Importance of Photoshop in 3d Pipelines, Zbrush, 3ds Max, Blender all Need Photoshop

   When it comes to graphics then Photoshop is reigning King, and it does not matter if it is print, web, games or film. No matter what Photoshop has its hands in the cookie jar when we deal with any sort of visual media. Sure you could pair PSP with 3D Max for example but all in all in a professional setting it is normally Photoshop. If you are working on a model in Zbrush simply click the plugin exporter button and now you are in Photoshop. Bake out a normal map save it out pull it up in adobe bridge then touch it up via Photoshop and Quixel. We could go on and on with a long list from all the duties and tasks that Photoshop is used for and the projects that it has been used on from most every company in the world.

   So while on the subject let me invite you to checkout the new community called Photoshop Hangout you can visit the blog located here on Blogger as well at the Photoshop Hangout Blog

I am built numerous blogs that are all inter related at this point seeing I learned in both the 3d and 2d world of thinking when it comes to tech, graphics, graphic design, technical ideas and solutions, innovations and ways of thinking, as well the whole idea that a replicator that we saw as science fiction when I was a kid watching Star Trek is now a real life machine that is based on the innovations of 3d Printing. Currently working on a computer science degree, I am as well others struggle with just keeping up with technology let alone and rather then being ahead of it in all areas. Yet I excel at both graphics and design as well tech and computers so I sit right in the middle of what is to come and what is currently in place. When I see the graphics design and technology in modern day tele dramas as well the information technology that are representing, the jumps are not as far as the Sci fi of the past in say the 1970's and 1980's.

     Yet in the graphics of today, our technology is far reaching in both organic and technological sci fi, and is shown in the movies and films that are media and social hits.For example if you look at movies such as Transformers, and Pacific Rim the technology and sci fi are far reaching and effects are beyond amazing, but even the organic sci fi is incredible in a film such as Revenge of the Planet of the Apes. The "Planet of the Apes" franchise has pushed the limits of 3d film making beyond and into our imaginations. But these advances mean scripting , coding, advanced algorithms, advanced processing power and chips, faster networking and render farms that reach past that sci fi realm that was Star Trek and Star Wars in the 1970's. Back during the Star Tech days of advanced graphics everything was done via physical world models and shot on film, today it is 3d virtual model recorded as a bunch of 1's and zeroes with digital information compressed using countless algorithms and streamed with ever changing video and graphics applications. So this is my point, being where do you start to follow the ever changing field and what area do you specialize in ?  Since humans are very visual in nature was well audible and these go hand in hand with the mind and imagination as well tech and learning, this is a huge and wide reaching area of study and we cannot be the experts in each and every part of it. I am decent with lighting and color yet I am only proficient in some render engines. But the reality is I can at least get renders out of most of them that are somewhat decent due to the fact they all have similar settings, effects and interfaces. In the end the renders and the images will all shift back to Photoshop and After Effects for the most part. Industry wide though it goes to Mari and Nuke as the high end for motion graphics with node editing etc ... Again Photoshop is the Reigning camp but there is always going to be a bigger fish lurking in the shadows.

     So this being all said comparability, portability, interactively and open end transparency to help get the job done in today's demanding world of graphics and tech Photoshop reigns supreme for now. Adobes Creative Suite with the new shift to the Adobe Creative Cloud is just another technical boundary in attempts to seal the deal and retain the crown in this fast and ever changing tech world. Iphone, Andrioid, and Windows are always trying to supply people with new graphics innovations meant to mimic the abilities of Adobes graphics suite and us as graphic artists, yet its still the templates and creations that we develop that are fueling and making these applications viable to the general public and through our chasing of tech that we stay ahead of them. For more info in regards to tech, graphics and computers please also follow my other blog that I run called Freelance IT as well please feel free and aI welcome comments questions discussions regarding artwork, graphic design, technology and web design and development.

Concept 3d Art using Zbrush and Photoshop to Convey Character Concept Ideas

 3D in Webdesign to Game Design and Tech

I have not posted much lately but I have been busy building and creating my Freelance IT Lansing website that includes both Freelance and Concept Art and Design as well as coding scripting and website design and development. Seeing I use many programs in tech, design and development that ranges from Photoshop, Illustrator, Aftereffects and Zbrush for graphics design to apps and programs like Dreamweaver, Fireworks and as well scripting apps like Sublime, Textpad and development aids like Xampp when it comes to coding the website I am building refers to all of these and the uses.

