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BEHIND THE SCENES (BTS) is a new and exciting DVD series developed to showcase the creation of a game cinematic sequence. The series follows a team of artists as they demonstrate their production techniques from concept phase to final rendered animation. This chapter in the series focuses on the creation of the character Geo, a seasoned veteran of numerous infiltration missions. Cajun Hylton takes the viewer step-by-step through the 3D modeling process, from simple proxy to final model using Maya and ZBrush. The viewer also gets to go behind the scenes and witness actual production meetings that discuss the design and creation of the character.

Continuing his Tethered Islands series, Aaron Sims shares his techniques for building a creature in ZBrush. Using ZSpheres to design the initial body structure, Aaron develops the character from scratch. He then demonstrates how to skin the ZSpheres and add details, color and lighting. In XSI, Aaron discusses the basics of rigging, weighting, and animating the imported creature from ZBrush. Finally he covers how to pose, light, and render the creature in an XSI scene.

BEHIND THE SCENES (BTS) is a new and exciting DVD series developed to showcase the creation of a game cinematic sequence. The series follows a team of artists as they demonstrate their production techniques from concept phase to final rendered animation.

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.

In this series, Marc Gabbana walks you through his visual development process as he creates the TribalBot, a forest dwelling robotic vehicle. In this second volume, he begins by adding tone to his pen drawings using Adobe Photoshop. Marc demonstrates how to work with values and shading, and he shares his methodology for layer management. He also shows you which custom brushes he uses as he adds dimension to his designs. Through his gray scale paintings, Marc emphasizes how value, composition and lighting are all integral for creating drama and mood in a scene. Lastly, he shows you how to combine various tone images to create new and unexpected lighting scenarios. The final image is a fully painted TribalBot ready to pounce off the screen.

In this series, Marc Gabbana walks you through his visual development process as he creates the TribalBot, a forest dwelling robotic vehicle. In this second volume, he begins by adding tone to his pen drawings using Adobe Photoshop. Marc demonstrates how to work with values and shading, and he shares his methodology for layer management. He also shows you which custom brushes he uses as he adds dimension to his designs. Through his gray scale paintings, Marc emphasizes how value, composition and lighting are all integral for creating drama and mood in a scene. Lastly, he shows you how to combine various tone images to create new and unexpected lighting scenarios. The final image is a fully painted TribalBot ready to pounce off the screen.

In this DVD, director Aristomenis (Meni) Tsirbas covers the basics of one of CG animation's least understood components: camera and staging, specifically in the context of effective storytelling. By breaking open one of his award-winning short films Meni reveals his creative process for designing a sequence to play clearly and dramatically. Story beats are broken down, camera motions are developed, and important narrative tools such as zoom factor and depth of field are explained. A detailed Do's and Don'ts section guides the viewer to create polished, compelling, and tasteful camera animation by addressing proper use of motion curves, avoiding the 'digital curse', and overlaying the right amount of camera shake.

In this second DVD in a series, Chris Stoski illustrates the creation of several 3D matte paintings. In the visual effects industry, directors are always asking for moving cameras in matte paintings and Chris shows how this is achieved. He creates two different environments and discusses how a matte painter creates camera movement in these key scenarios. In addition to Adobe Photoshop , Chris uses Autodesk 3ds Max, but the techniques can be implemented with other popular 3D software as well. From forward-moving dolly shots to lateral helicopter aerials, Chris covers the essentials of 3D and 2.5D matte painting for matte artists of all skill levels.

In the film production requires ever-increasing effects applied. In this DVD Chris Stotsky shows how to achieve it. The lecture uses two examples, to show a comparison of simple and complex lighting in the flat frame, that changes the camera angle with osveschenie.Sochetaya 3D program, add camera movement in the medium composition. The lecture ends with the creation of beautiful short rolikov.Dopolnitelno to Adobe Photoshop, Chris uses Autodesk 3ds Max and Apple Shake, but these methods can be used with any other software.

In this DVD, Laurent reveals his process for creating a high resolution creature, designed by Carlos Huante, for the video-game cinematic production pipeline. The pipeline presents many challenges such as working with short deadlines, achieving a clean topology and being able to interpret a 3/4 view concept into a complex and detailed 3D model. This DVD will cover the creature modeling from low-poly modeling to high-poly detailing using 3ds Max and ZBrush. Topics include Max's basic polygon tools, creating the base volumes and proportions, cleaning up topology, reshaping in ZBrush, and lighting and rendering a sample still with Brazil for presentation to clients and supervisors..

