3D Art
BE INSPIRED BY 3D DIGITAL ART
Discover New Sci-Fi and Fantasy Worlds
DIRECT
Inspiration for 3D digital artists
Insightful interviews
Vibrant galleries and portfolios
Issue 19
July 2012
Premium Edition
3D
ArtD
ire
ct.c
om
Summer Galleries
Don Webster
Isidore koliavras
Models, Kit Bashing & Greebles
2
3D Art
BE INSPIRED BY 3D DIGITAL ART
Discover New Sci-Fi and Fantasy Worlds
Direct
Paul Bussey
Editor
Main cover art : “The Chamber Portrait” by Don Webster
Mickey Mills
Assistant Editor
Brian Christensen
Article Writer
Copyright © 2012 3D Art Direct. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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3
Editorial
Models, Kit Bashing and Greebles!
0404
CONTENTS
Summer Galleries
Brian Christensen
Suzi Amberson
Artur Rosa
Danny Gordon
Arthur Dorety
Junior Mclean
2828
Interview : Don Webster
“Vue is my central application that everything else feeds.
It is in many ways my movie set with Poser bringing in the
people, Modo bringing in the sets and
props, ZBrush in the makeup room with
detail touch ups and Blender provides
Interview : Isidore koliavras
“Many fans around the world can easily tell which image
is based on a 3d model and which is not. After a lot of
practicing I think I have managed to
eradicate as much as I can of the plas-
4444
0606
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4
DON WEBSTER
Editorial
The problem with virtual models can be that
they’re too perfect, too abstract, so how do you
overcome this?
Going back to Industrial Light and Magic’s (ILM) early
history may provide an answer. When they started out,
they had to innovate because the budget for the
original Star Wars movie was relatively small. So they
employed “Kit Bashing”, using pieces from hundreds of
plastic models to build the needed Star Destroyers, Y-
Wings and so on for the movie. The bare surfaces of the
base models were jammed with pieces of model kits and
even the odd plastic soldier – anything to break up the
flat planes. Allegedly, Industrial Light and Magic model-
makers originally created the term “greebles”. There’s
also an equivalent geeky sounding term banded about
“nurnie”
So “Greebles” were used to make physical models look
less bare. Model-makers, whether working with physical
models or virtual for that matter, run into the same
problem – and can employ the same solution. It’s
basically saying they fix the issue by
“gluing lots of junk to bare surfaces”.
One example of this is the original
Imperial Star Destroyer from Start Wards.
It was constructed from a plywood
frame and covered with sheet styrene.
Panel lines were cut into the sheet
styrene, but essentially that left the ship
looking extremely bare. Hundreds of
model kits were purchased and the
model department promptly took
pieces of the model kits and cut them
up and stuck them along with more
sheet styrene to the surfaces of the
ship. The ultimate effect was to make
the ship appear more believable to the
viewer through the addition of these
large areas of ancillary details. The
greebles themselves served no purpose
other than to fill space and individually
had no definite function to the design
of the ship, although later each
greeble was given a specific function
by either fans or technical illustrators for
fan guides.
Another example of greeble application was the
Battlestar Galactica model for the original 1970s series,
which featured on its hull pieces from a wide assortment
of kits, including Apollo orbiters, Saturn rocket boosters, F-
16 fighter jets, and various tanks.
What’s significant is not only that these provide realism by
adding detail or making things look rougher, but that
they add a sense of scale.
One of the biggest issues with looking at virtual models is
that there is nothing against which one can find scale.
The expert model maker is partly able to make their work
convincing by the use of “forced” proportion, achieved
using extra detail with those Greebles.
As time moved on, extra random detail for models
became a standard to gain that additional realism, and
not just for spacecraft. Remember Jurassic Park?
Dinosaur skin textures were lightly roughened with
computer- generated chaos to give them the
impalpable level of detail that characterizes real-world
images.
Models, Kit Bashing & Greebles
5
In 3D computer graphics,
greebles can be created
automatically by specific
software, in order to
avoid the time
consuming process of
manually creating large
numbers of precise,
custom geometry.