3D Modeling and Character Concepts and Design

But this is a blog about 3d digital art, concept art and graphic design so here I rarely go into programs like Adobes Dreamweaver or Flash Professional yet they do have a place in both 3d and website design and development as well some have a use in game development.  But today lets look at more 3D Modeling and Character Concepts and Design. So below I are just a few example s of this months works and ideas. As you can see these are just rough concept art sculpts / sketches of the models as I decide where I am going in zbrush. Then masked off with a greenscreen background to make it easy to pull them from the background.

Zbrush Models for use in Photoshop

From this point I then take the models from zbrush into Photoshop in order to make some character concept cards for the ideas I have. These are very rough and Work in progress sketches at this point all done in Zbrush and still not posed nor finished  works....

These here are then taken in to Photoshop to make some concept sketch cards of teddy bears sculpting models ...

 Eventually after all are masked out of backgrounds they end up on cards like these shown below for Concept Character Cards.

You can see how just adding some neatly placed textures and images can look much better and done in little time as well so any of the advertising or game reps can see your ideas and you can springboard off that sort of like a storyboard concept artists ideas come to life.

 Continuing with Concept Art Ideas

At this point we can continue on with adding more ideas and concepts for the artists work as well. In a real life situation these concept character cards above might include notes on the cards and a character concept sheet full of the specs and artists and clients concept ideas as well. Here are some more examples of concept character image cards from another project directly above and then below is what these characters would look like when starting on the concept environment art below. Again these are 3D modelings and illustration design ideas and not a finished project or product.

Pterodactyls with a concept environment art idea added,  its not time for landscape rendering, still concept ideas.

 As you can see the more added the more like a product design shape the project starts to resemble. But lets get back to the Jerry Bear style of 3D modeling character concept design ...

Adding Details to Concept Character Artists Design

So what is a teddy bear without any hair the clients and art team asks ?  Well what will the teddy bear look like with hair added and how will that be done ?  This is quite simple thanks to the functions of  Fibermesh in Zbrush. The hair and fur fibers are now easily added in Zbrush with the help of the Fibermesh and hair features.  They are editable in many ways and have many features, seen above the model has the hair only on his head, then below the 3D model has had more fur groups added and you can make some the same and others like the belly and ear fur shorter and more dense.

When you enlarge these images you can see the details that you can achieve in Zbrush using the fiber mesh functions. These furs can also be exported as splines into programs like Maya and 3DS Max Studio.

Last of this part of the Concept Character Artwork.

So at this point you could try and cut the fiber mesh teddy bear concept character renders out of there back grounds as shown below but you can see that this would be a real mess !

Seeing that with fur the background green screen will actually make this more of a chore. So they would be best done in 3DS Max Studio on a backdrop ... Adobe Photoshop Postwork cannot help here.

Take a closer look and you will see that a green screen with fur is really difficult to get the green screen removed. The image at 1:00 O'clock above is just the fur without the character concept model and the green shines right through it. As well the image above on the left shows how its hard to remove the green that shines through the fur when cutting the image out.   This is not a tutorial but I wanted to show more processes that are needed in 3d modeling and concept character design. Until next time be creative and Feel free to post comments and questions below.

Simple text animation in aftereffects

I am posting this to show a simple text animation done after effects .... it can be added to a show reel, a game, a video etc etc ....   Much graphics work I do involves 3d programs such as Zbrush, Blender, 3ds Max just to name a few. Yet I have ability to work in about any graphics program there is  ... The only thing that has held me back at this point is the processing power in my work station ... though I have quite a good work station ... in digital graphics bigger is better. 

Examples of Surface Brushes made in zbrush for what ever type of use you like

Here are a few quick brushes I made in zbrush 4.r6


use for whatever you like

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B8hN1tjPlPJ4ZVNhRkhYckhsbVE&usp=sharing

they are free surface sculpting brushes made for zbrush 4r6 and I will add more as time continues. These surface brushes are made for the zbrush 4r6 and will not work properly in older versions of zbrush at this time. I will also be adding many new zbrush alphas and textures for zbrush artists soon as well.

Best Video Game Engine and Video Game Designed for Multiplayer Action

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Video Game Design and Artist Links Updates

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Begining Video Game Level Design and Video Game Art

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