In this DVD, Tim Dobbert takes you through the more advanced aspects of matchmoving and camera tracking. He discusses how to use survey data to force a camera solution to fit a pre-built environment and how to use camera tracking for paint work. He also covers blending, enhancing and extending matchmoved cameras. Tim shows you how to prepare for a live-action shoot and how to get the right information once you're on-set. There's also a section on advanced object tracking that shows how to use an object's motion to create a camera move. And finally, he covers the tricky problem of lens distortion and how it affects the visual effects workflow. Tim uses a variety of software packages for this lecture including Maya, Boujou, MatchMover, SynthEyes and After Effects

In this DVD, Laurent reveals his techniques for creating the textures and shaders for the final stage of the creature modeling and texturing pipeline. Laurent shows how to create texture maps from scratch using a small library of different concrete and plaster textures. Using BodyPaint, he takes the cavity map from ZBrush and uses it as a guide to create the other maps for the creature. Laurent demonstrates how he experiments with one area of the body and then brings it to a near final stage before duplicating the maps and shaders for the rest of the creature using Photoshop and Max. He then shows how to use BodyPaint to paint over the seams and finalize the textures. Finally, Laurent renders out separate passes and composites them together in Digital Fusion, discussing how this process allows better control of the final image and enables him to test the shaders for scene assembly and lighting.

Introducing panoramic photography for digital set building, photographer Greg Downing walks you through a step-by-step-process of creating high-resolution omni-directional panoramas. This highly detailed description starts with an equipment survey, revealing all relevant photography instructions and demonstrations. Using a normal film or digital camera with Realviz Stitcher, Greg provides a complete guide to image stitching, culminating in some some exciting ways to use your panoramas for 3D, visual effects, print or the web.

BEHIND THE SCENES (BTS) is an exciting DVD series developed to showcase the creation of a game cinematic sequence. In this chapter of the series Burke Roane focuses on two action oriented game cinematic shots. He discusses the different stages of animation and explains what is expected from animators in a production environment. He compares and contrasts different computer animation techniques, and shows how to reach a high level of refinement in your shots. From start to finish, Burke explains in great detail how to work in an organized and efficient way, but more importantly he talks about the creative process of animation and how that process guides his workflow.

Brandon Young presents his production FX workflow by reconstructing a shot from the Dragon Age: Origins cinematic created at Blur Studio. He goes over the shot breakdown, the goals of the shot and how to achieve them quickly. Brandon shows how to use Particle Flow, FumeFX and stock elements to make the effects shine. He then delves into rendering and compositing the effects elements into the actual production shot.

In this DVD, Ryan Church introduces the viewer to Corel Painter. Ryan teaches the way he uses the program on a daily basis to create production artwork for the film and video game industries. From the basic first steps of setting up the Painter workspace and menus, to using brushes, layers, papers and textures, this DVD is perfect for anyone interested in learning traditional illustration techniques using Painter's powerful features and tools. As the lecture progresses, Ryan walks you through his process for creating a finished production illustration in real time, from sketching and designing, to composing and adding final details.

In this DVD, Joe Benitez unveils the secrets of drawing alluring comic book style pin-up characters. Sex appeal and allure is conveyed through many methods including stylized proportions, foreshortening, twists and curves. The importance of facial expression is also discussed in the context of conveying the right mood or emotion, along how this ties the character together. Instructor for this title: Joe Benitez

This release contains all the video lessons on a series of After Effects Tutorials that are far from the author Ergin Kuke.Ergin is creative director and co-founder of Angst VFX, an up and coming visual effects company in Los Angeles, CA.Ergin moved to Los Angeles from Albania in 2001 to be part of the Gnomon Certificate program. After finishing studies there, he has been a Lighting TD and Compositor at Sony Imageworks, Rhythm & Hues working on Polar Express, Zathura, Superman, Narnia, Beowulf etc. As a freelance artist in commercial boutiques, Ergin has worked at Digital Kitchen, Stardust, Engine Room, Brand New School, Superfad etc doing lighting and compositing on many commercial and music video projects. He has also developed concert visuals for Korn, Bon Jovi, 50 Cent, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Paul Oakenfold and more.

This class will demonstrate how to use principals of animation to create a more compelling and stylized visual effects sequence. Using a plethora of 3D applications, including 3ds Max, Maya, Houdini, Vue and FumeFX, Slim will emphasize and build upon many animation tricks and techniques, focusing on shapes, color and motion semantics.