Levelling up

For those of you that may be interested there's an article in the new issue of 3D artist magazine I wrote (there's another next month as well). This month covers 'easy texturing in Mudbox' of a tree stump. You can buy it from www.3dartistonline.com or 'all good book stores' as they always say on the adverts.

A test frame from MY version of the cathedral animation

I'm also at the moment sorting out a couple of full 3d mattes / scenes for the Joan of Arc short being made by FXPHD as part of my MOD302 course. One of these is an absolute doozy of a shot, that will mix both practical effects and digital 3d mattes. In fact I have a timing shot with low res geo rendering out as I type this.

Also the lads over at Breitbild VFX in Germany are kindly letting me use their ender farm in between using it themselves to render out a load of stuff. So as well as some stuff you've not seen, there will also be my own personal version of the cathedral shots (with a few of my own added), some photoreal full 3 external environments and a bit of character stuff as well.

I've also been giving the cathedral a few tweaks as it was finished back at the end of September last year and so wanted to give everything a once over before adding it to a reel as even though the animation hasn't been seen yet, it's an old model ironically. So there are changes I've made to my own personal version that are different to the one covered in MOD301.

In case you hadn't guessed this is for a new reel, mainly as my non environment reel is seriously showing its age now after a year. It also gives me an excuse to show clients some more impressive stuff in actual shots. Now there is no way in hell I would be able to render this stuff out without a render farm...and even then some are having to be seriously optimised to not blow up the Breitbild VFX farm lol. So big thanks to the lads.

Also I'm amazed at the reaction to the free videos... I hope you found them useful and I'll up more once things calm down in a week or two.

Free Zbrush Hair to Spline's plugin for 3D Max

'Wayne's Poly to Splines' 3D Max plug-in (Free)

Link: www.psychocore.com/WaynesPolyToSpline.zip

Well as a personal thank you to all the zbrush users that were so positive about the mudbox videos and realised they are just as useful to them, and also didn't insult me or start ww3.... Here's a little thank you for those of you that use 3D Max. Its something I knocked out in an hour tonight that takes imported zbrush hair and converts it into splines so that they can be used with to comb max hair and fur. This of course gives you dynamics and opens the whole thing up to animation. Its single click and works fast...oh and free.

It operates in a single click and includes a very basic installation and usage PDF....if there are any spelling mistakes or typos don't blame me as I wrote the damn thing in 5 mins lol. As mudbox users have sort of had a monopoly on me of late I felt it would be a nice way to say thanks to the zbrush users who often get sidelined in my freebie releases.

I can't stick this on zb central as I've been banned for 'daring to use mudbox' now for over 3 1/2 years lol. So pass the word amongst yourselves as I cannot.

...and so it is done.

It's taken well over a week of uploading day and night on my slow rural internet connection and fitting it around constant client work, but all the DVD's I own copyright to are now available for free. Plus a few other videos that have either been lost over the years, spread in strange places no one but a few knew about or simply higher res versions.

There are many other videos I've done that as I don't own copyright I can't make free such as the 3d creative magazine ones I've done over the years (that could easily double this); and ones for 3D artist magazine coming up and of course the paid more recent FXPHD ones. But at over 46 1/2hours of free DVD's and videos isn't bad going for you all I think. I've no idea how much it would cost to buy them all...a fair bit though.

I do have one or two other things I want to still upload when I have time, but I'm going to take a well earned rest from uploading to the site for a while now. Let's not get this wrong this was a massive undertaking and one that has never been done before. No one has put their entire DVD back catalogue out for free..and certainly not on a very slow rural internet connection like I have. There are times over the last week I would have given my left nut for a faster upload speed. All videos have been uploaded with no help from anyone.... I don't think 3d palace wanted to kill their upload for a week lol.

There have been about 1% of predictable people with a problem, but to be frank I couldn't care less and neither could the vast majority of digital sculptors across the board of both Mudbox and Zbrush persuasion. This was not done for me, or them it was done to help people period. There's not even a proper back link to my main site www.DashDotSlash.net on it lol.

So enjoy the videos and PLEASE remember they are not representative of my current standard of work as some are very old models that were used...even back then. Never say I don't do nice things for you all every now and again. ;) Now it's over to the rest of the industry and see if they can start and build on this idea of mine.

Wow!

Currently as it stands right this moment there is over 43 hours of free DVD's and video tutorials of mine on MudboxLIVE.com. all but 11 1/2 hours that I had totally forgotten about that I did for Filter Foundry a year back are direct links to the streaming video. The filter foundry videos (over 11/2 hours of it !) you do need to join up to filter foundry ....but the video s are free of mine.

There is still at least 2 DVD's I have to upload this week that will add even more serious time to the video content. That's assuming I don't come across any more videos I've forgotten about in the meantime..which I may well do. There are videos all over the internet that I've done over the years, many of which I have either lost track of , deleted or simply forgotten about or can't trace right now. So what's on MudboxLIVE is literally the tip of the iceberg of the videos I've put out.

I am humbled by the reaction to this crazy idea of mine. Its gone little bit viral and is very odd for me to see from the 'inside'. Although part of me finds it disturbing that more people have now seen stuff of mine that is years old than have seen my recent work lol. I do hope everyone bears in mind that a lot of the videos uploaded are very old and do not reflect what I can do as a tutor or an artist right now. The links to MudboxLIVE have been growing exponentially this week, and that just the ones I know about.....to be honest I haven't had time to check as I've been too busy.

I normally do not add links to my YouTube video blog to my site as to be honest its sort of my video diary and isn't meant to be taken particularly seriously, but the videos I upped a couple of days ago may explain why I've made all my back catalogue of DVD's available for free and how I personally see the whole thing.I should point out these YouTube videos are normally only intended for friends and are very not safe for work, there is swearing, rather a lot of it in fact. It is also in my 'raw' accent.