This can often be
tedious, and repetitive
work, and some consider
it a task best suited to
automatic, software
based procedural
generation, particularly if
a great degree of
control is unnecessary or
the greebles will not be
particularly large on screen. Most greeble generating
software works by sub-dividing the surface to be split into
smaller regions, adding some detail to each new surface,
and then recursively continuing this process on each new
surface to some specified level of detail.
Paul Bussey
Editor
buzzGreeble for modo
Greeble plugin for 3D Studio Max
Greeble plugin for Realsoft 3D
Greeble plugin for trueSpace
Greeble plugin for LightWave
Greeble Script for Blender
Greeble Script for Autodesk Maya
Plugins
6
3DA: We are honored to be joined by the very talented
Don Webster, a 3D artist of extraordinary skill. His diverse
gallery of images shows savvy techniques across a wide
variety of 3D applications. Welcome to 3D Art
Magazine.
DW: Thank you for having me participate.
3DA: Before we jump into the art let’s get to know the
artist. You’ve been working with images of some sort for
most of your career. According to your bio you were an
aerial surveillance officer in the 60s. Tell us what that
was like and how it prepared you for future art works.
DW: As a young Intelligence Officer stationed in
Frankfurt West Germany, I ran an imagery interpretation
group whose mission was to keep a watchful eye on
the movements of East German forces through the use
of aerial photography. This involved looking at very
large dual image film strips using a device to view these
in stereo. The ability to view things in 3D greatly aids in
figuring out what is going on, on the ground. Each
frame was about 10 by 20 inches and viewed on large
light tables with reels at both ends. Using film positives
was the typical surveillance activity for a group at a
Corp Headquarters supporting the G2 Intelligence
Officer who reported to the Commanding General of,
in my case, V Corp, 7th Army Europe. This was also the
days of U2 flights controlled directly out of Washington,
and something new in our area: SLAR, Side Looking
Airborne Radar. A long torpedo shaped device
INTERVIEW: CANYON OUTPOST
Don Webster has made a career around images
and digital technology. From his army officer days
as an aerial surveillance officer in the 60s to an ex-
ecutive management position at a technology
company in the 90s, he has built a diverse experi-
ence base uniquely suited to the field of 3D art.
Don’s love of period history spanning multiple gen-
erations is a pallet of inspiration for a gallery of dig-
ital art to be envied. From the streets of Rome and
the time of Emperors, to the battlefields of the
American Civil War, Don has an eye for period art
and uses a wide array of 3D tools to bring his vision
to life.
Enjoying his retirement in the lush hills of Virginia’s
Shenandoah Valley, Don blends his free time with
taking care of his beautiful home, traveling with his
wife of 34 years, Shirley, and working in his exquisite
studio creating digital art of the highest quality.
He is a long-time Mac user and uses Vue, Modo,
and Zbrush, along with several other software
packages as the primary tools of his handiwork.
Don Webster’s Home Page
http://www.websterandsonsstudio.com/
DON WEBSTER
7
attached to the side of, in our usage, Mohawk aircraft
that would fly alongside an area of interest while the
radar beamed out for miles watching movements.
Now you have to understand that I was a young married
officer stationed at a level that makes this more of a
Pentagon type day job with free weekends and time to
travel the roads of Europe in my 69 XKE. (Oh, to have her
back now.) The G2 is an intelligence section watching
not only what was going on but signs of new
technology. Back home we were putting men on the
moon using scientists that came from Germany, that
place where strange new weapons had been
developed, so with a world of history, castles and
Formula One racing at every turn it was a natural
response that I would buy my first real camera and then
include film processing. After several years in Europe, I
returned to the states to be discharged and ready to
start a new career in the visual world with my wife and
first son.
Those years gave me a chance to see things I had been
looking at in books at the library as a teenager and only
dreamed about. A texture of life, art, and an
appreciation for life that came after years of war for the
people I met there.
