3d

Insurance Map Cover Remake by Fake Studio

abduzeedo — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 05:02:47 +0000

Fake Studio worked with a few old maps covers made by The Sanborn Maps Co. edited at the beginning of the twelve century. They found those maps and fell in love with those type compositions so they decided to remake one of this old covers using 3D modern technics.

Fake Studio is a design, illustration and motion graphics production company, located in Barcelona, Spain. Check out more of their work on http://www.fakestudio.tv

Original Composition

Process

Final Composition

Detail

For more information visit http://www.fakestudio.tv/fake/

About the author

Abduzeedo is a blog about design. There are all sorts of articles for those who want to look for inspiration. Also you will find very useful tutorials for the most used applications out there, with a special selection of Photoshop Tutorials and Illustrator Tutorials. You can get in follow us via Twitter at @abduzeedo

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Amazing 3D Works by Mikael Eidenberg

AoiroStudio — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:17:26 +0000

Mikael Eidenberg a self taught Graphic designer and 3d artist from Sweden. Through the years he had the pleasure to work with agencies such as: Forsman & Bodenfors, DDB, King, Lowe Brindfors, Ogilvy, Akestam Holst, Scholtz & Friends & many others with both swedish and international brands. I truly enjoyed his 3D work, it's very detailed the lighting is just simply superb.

For more information on Mikael Eidenberg, check out more of this work on MikaelEidenberg.se or follow him on Twitter @meidenberg.

Video

About the author

My name's François Hoang and my alias's Aoiro Studio. I am a self-taught freelance graphic designer from Montreal, Canada. I've been designing for the last 4 years and really have a huge passion for creative work that makes a difference in our world. If you wanna requests some posts; I can be found on Twitter or feel free to contact me.

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Inside the work of Lightshock

paul0v2 — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:41:54 +0000

Joao Ferraz aka Lightshock is a Brazilian designer, illustrator, and art director specialized in 3D and publicity campaigns. In this post he will talk a bit about each of his works and give you some insights on how things got done. His work is absolutely amazing and precise so take a look and enjoy!

For more from Joao visit lightshock.com.br

Robot Girl

This job was definitely a big challenge for our work. It got done in about 15 days and the biggest challenge was to make the robot look sensual and modern but not vulgar.

WWF Three

This was one of my first publicity jobs as an art director. This work was awarded in Cannes and opened a lot the doors from DM9 to my studio. The story behind it is very curious. I had just got married, on my way to the honey moon in Buenos Aires when I got contacted by DM9 about this job saying that I was approved and I had a week to get it done. It was crazy since I didn't have a laptop or neither could I cancel the trip. I ended up buying a laptop and spending half of my honeymoon working and barely slept for 4 days.

BGourmet Copan

This was a great project, took us 18 days of hard work and the result was great.

BGourmet Recife

On this one we were ready for it, and it was a lot of fun working with all the differente characters that were inspired by Master Vitalino

Confea

This is a project for the government in which the agency Agnelo is responsive for it. It's a long term project on the Quad illustrations, there's a forum where people give their opinion on the cities and how we should plan them. We take these ideas as a briefing and come up with the illustrations. Which means that while people are giving out opinions the city will take it's shape and this will soon be released. The project can be seen at http://www.cidadecolaborativaconfea.com.br/

Estadao Numeros

This was a simple take on designing a character in 3D.

F1 Phillips

We got this job after we did the Indycar in Sao Paulo. We illustrated a F1 car for Philips. The curious fact is that a photo was actually used for the car since it would be extremelly hard to make that into 3d we used a Canon Mark II and got the job done.

Honda Flex

This was done for DM9 presenting the new Flex motors for Honda motocycles.

Indycar 2010

This was a great challenge, we had 15 days to illustrate the indy cars and the scenery wasn't very easy to create.

Intel Guitar

Another job done for DM9 in which we illustrated virtual instruments to be used in an increased reality. It was very fun to work on this and we love the result. More info at http://www.intelmusica.com.br/

AMBEV Cans

This job was done for MPM Agency. Cans of Ambev illustrated in 3D different sayings for Ambev Trainees. The biggest challenge was to redesign each can design exactly how the real one is.

Speedy

This is an image from a campaign we did for Speedy. Very simple and straight forward.

Subzero

Art produced for a hotsite release of a beer called Sub Zero da Antartica.

