Welcome to Session 44 of 3D Art Direct's podcast, where Paul Bussey interviews Oshyan Greene, the business manager of Planetside Software, which produces Terragen 4 for rendering and animating realistic natural environments. Terragen 4 is used in film, TV, commercials, as well as educational disciplines, to name but a few.

We're primarily talking to Oshyan about the recent release of Terragen 4.1, as well as SIGGRAPH held recently in Los Angeles.

Digital Art Live's mission is getting behind the scenes with top digital artists and leaders by featuring them in in-depth interviews, through our magazine, podcast, and live event webinars, allowing you to connect with them and other artists and discover what inspired them, the steps they've taken in conceptualizing their work, and the techniques that they've used in building their creations. You can stay informed of our live webinars and podcasts by subscribing to our free monthly magazine at digitalartlive.com. While there, take the time to browse our growing library of new events and live webinars, as well as past recordings and magazine issues. Our site is constantly being updated, featuring topics such as modeling, sculpting, rigging, lighting, and digital composition for software such as DAZ Studio, ZBrush, Poser, Terragen, and Vue, to list but a few. So let's get to the interview.

Kim Schneider, better known as Arki is a 3D modeller and texture creator that has just completed a definitive series of tutorials in association with Digital Art Live called Creating Complex Clothing and available on DAZ3D's website that takes the student from concept to finished, saleable product which covers modelling, UV mapping, rigging and texturing.

Find out more about our podcast, webinars and magazine at www.digitalartlive.com

Kim has worked as a professional illustrator for RPG games, and her started her 3D digital art journey in 2000 with Poser and then Poser Pro and started selling her content in 2006. Since then, she's been hard at work creating content for DAZ Studio. Her choice of modelling software is Hexagon, UV mapping using UV Layout Pro and UV Mapper Pro, among others such as GIMP, Photoshop, Terragen, Blacksmith3D and more in her workflow.

During the interview, Kim talks about

• Her inspiration for her modelling concepts.
• How to sell your models for profit and her recommended "path to success."
• She talks a little about her pen and paper (role-playing) game that she's in the process of creating.
• Practical knowledge of how things work in order to be able to model them, realistically.
• and her fascination with dragons,

for just a few topics.

Snippet from the transcript

DAL: ... How critical is it to understand how something works in order to be able to model it properly? For example, you and I talked a bit before about modeling a weapon, and you said that you have no interest in it because you have no working knowledge of it. So how critical do you think it is to understand how something works to be able to model it properly?

Kim: Well, if I think of a current project I'm working on, it's a dragon skeleton and I had to do huge amount of research about animal and human skeletons before I could do that. So you have to learn how to model a joint, what kind of joint is used in an elbow or a knee or a wrist. So those are three types of joints already. Or the shoulder, that's another joint there.

So if you don't understand this and don't know how the shape defines functionality, you are probably not going to have a very good time or a fun time modeling that thing. So at least it's true for me, first I have to know what I'm doing, first I have to understand what I'm doing before I can put it into 3D, or model it in clay for that matter, which is very similar in the process.

DAL: Do you model in clay much to get inspiration or to flesh out ideas, I guess?

Kim: I used to. It's very messy. Takes up a lot of space and you have to fire the clay. So I don't do it anymore, but I hope when I get into zeeBrush or zedBrush a little bit more, I will be able to do some more sculpting without the mess and the firing. I said "ZedBrush."

DAL: You said "ZedBrush," yes, that's good, ZedBrush. In Canada, we don't say "Zee," we say "Zed." So ZedBrush.

Kim: The eternal struggle.

DAL: And ZedZed Top.

Kim: Yeah. That's a bit clunky.

DAL: Yeah, doesn't quite roll off the tongue. So, that's an interesting question. You know what? I had never thought of the human skeleton in that way, that there are, you know, a fixed number of joints that move in a fixed direction, and depending on any fantastical creature that you're gonna build, you have to understand how all of the different joints come together. And I'm assuming, just extrapolating on that, then now you have to understand the different kinds of muscles and the connection points to the bones in order to flesh out, if you will, the figure as well, right?