3DA: You also state you spent sometime in the 70s,
“Conceptualizing technologies.” Considering the times,
pre-PC and post energy crisis, it sounds like an exciting
project for a budding computer artist. What were some
of your technology concepts hits and misses? Has most
of your tech predictions come true?
DW: I joined a graphics company in Washington DC
and brought with me my photographic equipment,
35mm, 120 and 4x5 view cameras, studio lighting and
lab processing hardware. I liked having full control from
start to finish and I wasn't really interested in normal
commercial photography assignments you would get in
the city. I was more interested in using my systems and
processing to speed up what graphic artists in the studio
needed. This was a time when we were all watching Star
Wars and the compositing and motion cam work being
developed. Using film in the lab to create production
capabilities for graphics seemed so high tech at the
time.
That was until the day I saw my first multi projector slide
show. There were 15- 35mm projectors controlled by a
device that ran a power panel for each group of three.
With multiple projectors providing an orchestration of
light and sound all displayed on a very wide screen,
engrained my current love for extreme horizontals.
I couldn’t wait to get involved in this new technology. I
sold all my large format cameras, enlargers, and studio
lighting to purchase the
system I saw. It was my
first
experience
with the
rapidly
changing
OLD SOLDIER
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8
SUMMER GALLERIES
9
Brian Christensen lives and works in
Northern California. Is pretty much a self-
taught artist drawing things with pencil since
early childhood. He took some 3D modelling
classes in college and got hooked with
Terragen. LevitatedArt.com
Black holes are known as voracious eaters,
caring nothing for whatever is swallowed by
their gravity's appetite. This example shows a
low mass X-ray binary system which consists
of a class K star and a black hole, orbiting
near enough to each other that the black
hole is able to pull away the outer layers of
the star, forming an accretion disk of
superheated gas. The sole remaining planet
will be tortured by gravity until it is finally torn
to pieces. The star will eventually be
devoured in a burst of searing radiation which
bathes everything within several hundred
lightyears. Neither the star nor its orbiting
planet have long to live, eventually they will
both succumb to the irresistible oblivion that
awaits.
I've always been interested by black holes,
and always wanted to do a good depiction
of one. Finally, with some inspiration from Mark
Garlick, I sat down and started. This image
was painted far more than any others so far, I
felt it was the best way to get the feeling I
wanted, CG just wouldn't cut it here. I would
have to say i like the black hole itself the best,
the accretion disc turned out well. I got a lot
of positive feedback on this image, on
DeviantArt I think it got more comments than
everything else I've posted combined. It's
probably my best reviewed image to date.
Irresistible Oblivion
10
Massive Lei Gong rises in the distance, with 6 members of it's extensive family of moons visible, over the Tratung
Mountains in this view from the moon Zhun-Ti.
The monks of the Jaffei Order live far above the forest and it's inhabitants, both literally and figuratively. Living an
ascetic existence amid the freezing mountaintops, they continue their Order's reason for existence; their attempt to
fulfill the Prophecy of Clarke. Found in the holy book "The Sky's Backside" written by the prophet Clarke millennia ago,
the Prophecy states that when all 9 billion names of God have been calculated and printed into physical existence, it
will reverse Hubble's constant, causing all of spacetime to slow and then stop it's expansion and begin it's contraction
into an eventual singularity, essentially triggering the end of this universe and the creation of the next.
The monks have strung together a network of sublight transmitters to contact their brethren on other worlds in order to
assemble the holy List in real time. This small, unassuming temple here on on Zhun-Ti is a permutation generator that
generates the many possible combinations of letters that make up of the names of God, which are then sent to
through the transmitter to a printing station, to be printed out on prayer flags and hung from the Final Stupa. When all 9
billion prayer flags have been hung, the monks will have, in effect, destroyed the universe, all in the names of God.
This was inspired by the short story "The 9 Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke, which always been one of my
favorites. I just wanted to reimagine it in a different setting, far in the future, since I've always been fascinated by the
effect time has on culture and civilizations. In the past I've usually relied on a single render for a base, in this case I had
to use multiple renders and stitch them together, it worked better than I expected, and I have used this technique
again already (sort of). I think I like the sense of grandeur in this image, the scope of the view, with the planet rising in
the background it lends the whole image a sense of majesty. This image garnered a decent bit of attention, I guess
that just proves the timelessness of Clarke's story.