Zeppelin

This was a very cool project, that I helped the agency Superludico get done.

Tok&Stok

This was one of the most challenging campaigns we have done in Quad studio. We were approached to create a room full of elements with a single texture and that's how this project was born, the mess represents the fact that they don't have any tok&stock furniture to organize things.

Tok&Stok

Later on we got invited to work for them again and the challenge was even bigger, this time all the objects had to look real and organized. Each image has over 200 objects that took hours and hours of rendering.

About the author

Hi there! I'm Paulo Canabarro, 26 year old web designer - paulocanabarro.com I'm from Brazil currently living and working out of Providence RI, USA. I'm truly passionate about design of all kinds, finding and sharing inspiration here has become part of my life. If you like to know more about me or get in touch visit my website paulocanabarro.com Stock me at Twitter and Dribbble

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Easy 3D Globe in Photoshop

abduzeedo — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 05:57:25 +0000

A few weeks ago a friend of mine wanted to know how to create a sort of 3D globe effect using Photoshop. I didn't know how to do that but I got really intrigued with that, so I decided to give it a try. I knew that the Spherize would work in this case but didn't know how.

So in this tutorial I will show you how to create a nice 3D globe in Photoshop using basic tools and the Spherize filter. This whole tutorial won't take more than 30 minutes but the technique is really useful especially for icons and logos.

Step 1

Open Photoshop and then with the Rectangle Tool (U) create a rectangle, then start duplicating it until you get 7 columns. Use the Distribute Horizontal Centers to make the distances the same. After that duplicate those 7 rectangles and rotate them to create a grid.

Step 2

With the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) create a circle selection like the one I did in the image below.

Step 3

Go to Filter>Distort>Spherize. Use 100% for the Amount and Normal for the Mode.

Step 4

Cut the selection and paste it in order to get the front face of the globe.

Step 5

Go to Layer>Layer Styles>Gradient Overlay. Apply a gradient from dark red to light blue in linear mode. You can try with Radial as well.

Step 6

Duplicate the layer and rotate it 45º Also change the gradient colors to light red on top and dark blue at the bottom. This will create a really nice 3D effect and it's super simple.

Step 7

Select the background layer and go to Layer>Layer Styles>Gradient Overlay. Use (#aa616b) and (#2c354d) for the colors, Radial for the Style and 140% for the Scale. Position the center of the gradient a little bit on top of the center of the globe. To do that just click and hold to move the gradient position while you are in the Gradient Overlay properties.

Step 8

Select the two globe layers and duplicate them. After that go to Layer>Merge Layers. You will have one layer with the globe. Go to Layer>Layer Styles>Color Overlay. Use black for the color. After that go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 15 for the radius. Then just resize it and change the opacity to 20%. to create a nice shadow effect.

Step 9

Select the front face of the globe and edit the Layer Styles. Click then on Inner Shadow and use white for the color, Color Dodge for the Blend Mode at 60% Opacity. Also change the Angle to 100%, Distance to 3 pixesl and Size to 7 pixels.

Step 10

After the Inner Shadow you will get a nice light effect in your globe.

Step 11

Select all layers and duplicate them. After that go to Layer>Merge Layers to have one layer with all the image merged. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 20 pixels for the Radius.

Step 12

Change the Blend Mode to Overlay and you will get a really nice light effect.

Conclusion

Now just add the text you want and also you can apply a texture on top. I am using a scanline pattern I created. The whole idea of this tutorial was showing how to create a nice 3D globe using only Photoshop, it's a nice technique for logos and icons and it's super simple to achieve.

Download the Photoshop File

Click here to download the Photoshop file used for this tutorial

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3D World of Stuart Wade

paul0v2 — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 20:30:16 +0000

Stuart is a designer and visual communicator that has an awesome kick for 3D typography and experiments. The details on his works are absolutely amazing. Check them out!

For more from Stuart visit www.stuartdwade.com

About the author

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Vintage 3D Typography in Photoshop with Repoussé

abduzeedo — Mon, 23 May 2011 06:07:08 +0000

Sunday is the day to play with Photoshop and try some new ideas. As usual I went through some books and Web sites to find some inspiration. I am still addicted to the Handy Book of Artistic Printing, it's a must have book for some old style print references. I got some ideas and also found this amazing image from Alex Beltechi on Dribbble called Twisting in the Wind. Then I new the effect I wanted to know how to create in Photoshop.