Kim: Yes, exactly, because what I'm doing right now with the dragon skeleton is... the starting point was a sketch of one of my dragon species for my game, and I used the silhouette to model the skeleton inside. And what I was doing that I already noticed I think the proportions are off, it's not going to work the way I thought it would. So maybe when I have a lot of time, I'm going to add muscle and maybe internal organs and then model the outside skin and then see how that looks. It's going to be close to my initial design, but then slightly different. So I will sort of reverse engineer my own species, so it's going to be interesting...

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Patrick Gyger is the curator of the major exhibition Into the Unknown: A Journey Through Science Fiction coming to the Barbican — Europe's largest multi-cultural arts and conference venue located in London, UK — exploring one of pop culture's most celebrated worlds. Featuring works that have yet to be shown in the UK, this unprecedented show encompasses music, film and art to present a new, global perspective on Science Fiction.

The exhibition is on from June 3, 2017 through September 1, 2017. More information and tickets are available on Barbican's site or by clicking here.

Digital Art Live will have a Barbican Event Meetup on July 2, 2017 and further information can be found here on our site.

During the interview, Patrick covers such topics as

• Organization of the event into four main themes: Extraordinary Voyages; Space Odysseys; Brave new Worlds, and; Final Frontiers and how each explore classic narratives of the genre in new ways.
• Relevance and appeal of Science Fiction
• Owners of the works in the exhibition

Within the podcast we asked Patrick these questions:

1. During the 1990s you've had a focus on medieval studies, looking at crime and justice. Are there any parallels in this interest and your more current interests in curating works of science fiction?
2. You've also published a book on the history of the flying car. What inspired you to take a close look at this niche of science fiction?
3. Into the Unknown is an exhibition that is on quite an extraordinary scale for the genre of science fiction.  What enthused you to create something on this scale, or did it just naturally snowball?
4. How important is the goal of having a global view of science fiction in this exhibition? And the exhibition is going on tour isn't it?
5. Included are some pieces from the private sci-fi collection of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Tell us a little about Paul and his collection and the story of being able to collaborate with him.
6. You are pleased to include some artwork from the notable artist Patrick Tatopoulos. Does Patrick have a particular focus with his work?
7. The exhibition is divided into four chapters. Tell us what these chapters are and what would you wish people to value and come away with from each of these chapters.
8. The press release talks about being able to explore these four chapters of the genre in new ways. I'm curious about what these "new ways" are — or do you want to leave that a surprise?!
9. Does the Extraordinary Voyages chapter look at the roots of science fiction, where it all started?
10. Tell us about a few items of what to look forward to in the largest section of the show Space Odysseys props and models from various TV shows and movies. What pieces from this section were you particularly proud to curate?
11. The Brave New Worlds exhibition section, explores all kinds of different societies imagined by sci-fi writers. Is there a balance of utopian and dystopian societies represented here? What's your favourite society that has been dreamed up?
12. Tell us about a few of the more notable exhibits for the Final Frontiers part of the show — "inner realms from human perception."
13. Are there elements of the exhibition which celebrate artwork created digitally? Stills, animation or special effects?
14. Science fiction is important since it allows us to explore our own humanity. It allows us to do that exploration more thoroughly than other genres and can take us to the normal limits and perhaps beyond of different circumstances. Do you have a few favourite stories that look at this exploration and are they represented in the exhibition?
15. Who would you like to thank, the team in putting together this exhibition?
16. Where's the best place to go on the web to find out more on Into the Unknown?

Barbican — Into the Unknown: A Journey through Science Fiction

https://digitalartlive.com/digital-art-live-magazine/

Paolo Ciccone is the author of Reality, a plugin for Poser and DAZ Studio that introduced Physically Based Rendering (PBR) around 2010, when PBR was not that familiar for Poser and DAZ Studio artists. PBR provides more photorealistic or natural looking renders than previous render techniques. The Reality plugin continues to takes advantage of the LuxRender rendering engine.

