Issue 19

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MASS EFFECT: INSIDE THE VISUAL EFFECTS
Visual Effects Supervisor Shareef Shanawany takes a look at the visual effects of Mass Effect, the critically acclaimed next-gen game from Microsoft and BioWare..
By Shareef Shanawany

HOW’D WE DO THAT? PLAYING WITH FIRE: BEOWULF
Beowulf’s FX Animation Lead shares with us exactly how the Sony Pictures Imageworks team overcame the difficulties of creating natural phenomenon effects from fire to destruction and all in between. Our fascinating series gets you behind the scenes access as never before.
By Vincent Serritella

THESE AREN’T YOUR DADDY’S LITTLE GREEN MEN
Director Aristomenis “Meni” Tsirbas and producer Dane Allan Smith discuss their thoughtful alien invasion feature Terra and share with us the difficulties of making an animated CG feature on a budget.
By Jim Hankins

HOW I SHATTERED THE WORLD IN BLACKSPOT
See how to use Blast Code to destroy the world in a small feature film.
By Christopher Mills

BREAKING INTO THE GAMING INDUSTRY
Explore the different jobs available in the gaming industry, and find out how to score a few of them.
By Richard Lico

AROUND THE WORLD WITH THE SPACENAVIGATOR
This 3D navigation device works in 3D beautifully in Google Earth and is probably a vital tool for demos, visualizations, and architectural fly-throughs. Find out why!
By Nicholas Joseph

IRONING OUT SURFACE SMOOTHING
Take a close look at surface smoothing in LightWave and these great tips and tricks that can help you gain control over this powerful surfacing feature.
By William “Proton” Vaughan

FINAL GATHER AND AMBIENT OCCLUSION
Study HDR lighting with Final Gather including how to remove speckle artifacts from FG and glossy reflections using mental ray’s custom shaders.
By Boaz Livny

PIPELINE & COLOR PLANNING
The vital lifeblood of any project is only as good as the planning behind it. Find out how to design and manage a strategic color pipeline with valid and hands-on tactical groundwork.
By Edward Heede

USING SPACEPILOT IN 3D PROGRAMS
Thinking about a 3D mouse to rotate 3D objects and navigate your 3D environments? These helpful tips are for you!
By Michael Ash

PIPELINE DEVELOPMENT, PART 3: ASSET TRACKING
This article in a series shows you how to create tools for interaction with an asset tracking database.
By Peter Hartwig

READERS’ ART GALLERY
Featuring the fabulous art submitted by Jae Ham, Steve O’Donnell, and Bobby Ware.

ADVANCED COLOR CORRECTION TOOLS
Learn how to use the first color management system that has ever been developed within a 3D commercial software.
By Gerardo Estrada

MODO-IMATION: EXPORTING .MDD FILES
Discover how to use Maya2LW MEL scripts to export character animations in the form of .mdd files for a quality render in modo 301.
By Wes McDermott

SANDIO 3D GAME O2 MOUSE
Discover the role this mouse can play in everything from gaming to 3D programs.
By Richard Lico

INTERVIEW: C. MICHAEL NEELY, PREVIS AND FX ANIMATOR
Our series featuring computer graphic artists continues with insights on education, training, and job responsibilities in the real production world.
By Raffael Dickreuter

MODELING A HUMAN PART 6: THE FEMALE LEG
Continuing the series of articles on modeling the male and female in Maya, this step-by-step tutorial shows how to make the female leg.
By Peter Ratner

STUFF
By Brad Carvey

KOOSHLINGS
By Dariush Derakhshani

GIDGETS AND GADGETS
By William “Proton” Vaughan

FINAL RENDER
By Andrea Carvey

XSI CORNER
By Raffael Dickreuter