So in this tutorial I will show you how to create a super cool and very easy effect using Photohosp and the Repoussé tool. The whole process is quite simple, it's less than 10 steps and won't take you more than 30 minutes.

Step 1

Open Photoshop and create a new document. I am using 2560x1680 with 300 DPI (very important) with black background. With the Horizontal Type Tool (T) add a text. I am using for the font Edwardian Script ITC. Notice that I sort of connect the words "the" with "book" with "of" and with "Abduzeedo". After that merge the texts into a new layer then create a marquee selection of the text area by clicking on the thumbnail of the layer holding Command(MAC)/Control(PC).

Step 2

Go to 3D>Repoussé>Current Selection. The Repoussé dialog box will open then change the Depth to .7 and the Lights to Day Lights. Also you might have to select some areas to change the type to Hole for the Internal Constraints.

Step 3

This is the result after the 3D filter. In order to render the final image you must select the Scene in the 3D dialag box and change the Quality to Ray Traced Final.

Step 4

Merge all layers into one including the black background, then go to Image>Adjustments>Levels. Change the Input Levels to 65, 1.35 and 128.

Step 5

Go to Image>Mode>Greyscale. After that go to Image>Mode>Bitmap. Change the Output to 600 pixels/inch and the Method to Halftone Screen.

Step 6

For the Halftone Screen, change the Frequency to 70 lines/inch, the Angle to 45 degrees and the Shape to Line.

Step 7

Go to Image>Adjustments>Levels. Change the Inputs to 17, 1 and 206. Also change the Output Levels to 42 and 255.

Step 8

Time to add some texture. Import some old paper texture, the one I am using is courtesy from Shutterstock and you can find it at http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-43075990/stock-photo-the-old-shabby-pape.... After that go to Image>Adjustments>Leveles. Change the Input to 142, 1.00 and 255.

Conclusion

Change the texture layer to Multiply and the effect is pretty much done. You can also save the image in the step 5 and reuse it here adding on top of the layer with halftone at 50% Opacity to make the effect a bit more smooth. As you can see the Bitmap mode is perfect to create some old style print effect, especially now that when vintage and this sort of effect is quite trendy.

Click on the image for full preview.

Download the Photoshop Tutorial

Click here to download the Photoshop file used for this Tutorial

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Wonderful 3D World of Chris Labrooy

paul0v2 — Thu, 12 May 2011 15:38:33 +0000

Chris Labrooy is one of the most amazing 3d artists I've ever seen, his works it totally out of the box. In this post you will see some of his 3D Types creations inspired by the Gods of architecture, the inspiration is so amazing that got me thinking how can someone come up with such great concepts.

You will definitely like to see more from Chris, check him out at www.chrislabrooy.com

Helvetica 3d Type

Another contribution to the ever expanding helvetica image archive. The industrial architectural style with it's rough cast concrete is a perfect fit for helvetica HQ.

Oscar 3d Type

Typography design based on the architecture of Oscar Niemeyer. I picked out my favourite buildings as a basis for developing some expressive letter forms. Included are : Cathedral of Brasília / Niterói Contemporary Art Museum / Ghery house / Ibirapuera Park theatre / Oscar Niemeyer Museum.

Tadao 3d Type

Typography design based on the architecture of Tadao Ando. I picked out my favourite buildings as a basis for developing some expressive letter forms. Included are : Chikatsu Asuka historical museum / Water temple / Naoshima contemporary art museum annexe.

Toyo 3d type

Letter forms inspired by Toyo ito's impressive works. The combination of simple forms with inricate perforations is what excites me about his work. These letters are based on : TOD's omotesando / Tower of winds / Taichung opera house / Mikimoto department store.

Zaha 3D type

Typography design based on the architecture of zaha hadid. With this piece I focused on capturing zaha's formal language rather than reference specific buildings because i am very interested in her drawings and paintings from the eighties.

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Awesome 3D Characters

PauloGabriel — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 03:00:32 +0000

From time to time we really need to updated you guys with the latest 3D works made by the awesome artists from CGSociety. It's just amazing how creative and badass these pieces are, really worth taking a look.

