Issue 8

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FEATURING...

COVER STORY: NARNIA'S DIGITAL THESPIANS
ART, ACTING, AND ANTHROPOMORPHIC ALCHEMY AT SONY PICTURES IMAGEWORKS
Explore a new chapter in moviemaking history. See how Sony Pictures Imageworks has led the evolution of technologies and artistic processes that enable digital artists to create believable worlds that live up to the scope and grandeur of the collective imagination of millions of avid readers.
by Jake Carvey

VISUAL FX TRICKS
RECREATING THE LORD OF THE RINGS: MINAS MORGUL TOWER BEACON
Create your own stunning Tower Beacon shooting a beam of energy into the sky.
by Alexander Shareef

SIMPLE STEPS FOR DRAMATIC LIGHTING TECHNIQUES
This is a Photoshop tutorial on how to do photorealistic lighting techniques for matte painting backgrounds, taking an existing image (photo) from a day scene into a night scene incorporating natural and man-made lights.
by Briar Lee Mitchell

CELESTIAL MECHANICS: ANIMATING FOR DOMES
The 3D animation market doesn't have to always be about the flat screen. This article interviews Maya animators who have been working in the 3D medium of planetariums.
by Eric S. Keller

WRITING DISPLACEMENTS IN RENDERMAN
A tutorial building on the RenderMan knowledge you've learned earlier, taking it to the next level. Now that you've gotten into the basics of RenderMan, we will show you some of the more advanced features. Even if it's a simple example, you will learn how to relatively quickly create a shader that would be extremely time consuming to do by texture painting, and wouldn't really lend itself to setting up in a node based environment.
by Peter Hartwig

MASTERING CHARACTER DEFORMATIONS IN XSI
This article is about Character Technical Director work and mastering deformations on characters in Softimage XSI using an elbow as an example. Simply using enveloping (skinning) on a skeleton and doing some weight painting is not enough to simulate the behavior of skin, fat, and muscles, and the deformations will never be good enough. This article shows a technique that uses helper objects to increase control and effectiveness of enveloping, it describes how to build a Deformer Objects System and envelope (skinning) on top of that.
by Guido Zimmermann

EXPLODING VIBRATION!
How to do a classic particle simulation and avoid the common pitfalls of using one of the more interesting controls in ParticleFX.
by Deuce Bennett

USING THE TRAX EDITOR FOR A WALK ANIMATION: MAYA HUMAN ANIMATION FUNDAMENTALS, PART 2
Since a walk is the most common movement, it is often someone's first animation. This can be discouraging because creating a successful walk animation is one of the most challenging tasks. There is a lot to consider. Maya's Trax Editor can simplify this process.
by Peter Ratner

GO WITH THE FLOW
The art of polygon structure in organic models. This article shares some basic guidelines that should help give your organic models a strong base structure that can make surfacing, rigging, and animating much easier.
by William "Proton" Vaughan

NON-PHYSICAL SUBSURFACE SCATTERING WITH MENTAL RAY FOR MAYA 7
Exploring mental ray subsurface scattering shaders in Maya 7. Subsurface scattering is a term that relates to characteristics of light as it penetrates and scatters within surfaces. Surfaces typically thin by nature will transmit light through them as with translucent objects, such as leaves, paper, cardboard, clothes, microbes, elastic surfaces, plastic, wax, and more. Subsurface scattering shaders are great for adding a natural feel to almost all surfaces.
by Boaz Livny

VUE 5 INFINITE
Lesson 1: Making a Cool Image for Beginners
I was able to create some great looking images within minutes of installing the Vue software. In this first Vue article, I will introduce LightWave Upgraders to using Vue Infinite to create some cool still images.
by Brad Carvey

UNCLE ROBIN'S MINI GUIDE TO MEL VOLUME 3: EXPRESS YOURSELF
A basic guide to making cool expression driven animation. There are times when animating a bunch of objects by hand becomes impossible, and a simple expression can make your life easy. Learn the basics of making a useful expression quickly and easily, and learn some of the tricks that make expression driven animation complex and cool with relative ease.
by Robin Scher

RENDERING WITH LIGHTWAVE 101: EPICSOFT MULE
Introduction to network rendering and a glimpse at MULE.
by Dale L. Campbell, Jr.

3D PARADOXES
This article attempts to clear up some of the paradoxes a new animator might face when first getting into 3D animation.
by Michael Struck

ESSENTIALS
Simple Endomorphs - Animating with Motion Mixer.
by Andrea Carvey

CG ROLLER COASTER
by Raffael Dickreuter

STUFF
New Dual Core Computer
by Brad Carvey

GIDGETS AND GADGETS
Richard Lico, A.K.A. Tech Buff
by William "Proton" Vaughan

POLITIK KOOSH
by Dariush Derakhshani

FINAL RENDER
Right Brain - Left Brain
by Brad Carvey

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