In this interview session we learn:-

1. How can the reality plugin help with gaining realism with skin materials in a render?

2. There are a number of SSS parameters, such as surface thickness, abortion scale and scattering scale. What settings tend to work best for which circumstances?

3. There’s a thread on Runtime DNA that talks about how you spent weeks of development testing thousands of combinations, was that with getting the automatic SSS function correct?

4. Is it possible to make the skin “glow” using Reality? I know there is a “light emission” modifier that might be used since this can be tweaked in any material.

5. You could use a procedural texture to get some interesting patterns on the skin using Reality, without having to use Photoshop. Firstly what’s a procedural texture and how might you apply that in Reality?

6. Since we last spoke in January, you’ve released Reality 4.3. What are the main changes to see in 4.3?

7. You had a surprise phone call this year from a manager at Apple computers. Tell us about that story.

8. You’ve introduced a new Reality Facebook Group. Tell us about this and some of the good things that have come out of this for Reality users.

9. What’s next for Reality?

See digitalartlive.com for more podcasts, magazines and webinars on digital art

3D Art Direct Podcast Inteview with Chuck Carter Creative Director, Founder of Eagre Games

Once upon a time Carter helped create Myst and 26 other video games including the Command and Conquer and Red Alert franchises, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, Nox, Pacman World Rally, Kyrandia and many others  – Carter worked on TV shows like Babylon5 (as a digital Matte Painter) as well as having contributed work on Star Trek the Experience and Disney’s Mission to Mars motion rides.  His illustration and animation work has been seen on the BBC, National Geographic, US Dept. of Defense, Homeland Security, Scientific American, NASA, Caltech and JPL as well dozens of additional publications and organizations.

The new game of Zed has these elements:-

Exploration, depth, no time limits, curiosity, imagination, meditative,

The background for the game

Players must explore a bizarre world and solve strange puzzles as they help “an aging and dying dreamer leave behind a lasting legacy for his granddaughter.”

“The dreamer is confused by your presence. He can help or hinder your progress by putting challenging obstacles in your path—he needs your help but at times doesn’t understand why you are there,” the Kickstarter pitch states. “As you learn his story, the truth about his past and his final masterpiece is revealed in the dreams you explore; a personal creation of one man’s disintegrating mind. Help the dreamer fulfill his final task and unleash Zed to the world.”

Mission Statement for Eagre games

“developing non-violent, beautifully immersive, story-driven games”.

This is a special session of the podcast where we go in depth in learning about behind the scenes of Renderosity, one of the most well known digital artist communities and digital products stores on the web. I speak with Tommy Lemon, vice president of Renderosity and also Tim Haskasma manager of business development and marketing.

In this session we learn

- The original vision for Renderosity back when it started in 1999

- The deep history of Renderosity.

- The challenge of selling digital content in the stone age of the internet.

- All about the mission statement for Renderosity.

- Initiatives that highlight community members, artists, vendors. 

- Dig into some of the demographics of the Renderosity community

- Who are some of the longest serving staff members and what they’ve brought to Renderosity.

- The Renderosity community on Facebook?

 - How regular feedback from the community helps improve the services and website.

 - What tools are offered to vendors at Renderosity

 - Video tutorials are an important part of the Renderosity marketplace.

Just remember you can sign up for our free digital artists magazine at digitalartlive.com, where you can also discover live webinar events and our store containing recordings of those events. You’ll find tutorials on Poser, DAZ Studio, Vue, Terragen, Hexagon and ZBrush.

in this session, we’re focussing on a subject to do with the exploration and colonisation of Mars, which is part of our overall theme for our forthcoming Digital Art Live magazine, where we will feature artwork on the colonisation of space. We will have at least three artists with some stunning sci-fi artwork and in-depth interviews with the artists on their work and you can get this magazine for free, which will include the PDF at digitalartlive.com and click on the “Get Started Now” button on the home page. You can also check out our live webinar events we host for training on software such as Poser, DAZ Studio, ZBrush, Vue and more.

