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In this DVD, director Aristomenis (Meni) Tsirbas reveals the essentials for creating properly animated stereoscopic imagery. Although Maya and LightWave are used, the course is platform agnostic and can be used with any animation software, even if it doesn't have stereoscopic tools. Meni guides you through a comprehensive overview of all the major principles of stereo filmmaking. Meni begins with a biological discussion of how the human eye perceives stereo imagery, and then covers the principles of 3D, including near and far divergence, the conversion at the screen plane, and working with camera movement. After creating a final render, he completes the lecture by showing how to display animated stereo sequences. This is a comprehensive yet simple to understand lecture that gives artists all the tools needed to generate exceptional stereoscopic imagery.

In this introduction to photorealistic texture painting, Justin Holt discusses how a trained eye for detail and keen sense of observation are essential attributes to being a successful texture painter in the the feature film industry. Using BodyPaint and Photoshop, Justin will demonstrate some of his easy to follow techniques and tricks of the trade in order to paint proper color, bump, displacement, specular and opacity maps. But more importantly, Justin will go through essential principles to maintaining a non-destructive workflow while painting textures to ensure a maximum amount of control and flexibility for any revisions and changes that may be requested after the maps are completed in a production environment. Additionally, Justin will complete the lecture with a quick run through in Modo to show how to quickly and easily generate polished renders that showcase all of the finely tuned texture work.

Particle expressions are a way of using MEL (Maya-Embedded Language) to form and control relationships between particle and object attributes over time. Visual effects animators rely on expressions to create a variety of complex motion and behavior that is impossible to create using other dynamics techniques. This lecture will show you how to tap into the power of expressions by going over the basic types of expressions and how to generate them. In addition, it will introduce you to different methods for creating and utilizing custom particle attributes for maximum effect.

Many of us drew dinosaurs when we were kids. Dinosaurs are beasts of paradox. They inhabited the world between monster and animal, imagination and science. For many, dinosaurs were the introduction to understanding the natural world. It is not surprising that many of the world’s leading paleontologists started out as artists themselves. In this DVD, David conveys a strong understanding of dinosaur anatomy mixed with the sheer joy of giving life, personality and motion to these inspiring creatures. He covers a wide range of topics from skeletal structures and muscles, to range of motion and the essential gestures of various body types. David focuses on capturing these elements in the form of quick sketches of both herbivorous and carnivorous dinosaurs.

Wayne Barlowe is an author and illustrator who has created images for books, films and galleries. After attending Cooper Union, he executed hundreds of paperback book covers for all of the major publishers as well as illustrations for Life, Time and Newsweek. He is the author and illustrator of Expedition, Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials, Barlowe’s Guide to Fantasy, Barlowe’s Inferno, Brushfire: Illuminations from the Inferno, The Alien Life of Wayne Barlowe and An Alphabet of Dinosaurs. His character designs can be seen in Blade 2, Galaxy Quest, Hellboy and Hellboy 2, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkhaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Avatar, The Hobbit and Alien Planet, a Discovery Channel special based on Expedition. He contributed many designs for EA’s Dante’s Inferno. Currently, he is writing the sequel to his first novel, God’s Demon, entitled The Heart of Hell.

3D Creature Development is a creative process that evolves a design by taking advantage of modern 3D tools and techniques. This Master Class introduces the student to the entire pipeline, while exploring form, looks and behavior. Along the way we focus on the experience of working on a project where our work must regularly be presented to an art director or client, while also keeping in mind that the workflow should allow for an iterative approach. This requires an emphasis on speed and efficiency. Projects are never done, they are due. You can tweak things forever, but in the end your work just needs to satisfy the demands of the project, client or specific shot that the work is being made for. With this in mind, all of my techniques are based on a workflow that allows me to spend as little, or as much time, as I have been given. For this creature project, the deadline was one day for each of the seven stages of development: Design, Modeling and UV Layout, Digital Sculpting, Look-Development, Texturing and Shaders, Rigging and Posing, Animation and Live-Action Integration.

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