3D-Palace Online 3d Artist Tutorials

May looks nice

olblue — Sun, 06 May 2012 16:34:39 +0000

Its nice that May is here at last. The weather is starting to improve and things are nice – birds tweeting etc etc.
Anyway, 3d-palace seems to be coming together which is what is important – we have the brand new first ‘proper’ dvd release about to hit the store on monday (Bank holiday…ack). I will release a news letter about it Tuesday though to be safe. That way it shouldnt get trashed too much!
The Laser Printer is ordered! This may seem like no real news however it really is! Last year I threw away the old laser printer as it wasnt working properly and since then I have had to resort to having to photocopy covers or go to print shops whilst generally lamenting about the cost. Its an expensive outlay however I would like to spend the best part of this year investing a sizable amount into 3d-palace if I can. Which leads to;
Advertising! I am going to push all spare funds into getting new people to see palace! I will talk more about this in a later part though.

Something for the beta area till its done – Max to ZBrush – Making Robots Look Good.

olblue — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:51:59 +0000

This is somewhat of an ongoing set – Im enjoying it however I am also slightly out of my usual element as I am using ZBrush as a workflow tool in the process of developing mechs. Not for modelling you understand – the initial modelling is done in 3ds Max where I believe I can do a better job – although I am wont to be jealous of the skills of that fine robot modeller at www.eat3d.com I must admit!

Anyway, the idea of this tutorial is to take a set, in this case the Dreadnought (Venerable Model) and unwrap it part by part, putting each part through the ZBrush wringer in order to make something lovely come out the other end. NOW… whether this is a project too large for my ample belly to contain I really do not know, however I have set myself the task of taking the arm with its power fist and underslung bolter and try and explain how to make that look…. good.

Now, people have said in the past “Oh Cris, why do you never model a robot then texture it the old fashioned way?”

Now you will find out. It takes forever. Its not like a person, you cant map a face on and change some bits and rely on bloody creases to do the hard work

Anyway, this one is headed to the Beta area tommorow so Prime members can have fun with it until I get it ready for release. As a SET incidentally – its time we had a good long set I think

Current progress is the tutorial taking Max to unwrap into ZBrush and then photoshop where we make some alpha masks which are used to add quick detail onto the piece. Tommorow more photoshop, adding damage detail in ZBrush and some more painting. Its going to be nice

ZBrush

olblue — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 22:51:06 +0000

As some may be aware, ZBrush and I have a history. Years and years ago I reviewed it when it was first ever released and liked it a great deal however as the years went by I just didnt have time to use that app much.

Well anyone that uses ZB knows how complex it is – if you have used it for a time then you will know version 1 and version 4 are worlds apart in terms of whats under the bonnet and what the interface looks like and does – so with the massive changes that are in 4, I asked the makers of ZB if they would be kind enough to let me look over it again with the thoughts of perhaps making a tutorial.

Jesus guys – thats a whole lot of app.

Three months its been with me tinkering with it – setting up wacom options with it – crying and beating my fists into my own mouth as I yet again had issues with the navigation however I today finally realised something…

Once you can use that god damn interface, you can really get that thing jumping. It’s interface is crap as hell because theres so much of it – seriously. It really is insane the sheer volume of features that are squeezed in to be honest.

So, Im going to keep at this – because I want to make tutorials using it and to do so, I need to be better than what I teach. I think a 3d-palace “How not to cry at the interface” set is forthcoming in the next week. After that… we shall see.

Peas. Oot.

Web Links

olblue — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:41:30 +0000

At 3D-Palace, we have some great friends at other sites too. Why not pay them a visit as well?

Youtube - Our own YouTube channel

Eat3D - Masters of Game Development Tutorials

UDK - Home of the FREE UDK Engine

Autodesk - Where most 3d software seems to be

CGTalk - Elitists or Experts? You decide

Somethingawful - Because you need to unwind sometimes

Venerable Dreadnought

olblue — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:24:52 +0000

The Venerable Dreadnought Set

A personal favorite of Olblue (the owner of 3d-palace), this set not only shows you how to make, rig and animate the venerable dreadnought (an upgrade of the standard Warhammer Dreadnought), but also fire effects and more using FumeFX and Afterburn too!

FREE – The Dreadnought

olblue — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:22:35 +0000

Warhammer Dreadnought

The Original Dreadnought High Detail Tutorial, this commercial set shows you how to create an entire Warhammer 40,000 dreadnought in detail, including creating a basic walk cycle. Not sure if you want the Venerable Dreadnought? This is a great way to find out!

FREE – APU Set

olblue — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:20:22 +0000

The Matrix APU 3ds Max Tutorial (Free)

The APU Set is one of our best tutorials, and its also completely FREE for you to watch the entire first section, covering building and animating the entire APU walker. Want to try it? Dont wait!

Robot Set

olblue — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 12:59:21 +0000

The Advanced 3ds Max Robot Tutorial

The sequel to creating a parts library, this in depth video tutorial demonstrates how to create a full robot warmachine, starting with a simple basic concept and finishing with an amazing deadly looking mech walker.

Cris’s new masterclass at Autodesk University – FREE

olblue — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 12:41:12 +0000

We are very proud to announce that for the first time ever, a tutorial developed by famed 3d-palace instructor Cris Robson has been commissioned by Autodesk for use as one of its own Masterclasses. Needless to say that we are delighted at this and as it gives 3d-palace trainer Cris the status of Approved Autodesk Instructor after 9 years! You can watch this masterclass free of charge in up to 6 different (subtitled) languages at ; www.the-area.com/masterclasses now. In his own words; In this class I will explain and demonstrate advanced principles of hard surface prototyping using 3ds Max and Mudbox as a workflow solution in order to facilitate the creation of a complex engine array using rapidly developed prefabricated parts. Using the two applications side by side the end user will be able to rapidly develop precision level pieces suitable for the visualization industry. Cris is an industry recognized hard surface training instructor with over ten years experience in training both online and at seminars all over Europe. He has created training packages used by studios worldwide as well as producing specialist training used by the UK Metropolitan Police Force. Known for the website 3D-Palace(www.3d-palace.com), a training website for 3d artists that was the first to feature project length training, Cris is constantly researching and developing faster and more precise ways to teach hard surface modeling. Cris started out originally working on TV effects in the 90s, moving on to freelance consulting on games before moving into full time training in 2001.

Scorpion Gun Emplacement – Work Commences

olblue — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 12:40:02 +0000

As a prelude to getting to work on Rodimus Prime – a job I really need to do in order to mark the robot tutorial world with my cat like stink – I have been working on what was (laughably) supposed to be a short set on building a transforming scorpion gun emplacement. I am currently working on the legs – the amount of work is quite amazing. Unfortunately I am not going to be using ZBrush to add detail as frankly I find ZBrush vexxing at best. It is such a good software package however it just eludes me over and over and frankly leaves me with nothing but angry sounding tutorials.