would get in

the city. I was more interested in using my systems and

processing to speed up what graphic artists in the studio

needed. This was a time when we were all watching Star

Wars and the compositing and motion cam work being

developed. Using film in the lab to create production

capabilities for graphics seemed so high tech at the

time.

That was until the day I saw my first multi projector slide

show. There were 15- 35mm projectors controlled by a

device that ran a power panel for each group of three.

With multiple projectors providing an orchestration of

light and sound all displayed on a very wide screen,

engrained my current love for extreme horizontals.

I couldn’t wait to get involved in this new technology. I

sold all my large format cameras, enlargers, and studio

lighting to purchase the

system I saw. It was my

first

experience

with the

rapidly

changing

OLD SOLDIER

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8

SUMMER GALLERIES

9

Brian Christensen lives and works in

Northern California. Is pretty much a self-

taught artist drawing things with pencil since

early childhood. He took some 3D modelling

classes in college and got hooked with

Terragen. LevitatedArt.com

Black holes are known as voracious eaters,

caring nothing for whatever is swallowed by

their gravity's appetite. This example shows a

low mass X-ray binary system which consists

of a class K star and a black hole, orbiting

near enough to each other that the black

hole is able to pull away the outer layers of

the star, forming an accretion disk of

superheated gas. The sole remaining planet

will be tortured by gravity until it is finally torn

to pieces. The star will eventually be

devoured in a burst of searing radiation which

bathes everything within several hundred

lightyears. Neither the star nor its orbiting

planet have long to live, eventually they will

both succumb to the irresistible oblivion that

awaits.

I've always been interested by black holes,

and always wanted to do a good depiction

of one. Finally, with some inspiration from Mark

Garlick, I sat down and started. This image

was painted far more than any others so far, I

felt it was the best way to get the feeling I

wanted, CG just wouldn't cut it here. I would

have to say i like the black hole itself the best,

the accretion disc turned out well. I got a lot

of positive feedback on this image, on

DeviantArt I think it got more comments than

everything else I've posted combined. It's

probably my best reviewed image to date.

Irresistible Oblivion

10

Massive Lei Gong rises in the distance, with 6 members of it's extensive family of moons visible, over the Tratung

Mountains in this view from the moon Zhun-Ti.

The monks of the Jaffei Order live far above the forest and it's inhabitants, both literally and figuratively. Living an

ascetic existence amid the freezing mountaintops, they continue their Order's reason for existence; their attempt to

fulfill the Prophecy of Clarke. Found in the holy book "The Sky's Backside" written by the prophet Clarke millennia ago,

the Prophecy states that when all 9 billion names of God have been calculated and printed into physical existence, it

will reverse Hubble's constant, causing all of spacetime to slow and then stop it's expansion and begin it's contraction

into an eventual singularity, essentially triggering the end of this universe and the creation of the next.

The monks have strung together a network of sublight transmitters to contact their brethren on other worlds in order to

assemble the holy List in real time. This small, unassuming temple here on on Zhun-Ti is a permutation generator that

generates the many possible combinations of letters that make up of the names of God, which are then sent to

through the transmitter to a printing station, to be printed out on prayer flags and hung from the Final Stupa. When all 9

billion prayer flags have been hung, the monks will have, in effect, destroyed the universe, all in the names of God.

This was inspired by the short story "The 9 Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke, which always been one of my

favorites. I just wanted to reimagine it in a different setting, far in the future, since I've always been fascinated by the

effect time has on culture and civilizations. In the past I've usually relied on a single render for a base, in this case I had

to use multiple renders and stitch them together, it worked better than I expected, and I have used this technique

again already (sort of). I think I like the sense of grandeur in this image, the scope of the view, with the planet rising in

the background it lends the whole image a sense of majesty. This image garnered a decent bit of attention, I guess

that just proves the timelessness of Clarke's story.