So I was very privileged to talk to Nicol Willett the education director of the mars society and to see her enthusiasm for teaching about the opportunities for us on Mars.

In this session we learn:- 

- What is the Mars society and why it was formed

- How concept illustrations have helped in some of the Mars society projects

- What are the two most significant barriers in getting humans to Mars.

- Is it easier to colonise the moon rather than Mars?

- The new "160 mission" organised by the Mars Society.

- Nicole's view on the top two achievements of the society since it's been formed.

- How you can help the Mars Society.

I am very pleased to introduce Oshyan Greene, the business manager of Planetside Software, which produces the well regarded Terragen 3, a great solution for rendering and animating realistic natural environments. In this session we’re going to talk about the anticipated Terragen 4

In this session we discover:-

- Terragen's capabilities. What can you control as you create your realistic environment? Can you create an entire planet?

- Importing real world terrain datasets. Some of the more notable projects that Terragen has been using this capability.

- A little about Matt Fairclough who is the lead developer for Terragen.

- Terragen 4 -  the new Ray Traced preview. 

- Hints on some new terrain editing tools. 

- Additional photo realism for cloud scenes. 

- T4 will include lens flare effects. What type of lens flare effects will we see?

- About the simulation of an Ozone layer in T4.

- The fractal procedural erosion shader by BlinkFrog for T3 (in beta) and it’s free.

- Virtual Reality and Terragen “We're excited about VR and want to see more spherical renders from the community. Send us your renders using the Spherical Camera!” (to Planetside.co.uk)

Podcast Introduction

This is session 36 of the 3D Art Direct podcast speaking to Paolo Ciccone, author of the Reality plugin for DAZ Studio and Poser, one of the most advanced Physics Based Rendering systems in the market, producing photorealistic results.

Podcast Prologue

Welcome to this session. I’m really pleased to talk to Paolo, who we’ve interviewed several times in the past and he’s always a joy to speak to. He’s done a lot of good work with his Reality plugin to make a real gem of a tool to help you the artist generate realism in your renders.

We’ve had Paolo as a keynote speaker at our last Poser Expo live webinar conference and we’ll no doubt see him again in some more of our events this year.

Check out digitalartlive.com. It’s now early January 2016 and we’ve got two events coming up this month including a Poser clinic where you can submit a problem or challenge and we’ll try to resolve for you with Charles Taylor, probably the foremost expert on Poser and that’s on Saturday January 23rd at 20:00 GMT. And we have Chris Hecker a respected sci-fi artist taking us through the making of one of his best illustrations created with Vue and Photoshop – that’s on Saturday January 23rd also  at 8:00 pm. Join us if you can and you can get in touch on the contact page at digitalartlive.com.

Introduction

Paolo Ciccone is the author of Reality, a plugin for Poser and DAZ Studio that introduced Physically Based Rendering (PBR) around 2010, when PBR was not that familiar for Poser and DAZ Studio artists. PBR provides more photorealistic or natural looking renders than previous render techniques. Reality takes advantage of the LuxRender rendering engine.

So Reality gives a rendering solution that extends DAZ Studio and Poser and is described as providing the most advanced Physics-Based Rendering system in the market.

Welcome to Charles Taylor, product manager for Poser from Smith Micro since April of 2015. Charles has been deeply involved with Poser since 1999 and has assisted with the development team since Poser 6.  The new Poser 11 has recently been released and Charles takes us through the additions and improvements in this version.

In this session we learn:-

- How long Poser 11 has been in development.

- Whether backwards compatibility was the most key consideration for Poser 11.

- The changes in the user interface.

- Adaptions to improve workflow in Poser

- The new PBR (Physically Based Rendering) option (SuperFly).

- Rendered Caustics

- Area lights in SuperFly

- The new content shipped with Poser 11.

- The new comic book preview

- Improvements to animation

- About adaptive Rigging