If you are in any way interested in 3d design, be it for something as simple as a 3d logo, right through to working on the next Pixar 3d rendered blockbuster, you simply must read 3D World.

This is a great learning resource for anyone interested in 3d design. I’ve being reading it since I believe it was originally released and it’s obviously got a really good team working on it as it’s always very relevant to todays market and available technology. For example this months magazine has a decent article on lighting an external CGI of a building using Vray and it’s relativley new sun & sky system along with the newish physical camera. This is all really ‘current’ stuff and is a big help to anyone trying to learn all this crazy stuff on their own !

There’s also a good article about modeling a character’s face using Mudbox and Max with Mentlal Ray, which is again a very tricky workflow if your trying this kind of thing for the first time.

All in all i’d recommend this magazine above all others if 3d work, animation and visualisation is something you aspire to. Get it bought !

After drooling over the i-phone when it was launched, who didn’t ?, I was one of the many people who simply couldn’t justify the cost, I like contracts at a fraction of the i-phone tarifs.

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Well, after finally updating my website and doing a touch of SEO (search engine optimization) i’ve had the phone (or mouse) ringing off the hook.

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This is a fun project that i’m working on for a friend, designer Mark McGrath. He designed the 2d ‘Hug’ logo and character and asked if I could do a 3d version for him. This image is my 1st render and is a work in progress. I used poly modeling to create the 3d character and then skinned and boned the character manually so I could put them into various poses. I realized that I wanted to have more control over the animation rig in the character and decided to re-rig him using Brad Noble’s excellent skeleton rig. I’m also reworking the hands, arms, feet and hair and hopefully I should have an animated version of the character finished soon.

I thought it would be nice to give a bit of background and ultimately show a few examples of my journey into the wonderful world of 3d design and visualization.

I started my journey back at college when I saw an early version of Stratavision, it looked amazing, but as with all things in those days, although the Poly had a copy, you weren’t really allowed to use it ! Then as my degree course was coming to an end, a new animation department opened and a handfull of SGI machines appeared. Again we were not allowed too close to these, but I saw the potential of what could be achieved and it led me to persue a Mac 3d package that I could run on my Mac (an LCIII, wicked at the time).

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Well after much deliberation I finally decided to let my Dual G4 Quicksliver spend it’s last years in semi retirement. I pondered for months over the price / performance advantage a Mac Pro would have over a top of the line imac, but in the end the price of the imac was hard to resist.

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Z brush is something i’ve being looking at with interest for a while now, so it’s about time I got into it. Initially the interface is very strange and models are referred to as ‘tools’ which really doesn’t help if you are from a Max background !

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