SUMMER GALLERIES
In the Names of God
11
In the dusty depths of the Midnight Nebula, an unusual craft
appears. A solar sail, which by it's worn appearance appears
to have been drifting for some time, slowly nears the gas giant
Vidar. When there is no reply, two armed patrol ships from the
Collective naval base on the moon Thrym are dispatched to
investigate. By the direction it was travelling the solar sail
seemed to have come from the nearest habitated worlds,
orbiting the star Atea, 16 light years away. This could mean
trouble, since there has been little contact with the New Polys
since the war began there.
The two patrol ships hail the craft in all known languages, but
there is still silence. After thoroughly scanning it for any signs of
life, ambiguous signals prompt them to carefully tow it back to
port. Once in port, the craft is opened and found to contain
27 passengers, all in cryosleep. It takes months to figure out
how to bring the corpsicles back to life, but eventually it was
accomplished with the loss of only one life. When the captain
of the solar sail finally is given a chance to tell his story, it is a
good one;
The Atean system had been simmering with tensions between
the different factions for years, but recently it had flared into a
brutal hot war. Both sides had poured resources into
developing weapons, and their success had been frightening.
Nuclear weapons had long ago become the standard
warhead for ship to ship missles, but now they had been
repurposed to planetary bombardment of civilian areas.
Advanced physics had been bent toward a devastating
purpose, the quick and painful annihilation of the enemy.
Viruses had been developed, both biological and
technological, and let loose into the planetary net. These
viruses had been the favorite weapon of one nasty faction of
enemy, the captain said, shaking his head slowly. Artificial
Intelligence had been considered the cutting edge of
technology before the war had exploded. Now this AI tech had been incorporated into the viruses programming with particularly
malicious results. Whole colonies had been wiped out. Once infected, humans with net implants, a common accessory for
communication and data access, would be under the control of the virus, in effect creating armies of mindless robots or zombies -
but zombies trapped inside their own head; as the host carrier remained aware and conscious. These carriers, once infected, would
work to achieve the goals set up in the virus' programming, but would do so without alerting anyone to their infection by using the
hosts bodies own memories and personalities. What this meant among civilians was a bloodbath as they were usually simply directed
to eliminate their neighbors, family and friends. This was seen as such a vicious method of killing that public opinion quickly turned
against the virus creators. But for the majority it was too late; their system was turning into a killing ground of crisped moons and
glittering debris fields where habitats used to orbit. These solar sail refugees had struck out on a last ditch effort to escape, by
building a simple craft like a solar sail they had avoided attracting the attention that the buying or stealing of, say, a couple of
Alcubierre warp drives would have done. They constructed a laser station on a cold splinter of rock far on the edges of the system,
and were lucky enough to set off without attracting more attention than a lone patrol ship pilot with a slow trigger finger. After a
long, cold, silent voyage, they had arrived here, at the edge of Collective space.
Once this story set in, the Collective promised to begin caring for any wounded or sick, and they set about doing just that. They had
state of the art medical facilities compared to what the refugees had had access to before fleeing. After the initial bio exams and
treatment for cryosickness, the passengers were brought one at a time into a opalescent room to have their implants scanned and
cleaned of any traces of viruses. When the eighth passenger walked into the room and came within range of the scanners a tiny bit
of compressed code jumped silently out of her head and into the machines lining the walls, unnoticed by human or machine.....
Midnight Voyage
SUMMER GALLERIES
12
SUMMER GALLERIES
In the Names of God
Suzi Amberson currently resides in sunny Phoenix, Az. Suzi realized she was not
following her intended path she took a huge leap of faith and left the Insurance
business to pursue her passion for creating 3D art.
Suzi is a self-taught artist. starting out with Poser 6 back in 2007. Her CG toolbox has
expanded over the past few years and now includes Poser Pro 2012, Photoshop CS5
Extended, a Wacom Intuos 4 tablet, Marvelous Designer 2, Hexagon and Bryce as her
tools of choice.
