Gnomon ships innovative environment sculpting DVD
The Gnomon Workshop has released an innovative new guide to sculpting environments for games and VFX.
In Environment Production Workflow: Tips, Tricks and Concepts, leading environment artist David Lesperance sets out his personal process for creating professional-quality 3D environments.
The 212-minute DVD begins with a discussions of composition, shot setup and layout, as Lesperance reveals quick tricks for finding the best composition for a given piece, from asset placement to lighting.
Techniques for 3ds Max, V-Ray and ZBrush
From there, he moves on to material setup in V-Ray; UV and texture scale in 3ds Max; and blending between surfaces and materials using vertex painting and the VRayBlendMtl material.
Subsequent sections of the video cover blocking in the environment, textures and lighting before working through the look-development process to verify that everything is working.
The training culminates by moving to ZBrush where Lesperance shows off some of his favorite new tools introduced with ZBrush 4R4, including the new Insert Multi Mesh tool and recent improvements to DynaMesh.
An unusual training resource
The video should be applicable to any artist looking to enhance their workflow or simply pick up a set of new tricks, and forms an essential resource for any would-be environment sculptor.
Like Lesperance’s own ‘prequel’, Environment Sculpting, it’s also one of the few available on the topic.
David Lesperance has worked in CG for eight years, including experience on StarCraft 2, Diablo 3 and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. He is currently working on Halo 4 with Microsoft’s 343 Industries team.
Environment Production Workflow : Tips, Tricks and Concepts is available on DVD or direct download, price $69.
Buy Environment Production Workflow : Tips, Tricks and Concepts from The Gnomon Workshop
Full disclosure: CG Channel is owned by the Gnomon School of Visual Effects.