SUMMER GALLERIES

In the Names of God

11

In the dusty depths of the Midnight Nebula, an unusual craft

appears. A solar sail, which by it's worn appearance appears

to have been drifting for some time, slowly nears the gas giant

Vidar. When there is no reply, two armed patrol ships from the

Collective naval base on the moon Thrym are dispatched to

investigate. By the direction it was travelling the solar sail

seemed to have come from the nearest habitated worlds,

orbiting the star Atea, 16 light years away. This could mean

trouble, since there has been little contact with the New Polys

since the war began there.

The two patrol ships hail the craft in all known languages, but

there is still silence. After thoroughly scanning it for any signs of

life, ambiguous signals prompt them to carefully tow it back to

port. Once in port, the craft is opened and found to contain

27 passengers, all in cryosleep. It takes months to figure out

how to bring the corpsicles back to life, but eventually it was

accomplished with the loss of only one life. When the captain

of the solar sail finally is given a chance to tell his story, it is a

good one;

The Atean system had been simmering with tensions between

the different factions for years, but recently it had flared into a

brutal hot war. Both sides had poured resources into

developing weapons, and their success had been frightening.

Nuclear weapons had long ago become the standard

warhead for ship to ship missles, but now they had been

repurposed to planetary bombardment of civilian areas.

Advanced physics had been bent toward a devastating

purpose, the quick and painful annihilation of the enemy.

Viruses had been developed, both biological and

technological, and let loose into the planetary net. These

viruses had been the favorite weapon of one nasty faction of

enemy, the captain said, shaking his head slowly. Artificial

Intelligence had been considered the cutting edge of

technology before the war had exploded. Now this AI tech had been incorporated into the viruses programming with particularly

malicious results. Whole colonies had been wiped out. Once infected, humans with net implants, a common accessory for

communication and data access, would be under the control of the virus, in effect creating armies of mindless robots or zombies -

but zombies trapped inside their own head; as the host carrier remained aware and conscious. These carriers, once infected, would

work to achieve the goals set up in the virus' programming, but would do so without alerting anyone to their infection by using the

hosts bodies own memories and personalities. What this meant among civilians was a bloodbath as they were usually simply directed

to eliminate their neighbors, family and friends. This was seen as such a vicious method of killing that public opinion quickly turned

against the virus creators. But for the majority it was too late; their system was turning into a killing ground of crisped moons and

glittering debris fields where habitats used to orbit. These solar sail refugees had struck out on a last ditch effort to escape, by

building a simple craft like a solar sail they had avoided attracting the attention that the buying or stealing of, say, a couple of

Alcubierre warp drives would have done. They constructed a laser station on a cold splinter of rock far on the edges of the system,

and were lucky enough to set off without attracting more attention than a lone patrol ship pilot with a slow trigger finger. After a

long, cold, silent voyage, they had arrived here, at the edge of Collective space.

Once this story set in, the Collective promised to begin caring for any wounded or sick, and they set about doing just that. They had

state of the art medical facilities compared to what the refugees had had access to before fleeing. After the initial bio exams and

treatment for cryosickness, the passengers were brought one at a time into a opalescent room to have their implants scanned and

cleaned of any traces of viruses. When the eighth passenger walked into the room and came within range of the scanners a tiny bit

of compressed code jumped silently out of her head and into the machines lining the walls, unnoticed by human or machine.....

Midnight Voyage

SUMMER GALLERIES

12

SUMMER GALLERIES

In the Names of God

Suzi Amberson currently resides in sunny Phoenix, Az. Suzi realized she was not

following her intended path she took a huge leap of faith and left the Insurance

business to pursue her passion for creating 3D art.

Suzi is a self-taught artist. starting out with Poser 6 back in 2007. Her CG toolbox has

expanded over the past few years and now includes Poser Pro 2012, Photoshop CS5

Extended, a Wacom Intuos 4 tablet, Marvelous Designer 2, Hexagon and Bryce as her

tools of choice.