These were made by various artists and I really recommend you to visit their portfolios by clicking the images. I hope you get inspired by these to make your own 3d pieces. Also, I'd love to see if any of you have done any like these... if you did, tell us! I hope you enjoy these. Cheers! ;)

Marcos Andrade

Riccardo Zema

Oleg Koreyba

Frank Tzeng

Erasmus Brosdau

Andreas Chrysovitsanos

Zhe Pang

Baolong Zhang

ZhiHeng Tang

Krishnamurti Costa

Samuel Poirier

Krishnamurti Costa

Samuel Poirier

Rodrigue Pralier

About the author

Hello, everyone! I'm Paulo Gabriel, designer from Porto Alegre, Brazil, born in 1984. I have worked as a webdesigner since 2006, but websites and blogs have been a hobby for me since 1999. Here in Abduzeedo, I try to bring only the hot stuff for you... and hope that all of you enjoy my posts! For more cool stuff, you may also follow me on Twitter.

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3D Characters by Ian Joyner

marcos333 — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 02:27:02 +0000

I was not a huge CG fan before I got in touch with some awesome CG artists that done some amazing characters for well known videogames. After I saw Ian Joyner characters I got impressed, this guys is really dedicated on his job, making some excellent versions of some Marvels superheroes and other emblematic characters.

Ian worked a big part of his career at Blur studio and done some extremely well done charater modeling as you can see below, hope you enjoy his work as much as me.

"I am a freelance character artist, specializing in character modeling, digital sculpting, texturing and design. I have worked on next-gen games, feature films, and product output/rapid prototyping.
I was previously a character modeler at Blur Studios for over 4 years. At Blur, I worked on everything from feature films, ride films and critically-acclaimed video game cinematics. I have been able to live my childhood dream of making a living by creating monsters, super heroes and epic battles." (Ian's Website)

If you want to know more about Ian, you can access his Website or his CG society profile.

About the author

My name is Marcos Torres, I'm Graphic Artist from Porto Alegre, Brasil. You can get to know more about me by acessing my Personal Website or by following me on Twitter: @marcos333. You can also see some of my last projects at my Flickr.

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Outstanding Game Trailers

marcos333 — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 07:37:55 +0000

Nowadays, it seems that videogames and movies are becoming more and more similar in some aspects. Movies are getting more interactive, with all these 3D effects and other inventions that were done lately. And videogames are getting more and more theatrical, with better stories, better graphics and outstanding trailers.

Being a huge video games addict, I though a post about game trailers would be an awesome idea, so I collected some recent (and not so recent) game trailers that just blew my head off, I hope you guys agree with this collection and comment what you think is the best game trailer.

Bioshock 2

God of War 3

Grand Theft Auto 4: The Ballad of Gay Tony

Halo 3: ODST

Resident Evil 5

Dead Space 2

Dead Rising 2

Gears of War 3

Crysis 2

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Batman Arkham City

Mass Effect 3

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Just Cause 2

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

Final Fantasy 13

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Incredible 3D Artworks by Diego Maia

marcos333 — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 02:15:51 +0000

Last year I went to a design lecture where I got in touch with Diego Maia's amazing work, he showed a lot of sketches and proccess of his projects. He uses basically just softwares like 3D Max, Z Brush and Photoshop and achieves stunning results as the pictures bellow.

Diego nowadays live at São Paulo and works as Illustrator, Concept Designer and 3D Artist. Unfortunately, I could not found many web references about him, besides his Blog, Flickr and CG Society profile. I tried to get together his best 3D pieces and also some sketches and creative proccess for you guys, enjoy it.

Captain America -

Angel - Dominance War VI

Dr. Octopus - Comicon Challenge 2

Orc bust

Stealth

Vulgrim - Darksiders character

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Beautiful Icons and 3D illustrations by Evgeny Skidanov

abduzeedo — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 09:48:59 +0000

Evgeny Skidanov is a 3D Illustrator from Moscow, Russia. I came across some of his works while I was checking out the popular entries on Dribbble. Some of his works are done purely in Photoshop like the beautiful Bs-O-Meter, but some are done using 3DS Max with V-Ray and post production in Photoshop.

For more information about Evgeny I highly recommend that you check out his Web site at http://cargocollective.com/skidanov. The full version is in Russian and you can check it out at http://portfolio.skidanov.com/#/commercial. I also recommend that you visit/follow him on Dribbble at http://dribbble.com/3DSMART

The client wanted to present the block to investors on design stage, so I have to model and visualise the block rather quickly, and make it look like a studio photo at the same time. I wanted to make people believe that the detail had already been manufactured. I decided to use NURBS modeling to create a life-sized model as the customer had design drawings. When the model was approved I used maxwell render for photorealistic visualisation. The project has been fulfilled during 5 days.