She entered her first official art contest in 2009 over on the Daz3D website. The
challenge was to create an image in the spirit of infamous fantasy artist, Frank
Frazetta. The final judging was conducted by Frank Frazetta Jr. One of her entries took
third place and fueled her desire to pursue 3D art as she sought to add interest and
depth to her spectacular body of work. http://kachinadoll.deviantart.com/
Suzi Amberson
3DAD: What inspired you to create these images?
SA: The biggest inspiration for both my Steampunk Voyager and Steampunk Iron Butterfly images was the
incredible 110.1 Suit created by AlphaSeed over on Runtime DNA http://www.runtimedna.com/110.1.html
As soon as I spotted the suit and Metal textures the images just popped into my head. I love all things
Steampunk and thought it would be fun to create images that blend Steampunk and Magical elements
together. I was so inspired, the images pretty much created themselves. My Ziegfeld Phoenix fire image is
part of a set of images I have been working on. I am so fascinated by the old Ziegfeld Follies of the 1930's
and have been creating images with an a more modern updated feel to them. I love the elaborate head
pieces and outfits they wore and wanted to create outfits from a different perspective and more modern
approach.
3DAD: What did you learn or improve upon during the creation of these pieces?
SA: I think the greatest challenge with all three images was to create the illusion of flight or movement. It's
difficult to create this feeling with a static image and I learned a great deal when posing my characters. I
felt more extreme poses did a better job to capture the feeling that the characters were in motion. Painting
the hair in more unusual styles and giving it a windblown look really helped to capture this feeling. Another
obstacle I encountered was to achieve the feeling of depth. Since the main focus of the image was the
character, it was important to use shadow and light effectively to achieve some depth to the images. I
created all new lights that were strategically placed to help focus the viewers eye to the important aspects
of the image.
3DAD: What do you like best about these images?
SA: My favourite aspect of all three images is the unusual magical feel they have. I love fantasy images
and try to blend in magical elements to create a more unusual look to them. My goal was to create
something that never existed before and to give the images a new and different look. I also like to add a lot
of different textures and colors to help create the illusion of depth. I want the viewer to be drawn to the
image and character and by using many different colors and textures they have a lot of interesting things to
look at.
3DAD: What positive or constructive feedback did you get for these images after posting them?
SA: I received quite a bit of positive feedback for all three of my images. People seemed to enjoy the
colors and textures I used as well as the way the images were composed. I especially received good
feedback for my Steampunk Voyager image. They liked how I had blended the Steampunk and Magical
elements together as if the character was traveling through time and space.
13
STEAMPUNK VOYAGER
SUMMER GALLERIES
14
STEAMPUNK VOYAGER
STEAMPUNK IRON BUTTERFLY
ZIEGFELD GIRL III - PHOENIX FIRE
15
Alignment of celestial bodies is something that has inspired and
fascinated people for thousands of years. Most of these
alignments are not visible to the naked eye so I thought it
would be kind of nice to have a place from where a great
alignment would be visible.
I made this image mostly reusing assets that I had created for
previous images but there was one detail where I tried to
improve: a trail of footprints on the sand. That was made with a
mix of procedural materials painted on the sand, directly in
Vue's terrain editor.
My favourite aspect of this image is imagining I'm that
character, standing there, seeing that first hand...
I learned some really interesting things concerning the
particular physics of planetary systems and eclipses with the
feedback I gained!
Artur Rosa hails from Portugal. His background is originally engineering, but found a passion
for 3D digital art since 2006. We’ve all probably heard of SimCity—a classic 3D game that
piqued his interest and led him eventually to using E-on’s Vue software. He’s created a unique
portfolio with some great symbolism and sense of wonder in many of his pieces. http://
arthurblue.deviantart.com/gallery/
ALIGNMENT
SUMMER GALLERIES
16
ARCHIPELAGO 27
CTHAEH
17
SUMMER GALLERIES
I love to depict human colonies in distant worlds. In this case I
wanted to show a way for people to live in harmony with nature.