She entered her first official art contest in 2009 over on the Daz3D website. The

challenge was to create an image in the spirit of infamous fantasy artist, Frank

Frazetta. The final judging was conducted by Frank Frazetta Jr. One of her entries took

third place and fueled her desire to pursue 3D art as she sought to add interest and

depth to her spectacular body of work. http://kachinadoll.deviantart.com/

Suzi Amberson

3DAD: What inspired you to create these images?

SA: The biggest inspiration for both my Steampunk Voyager and Steampunk Iron Butterfly images was the

incredible 110.1 Suit created by AlphaSeed over on Runtime DNA http://www.runtimedna.com/110.1.html

As soon as I spotted the suit and Metal textures the images just popped into my head. I love all things

Steampunk and thought it would be fun to create images that blend Steampunk and Magical elements

together. I was so inspired, the images pretty much created themselves. My Ziegfeld Phoenix fire image is

part of a set of images I have been working on. I am so fascinated by the old Ziegfeld Follies of the 1930's

and have been creating images with an a more modern updated feel to them. I love the elaborate head

pieces and outfits they wore and wanted to create outfits from a different perspective and more modern

approach.

3DAD: What did you learn or improve upon during the creation of these pieces?

SA: I think the greatest challenge with all three images was to create the illusion of flight or movement. It's

difficult to create this feeling with a static image and I learned a great deal when posing my characters. I

felt more extreme poses did a better job to capture the feeling that the characters were in motion. Painting

the hair in more unusual styles and giving it a windblown look really helped to capture this feeling. Another

obstacle I encountered was to achieve the feeling of depth. Since the main focus of the image was the

character, it was important to use shadow and light effectively to achieve some depth to the images. I

created all new lights that were strategically placed to help focus the viewers eye to the important aspects

of the image.

3DAD: What do you like best about these images?

SA: My favourite aspect of all three images is the unusual magical feel they have. I love fantasy images

and try to blend in magical elements to create a more unusual look to them. My goal was to create

something that never existed before and to give the images a new and different look. I also like to add a lot

of different textures and colors to help create the illusion of depth. I want the viewer to be drawn to the

image and character and by using many different colors and textures they have a lot of interesting things to

look at.

3DAD: What positive or constructive feedback did you get for these images after posting them?

SA: I received quite a bit of positive feedback for all three of my images. People seemed to enjoy the

colors and textures I used as well as the way the images were composed. I especially received good

feedback for my Steampunk Voyager image. They liked how I had blended the Steampunk and Magical

elements together as if the character was traveling through time and space.

13

STEAMPUNK VOYAGER

SUMMER GALLERIES

14

STEAMPUNK VOYAGER

STEAMPUNK IRON BUTTERFLY

ZIEGFELD GIRL III - PHOENIX FIRE

15

Alignment of celestial bodies is something that has inspired and

fascinated people for thousands of years. Most of these

alignments are not visible to the naked eye so I thought it

would be kind of nice to have a place from where a great

alignment would be visible.

I made this image mostly reusing assets that I had created for

previous images but there was one detail where I tried to

improve: a trail of footprints on the sand. That was made with a

mix of procedural materials painted on the sand, directly in

Vue's terrain editor.

My favourite aspect of this image is imagining I'm that

character, standing there, seeing that first hand...

I learned some really interesting things concerning the

particular physics of planetary systems and eclipses with the

feedback I gained!

Artur Rosa hails from Portugal. His background is originally engineering, but found a passion

for 3D digital art since 2006. We’ve all probably heard of SimCity—a classic 3D game that

piqued his interest and led him eventually to using E-on’s Vue software. He’s created a unique

portfolio with some great symbolism and sense of wonder in many of his pieces. http://

arthurblue.deviantart.com/gallery/

ALIGNMENT

SUMMER GALLERIES

16

ARCHIPELAGO 27

CTHAEH

17

SUMMER GALLERIES

I love to depict human colonies in distant worlds. In this case I

wanted to show a way for people to live in harmony with nature.