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Interview with VFX Artist Anselm von Seherr-Thoss

Drew — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 12:42:48 +0000

Insane: the word that comes to mind when I first saw the work of Anselm von Seherr-Thoss. I happened to be casually checking out videos on Vimeo, and somehow I stumbled upon his visual effects show reel. I was so impressed, inspired; ecstatic at the thought of possibly interviewing him. After getting in contact, I knew he’d be perfect for an interview. What a great guy, he’s very knowledgeable in his field; simply put, he knows what he’s talking about. Without further ado, I present to you an Abduzeedo exclusive interview with Anselm von Seherr-Thoss!

Anselm! How’s that work coming along? From what you’ve told me, visual effects can take months on end to perfect.

Very true! That highly depends on the task though. You usually work in a team and an effect goes through many hands. I can get, at times, a mind-numbing “haha”. That's why I personally like a good mix of film and commercial work. Sure it's great to JUST work on blockbusters, but commercial work is very refreshing at times! Tasks are shorter, deadlines quicker, less iterations until a director is pleased. The same goes for music videos and game cinematics. Faster pace, quicker turn over. In commercials it doesn't have to look 101% real...you can get away with a lot more due to the shorter deadlines and tighter budget as well. It is the last 10% of realism that takes 40% of the time! Tweaking it, noodling settings. People always want fast, cheap, cutting edge. That is a quality triangle.

“Fast, cheap, good: choose two!”

Is the credo when doing visual effects and what it is something I try to live by. Another good one is

"Animation is about creating the illusion of life. And you can't create it if you don't have one." -Brad Bird

Great to hear, your work inspires me! Let’s get down to business. You graduated with a degree in fine arts, what brought you into the field of visual effects and 3D particle manipulation?

In 2001, I graduated from high school and went to college to study media design. One day a classmate brought Cinema 4D and Maya to class on his notebook. From that moment on, I didn't participate much in what was going on up front. After university in fall 2004, I looked for CG companies in Hannover, Germany, and found SoulPix, a small studio that uses 3D Studio Max. I asked for an internship, but couldn't provide ANY knowledge of 3DS Max though...so I bombed the owner, Frank Sennholz, with funny emails and stuff like that for half a year straight, until I got invited if I would promise to stop any email traffic. I knew Photoshop and AfterEffects from campus, so I could at least help a bit with texturing and composition; I learned 3DS Max on the go. After two weeks, I participated in my first real production. So, I interned at a CG studio without ANY 3DS Max knowledge... One of the artists brought the “Advanced Visual Effects” DVD by Allan McKay to work one day, and I knew what I wanted to specialize in.

Now you originally lived in Germany, correct? Similar to the last question, what brought you to the United States, was it the promise of cinematography?

I always wanted to work at Blur. Every CG artist admires their work. I never ended up there, unfortunately. Thanks to my website and my involvement in internet forums, other companies started to call and check if I was available for freelance gigs, and so I became one. Over the years, I worked at most German CG companies, and I was always active in forums helping people out, that caught international attention and I eventually had a job interview at Frantic Films which is Prime Focus VFX today.

For our readers that don’t know, Anselm has had the privilege of working on prestigious films like James Cameron’s “Avatar” and Ridley Scott’s “Robin Hood”. What sort of time goes into that work?

Many moons! In the case of “Robin Hood”, it took just 2 weeks actually. That one was a 911-call to help out the UK department of Prime Focus with some shading work for 2 shots only. Avatar and other blockbusters lasted over 6 months, but they were some of the best best and most organized projects I have worked on yet! Barely any pain, to a large extent this is due to the awesome team we had! I dare to say we gathered some of the best Max artists that are around today.

You worked out in Los Angeles and Hollywood, what was it like there?

Los Angeles is where the film industry is, so lots of production houses there. Lots of film people, even every waiter seems to be an actor, writer, director waiting for the breakthrough. It has a certain vibe in the air. Plus, sun shines every damn day! LA is huge; you barely ever leave your part of town if it's not for spare time at the beach or going out to clubs. It is nice to say that I lived in LA and worked in Hollywood, but Nola is very nice too. “The Big Hectic vs. The Big Easy”. Hollywood itself is surprisingly dirty and blighted in some corners. I didn't see a lot of LA actually while I lived there. I worked a lot and on weekends. I did some touristy stuff when my lady was in town or with friends but that was about it. Very un-glamorous...but I met a local visual effects talent who was supposed to be one of the best artists around: Charley Carlat. He taught me a lot in such a short amount of time. He was one of the best technical directors I know and a great person to know!