The houses I made for this image are integrated with the rocks
from the landscape. Without a "footprint" on the land itself, those
houses are fully integrated with the scenery.
I'm not good at modelling, it's one of my many weaknesses, so
during the making of this image I learned a bit more about
modelling.
My favourite detail here is how the sun hits the water. That was an
effect I wanted to achieve since the beginning and I think it
turned out fine (not 100% what I wanted but still fine).
Whenever I use DOF (depth of focus) in my images, like in this one,
I always get conflicting comments. Some people love it, some
people hate it. This image was no exception to this rule. I find that
interesting but I'm not quite sure what to make of it.
I recently read a great fantasy book by Patrick Rothfuss,
"Wise Man's Fear". It's a very visual book, in the sense
that the author spends a considerable amount of time
describing the places where action takes place. There
was one particular chapter about a character named
Cthaeh, a kind of an oracle (but much more), hiding in
a tree in a clearing of a forest. The author also
describes how the path seems to lead to the tree but
then it deviates from it. I tried to depict the essence of
the scene in my image. Not all details are the same; for
example, in the book the character walking along the
path is naked but I chose to depict him instead with the
looks that he has throughout all the other chapters of the book.
The light/shadow in the scene is made by the clouds. I learned a bit more on how to manipulate
clouds to obtain that effect. I also learned a lot about how to make paths in Vue using splines, a new
feature in the software.
I really like the tree and also the light/shadow effect here.
From the feedback on the image, it was really nice to see
comments from people that also read the book, how they
SUMMER GALLERIES
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18
RED RIDING HOOD—WHO’S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD WOLF RED RIDING HOOD—WHO’S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD WOLF
IISIDORESIDORE KOLIAVRASKOLIAVRAS
19
3DA: With Hollywood’s love affair with superheroes it’s no
surprise there’s a big proliferation in superhero and comic
book art. Many of today’s young digital artists are turning
to 3D packages like Poser to build their own unique set of
super men and women. We are joined by one such artist
today, graphic designer Isidore koliavras, better known
as Isikol to his Deviant Art fan base. Welcome to 3D Art
direct.
ISI: Thank you so much for the invitation. I really
appreciate the opportunity to introduce a new way in
creating/directing comic stories, the way only a 3d
application can offer.
3DA: Share with us how you got into digital art. Did you
always want to be a commercial artist?
ISI: Honestly, no. I always wanted to draw comic book
superheroes but my daily job as a visual communication
designer and my family state (married with 2 children)
wasn't leaving me free time to restart drawing them. But
a 3d application called Poser helped me so much,
allowing me a return to digital drawing.
3DA: How did your passion for comic book and
superhero art take off?
ISI: That happened really early, at the age of 5 to be
exact. When on a trip to an island I saw one of the
earliest publications of Spiderman at the airport. And that
was it, I was drawing superheroes all day long until the
age of 17. That was when I stopped.
3DA: What has been your greatest success in your
superhero artworks?
ISI: That is my ability to “hide” the fact that what you see
is a 3d image. Many fans around the world can easily tell
which image is based on a 3d model and which is not.
After a lot of practicing I think I have managed to
eradicate as much as I can
of the plastic look and
feel of a 3d
model.
3DA: Your
characters
are visually
Isidore koliavras is a working
graphic designer. He lives in
Athens, Greece and with a life-
long passion for comic book
heroes has honed his digital art
skill to creating and designing
his own superhero characters,
as well as putting his own touch
to classic Superheroes.
Using Poser and Photoshop as
his primary tools, Isidore has
created a vast gallery of his
own creations that could stand
alongside some of the most
well-known characters of the
age. In addition, he has paid
homage and put his own twist
on some more well-known Su-
perheroes, including his favor-
ite, Superman, Batman, Spider-
man and several others.
He hopes to someday ply his
skill with one of the big comic
book art houses.
BLACKMOON
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20 3D Art Direct : Be Inspired By Digital Art Issue#19
Black Moon by Isidore koliavras