So as of right now I'm going to have the 1st day off of the year so far. I'm going to be doing some serious relaxing. Enjoy the videos.......

As of now all my Mudbox DVD's free .....

People have said alot of nice things about the 14 DVD's I've released over the years and they continue to sell. As I own copyright on 10 of them (and to be frank the other 4 are so old they are useless to anyone except an archaeologist lol) I have decided to put my entire range of DVD's out for free as my gift. No catch...no signing up for a forum...and no restrictions on where you can add them. I've always said that when I do well I try to spread the good fortune around in some way and as this year so far has been fantastic... so...well you all get a late xmas present ;)

It always seemed a pity to me that the majority of my videos can't e seen unless you bought them or are already a Mudbox user. While some people worked out ages back most are just as useful to Zbrush sculptors as Mudbox users, But a lot of people without the spare cash to buy them missed out, and relied on either piracy or the free videos. Now let's not kid ourselves that this is an easy undertaking...this is a massive logistical undertaking that I have dropped like a H bomb on Cris who runs 3D-palace.com about 30mins ago. He took it well without passing out at all lol.

Getting the ones that are not on servers uploaded and out is going to take a little time, but it's already started. So tonight the 1st DVD's goes 'From the Ground up: Wave 2' the Dentist, hard surface sculpting by hand in Mudbox. Vol 5 of the Mudbox Masterclass series 'The Minotaur' and an oldie but a goody the siggraph 2009 masterclass. Those are the ones I can find right now on the server and the only reason why these are up 1st.

MUDBOXLIVE.com

Bookmark this as this is where my entire DVD range is going one by one for free!

1st FREE DVD: Mudbox From the Ground Up Wave 2 'The Dentist'

2nd FREE DVD Mudbox Masterclass Vol 5: 'The Minotaur'

3rd FREE DVD 'Autodesk Mudbox Masterclass Siggraph 2009'|

Autodesk Mudbox Masterclass Siggraph 2010 also coming (with parts never seen.)

Also while I'm at it I have removed some of the older time lapses and tutorials that I feel are just too old or not good enough to stick around. Sorry but I do have some sort of quality control lol. I would say that remember the last DVD I recorded and released was about 2 years back so remember these are not indicative of the current quality of my work. (if you spread them around I would ask you to point that out please as the last thing I want is old work been seen as my current work regardless of how good or bad it may be.) There will be a lot of hours worth of DVD's here that would have cost you a fair old penny to buy.

So as of now I consider the DVD format for tutorials dead. For me it dies tonight and the only place you'll be able to see my classes is either by taking part in the FXPHD MOD301 and MOD302 courses or at live events.

I told you there would be some changes this year ;)

ADDITIONAL:

Once they are all out I'll be organising things onto MudboxLIVE.com a bit better.

Just to make it clear, this isn't some promotional gimmick where they will disappear in a set length of time..they are free now for ever..until either planet earth explodes or a zombie apocalypse kills us all lol. Also these DVD's were making money right up till this morning. Coz if your going to give someone a gift its best to make it worth something. No I'm not doing it for some glory thing as I honestly don't have time to pimp this over half the bloody internet. if your lucky you may see one or two posts , but only if I have time. I'm relying on the users to promote this amongst themselves as I'm way to busy right now.

MOD301 & MOD302 about to Start at FXPHD

I have two courses you can take part in this term at FXPHD. In case you missed it last time MOD301 Advanced environment modelling is being shown again, and yes this means I will be answering any questions you may have during the 10 weeks on that in the fxphd forum. Also I'm doing a brand new course MOD302 3D Digital Environments. So lets have a quick breakdown of what each course is about:


MOD301 : Advanced Enviroment modelling






This 10 week course covers from start to final renders the creation of a full cathedral interior based on Durham cathedral for use as background to some green screen shots. The final asset is photoreal and looks rather nice even if I do say so myself. The courses uses 3d Max and Mudbox although many followed along well with Maya and / or Zbrush (as there are a few extra videos covering both. It is not a beginners course and is hard, but as anyone who has taken the course will tell you 'you will learn stuff'.


MOD302 : 3D Digital Environments



Lets 1st get out of the way that this is not a one shot course. It is also a hard course to put it mildly and covers the creation of a number of photoreal full 3D digital environments. That means no camera projection, no 2.5D cards... so basically it means no cheating. We are living as artists in an increasing stereoscopic environment where both TV and films have made the step into it. As such many of the old tricks either no longer work anymore, or look terrible if used. The only solution is a full 3D environment in most cases.


This course will be using a combination of Vue 10, Mudbox 2012 and Maya 2012 and will be using real production examples from the 'Joan of Arc' short film being made by FXPHD. Some stills you can see on the main part of my site (www.dashdotslash.net) while others you can't because...well the script isn't locked down yet. The last 2-3 lessons will cover the creation of the external shot to accompany the interior shots made during MOD301. (Although both courses have been designed to be stand alone.)

The shot we have to match the cathedral, set dressing and any environment changes to is a complex long shot taken by Mike Seymour on the Red in New Zealand. This will work the initial reveal of the cathedral, in fact I would strongly urge watching the O day video over at FXPHD to get an idea of exactly what that will entail. We will be using suppplied tracking data and not only creating the assets for the final shot but compositing them as well in Nuke so we have a final shot.



This has been a widely anticipated course since it was annouced about a week back and I will outline again this is not a beginners course and is the highest level that FXPHD run (the other levels being 100 and 200 level courses). Again this course features a series of hardcore practical examples from a high end short actually in production.

I've also been told that an interview with me is in the latest 3D Artist magazine, I've not seen it myself yet, but keep your eyes open for it. You may also want to keep your eye on the next issue as well. ;)