While out west you were with Prime Focus (originally Frantic Films)? I know you’ve always said it’s a “boom-bust” market out there, but I’m sure working for Prime Focus definitely helped you to get some exposure. Enough so that you could eventually start your own company, which I’m sure our readers are eager to hear about. Describe what it’s like working in a large visual effects company.

Prime Focus is a medium size facility in LA. I'd say it can be a lot more organized working in a bigger, more corporate environment. Paid overtime, large render power, state of the art equipment, stuff like that. Bigger places attract bigger names in the industry as supervisors, which then attracts bigger production companies to have work done there. So I had the great opportunity to work on movies like Avatar and others. I am grateful for that, I am lucky.

Shortly after moving out to New Orleans, you started your own company, Incendii. The name sparks intrigue and inspiration, similar to the name, which is reminiscent of a flame. How did things change after splitting off from a larger visual effects house to form your own company? Seems like Incendii is doing quite well; lots of commercial work, eh?

It is doing great, yes. Plans for expansion dawn... The name comes from the latin word for fire and passion and is the genitive of the noun. “Ars Incendii” is the “Art of Fire”, and those two little words describe pretty well what is done here! I personally specialized in particle effects and dynamics so most of the work coming in involved particles and rigid body systems as well as fluid simulations like fire and smoke. (@ars_incendii is my twitter account as well if you are keen to follow up!)

I bet you’re a busy man! After you told me what your workspace was like, I was in awe; tell our readers what your setup is like and how you get the job done. Specifically, what programs have you used over the years? I also know you’ve helped to develop plugins and different functions for some programs, which is pretty impressive in and of itself!

Setup hardware wise or software wise? I have 2 computers at my desk. One is always, caching, simulating, rendering, on the other I work in the meantime, and then switch back. I have a monitor switch so I can use the same mouse, keyboard and monitors for all machines. One rig itself is 2xi7based quads with HT, so 16 threads and 24 GB of RAM, along with two 24” monitors. Software wise, I use 3D Studio Max, VRay, the Particle Flow toolboxes 1, 2, and 3 pro, RayFire, Krakatoa, Fume FX, just to name a few. What is used highly depends on the task that is asked for. Whatever gets the job done. How it's done is individually different from project to project. Some of my techniques are on my training DVDs, who doesn’t love a little shameless self-promotion! Development wise I am a producer on the very successful RayFire plug-in for dynamic destruction effects. It is greatly accepted by the Max community so we get a lot of input of what people want to have featured and if it makes sense it gets implemented. Mir Vadim is a great developer and reacts very quickly on bug reports. It has evolved in a very fast pace. Other then RayFire, I am a beta tester on a lot of plug-ins for Max. Orbaz, the company behind Particle Flow and its extensions is a good example.

From an artist’s perspective, it’s tough to teach yourself a medium and continue to learn over the years. What has inspired you and kept you determined over the years, is it that satisfaction you get when your work is finally rendered?

True! You have to stay on top of the game. The internet, especially forums, helps a lot with that. Lots of people figure out funky stuff! Often times they share their setups or explain what they did and you can learn from it. CGTalk is a great place to hang. It’s always good to see an effect someone else has done, something inspirational and try to recreate it, collect reference images and videos! My reference folder counts 80 GB and still growing...that's what I do a lot between tasks or in the evening. Like Steve Jobs says, “Stay hungry!” I personally get the most satisfaction if I find a solution for a problem I’ve had for a while. It's like solving a puzzle. Being in the rolling credits of a good movie satisfies equally though!

I’d like to jump back to Los Angeles. I’m sure our readers are wondering what kind of work goes into those holograms and heat from “Avatar”, enlighten them!