The houses I made for this image are integrated with the rocks

from the landscape. Without a "footprint" on the land itself, those

houses are fully integrated with the scenery.

I'm not good at modelling, it's one of my many weaknesses, so

during the making of this image I learned a bit more about

modelling.

My favourite detail here is how the sun hits the water. That was an

effect I wanted to achieve since the beginning and I think it

turned out fine (not 100% what I wanted but still fine).

Whenever I use DOF (depth of focus) in my images, like in this one,

I always get conflicting comments. Some people love it, some

people hate it. This image was no exception to this rule. I find that

interesting but I'm not quite sure what to make of it.

I recently read a great fantasy book by Patrick Rothfuss,

"Wise Man's Fear". It's a very visual book, in the sense

that the author spends a considerable amount of time

describing the places where action takes place. There

was one particular chapter about a character named

Cthaeh, a kind of an oracle (but much more), hiding in

a tree in a clearing of a forest. The author also

describes how the path seems to lead to the tree but

then it deviates from it. I tried to depict the essence of

the scene in my image. Not all details are the same; for

example, in the book the character walking along the

path is naked but I chose to depict him instead with the

looks that he has throughout all the other chapters of the book.

The light/shadow in the scene is made by the clouds. I learned a bit more on how to manipulate

clouds to obtain that effect. I also learned a lot about how to make paths in Vue using splines, a new

feature in the software.

I really like the tree and also the light/shadow effect here.

From the feedback on the image, it was really nice to see

comments from people that also read the book, how they

SUMMER GALLERIES

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18

RED RIDING HOOD—WHO’S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD WOLF RED RIDING HOOD—WHO’S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD WOLF

IISIDORESIDORE KOLIAVRASKOLIAVRAS

19

3DA: With Hollywood’s love affair with superheroes it’s no

surprise there’s a big proliferation in superhero and comic

book art. Many of today’s young digital artists are turning

to 3D packages like Poser to build their own unique set of

super men and women. We are joined by one such artist

today, graphic designer Isidore koliavras, better known

as Isikol to his Deviant Art fan base. Welcome to 3D Art

direct.

ISI: Thank you so much for the invitation. I really

appreciate the opportunity to introduce a new way in

creating/directing comic stories, the way only a 3d

application can offer.

3DA: Share with us how you got into digital art. Did you

always want to be a commercial artist?

ISI: Honestly, no. I always wanted to draw comic book

superheroes but my daily job as a visual communication

designer and my family state (married with 2 children)

wasn't leaving me free time to restart drawing them. But

a 3d application called Poser helped me so much,

allowing me a return to digital drawing.

3DA: How did your passion for comic book and

superhero art take off?

ISI: That happened really early, at the age of 5 to be

exact. When on a trip to an island I saw one of the

earliest publications of Spiderman at the airport. And that

was it, I was drawing superheroes all day long until the

age of 17. That was when I stopped.

3DA: What has been your greatest success in your

superhero artworks?

ISI: That is my ability to “hide” the fact that what you see

is a 3d image. Many fans around the world can easily tell

which image is based on a 3d model and which is not.

After a lot of practicing I think I have managed to

eradicate as much as I can

of the plastic look and

feel of a 3d

model.

3DA: Your

characters

are visually

Isidore koliavras is a working

graphic designer. He lives in

Athens, Greece and with a life-

long passion for comic book

heroes has honed his digital art

skill to creating and designing

his own superhero characters,

as well as putting his own touch

to classic Superheroes.

Using Poser and Photoshop as

his primary tools, Isidore has

created a vast gallery of his

own creations that could stand

alongside some of the most

well-known characters of the

age. In addition, he has paid

homage and put his own twist

on some more well-known Su-

perheroes, including his favor-

ite, Superman, Batman, Spider-

man and several others.

He hopes to someday ply his

skill with one of the big comic

book art houses.

BLACKMOON

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20 3D Art Direct : Be Inspired By Digital Art Issue#19

Black Moon by Isidore koliavras