The hologram of the jungle, the mine pit, and the “hometree” are particles that were generated and rendered with Krakatoa PRT Volumes and/or generated with Particle Flow Box #3. All the countless icons were designed by us after rough layouts from Cameron's design team, but redesigned by our art department (Neil Huxley was the art director). The trajectories of satellites and airplanes are animated spines and all tables and columns on the “holotable” are cards designed and animated in After Effects. They don't really mean anything. James Cameron said himself, “If anybody wants to read the tables and icons, we are making the wrong movie here.” So we had pretty much no directions and they gave us some room for interpretation; the names on the tables are all co-workers! Everything that is interacting with real persons had to be match moved and modeled. The “holotable” hardware was a prop on set but was digitally replaced by us to a large extent. Every laser unit on it and the projection hardware is full CG. Every screen (called “Immersive”) consists of a many layers with depth information to look 3D so every layer had to be designed and animated separately. All those elements where then rendered with Vray and comped in Digital Fusion. Beside the many 3D screens, we had to build and matte paint every environment seen through the windows in the command center. In the shots where Giovanni, the businessman, plays with the Unobtanium rock, it was replaced in CG for more zero gravity aesthetics. There was a prop Unobtanium on a string on-set, but it didn't deliver satisfying motion results.

Stunning, simply stunning. Now with Incendii, you’ve been getting lots of commercial and feature film work, correct? How’s that coming along and what’s in store for the company’s future?

Only the future can tell. Right now work is done on two films, commercials, and the new Black Eyed Peas music video for the song titled: “The Time (Dirty Bit)”. A lot going parallel... Film wise it's usually smaller effects or just a few shots that get out-housed by bigger studios to specialists or simply because schedule is tight. Louisiana's film industry is boosting right now due to the great tax credit companies get when they shoot and post produce here, so it's good to be around the area (http://louisianaentertainment.gov).

I know Incendii has a promising future, as do you. Anything new coming out soon from Anselm von Seherr-Thoss?

I think the next thing that airs is the B.E.P. music video and two commercials I worked on the last two months. The movies have midyear release dates (Priest, Sucker Punch, and two others I can't talk about).

It has truly been my pleasure chatting with you. Is there anything you’d like to leave our readers with?

I think it is very important to enjoy what you do. Staying “hungry” is the key. And don't sell for cheap! If you need some advice in attitude, read VFX Solider's blog. Years ago, before I moved to the US I wrote an article for CGArena entitled “Freelancer's Manifesto – A Collection of advices” which became quite popular. It has horrible English, but I think it still holds up. Other than that it's all worth it if you are a tough bastard!

Best of luck in the future!

Same to you on your endeavor, and thanks for the opportunity and interview!

About the author

I'm Andrew, a 19 year-old student currently residing in Minnesota, but attending school on the East Coast of the United States. I've been interested in graphic design, web development, and networking since I was young, and I'm now pursuing a double major in digital arts and business. Here at Abduzeedo, I'll be interviewing and featuring artists and their work, so if there are any questions you'd like to see answered, post a comment. Enjoy! Be sure to follow me on Twitter @awashuta.

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Amazingly Creepy 3D Drawings

PauloGabriel — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 02:26:20 +0000

Perspective in drawings creating 3D scenes in not something new. We've seen some cool examples of that through out the years, but I just got to see something really fresh and amazingly creepy.

These eerie drawings are the work of Wladimir Inostroza, also known as Fredo. He's a Chilean illustrator and he sures likes his work jumping at him. I wonder if anyone else would place a creepy old man hanging just above their bed. I wouldn't. Anyways, for more of Fredo's work, you may check out his potfolio at DeviantART. I hope you don't dream at night. Cheers. ;)

About the author

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Visual Effects by Anselm von Seherr-Thoss

Drew — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 02:01:26 +0000

Truly an inspiration, Anselm von Seherr-Thoss is one of the top visual effects and 3D particle artists around. Not only has he spent years within his craft, he’s worked on favorites like James Cameron’s “Avatar” and “The A-Team”.

Visual effects is quite the tough industry. Anselm has worked his way to the top, though his journey wasn’t easy. After working at Frantic Films, which eventually became Prime Focus, he broke off to form his own company, Incendii. Larger visual effects companies usually hire him to participate on large projects whether they’re movies that take 6-8 months on end, or television commercials that take about 2-3 months. No matter the project, visual effects and 3d design goes through a lot of stages in the process; changes are always made.

An interview will be coming soon, here on Abduzeedo. Below is his 2010 personal film reel, enjoy!

3Delicious Film Reel 2010/3 (VFX Artist & TD) from Anselm von Seherr Thoss on Vimeo.