October 2010
6 posts
3 tags
Pattern brush techniques for 3D models in...
I’m just working on a job for Bell Canada and had to insert a USB internet key they sell into fake laptop on a cover shot. I’m working on a cross between baked textures and a detailed model, which I’ve created in Maya. It’s not going to be very large, so I get away with this. Anyway, I just wanted to share some video of my Photoshop Pattern Stamp Tool workflow that I use...
3 tags
V-Ray for Maya slow with dynamic render-time...
I have been trying to weed out the cause of some slow initial passes with my machine, and I recently found the cause. It seems that render-time subdivisions are very slow compared to simple in-scene object smoothing. The benefit to V-Ray’s subdivision scheme is that it should conserve memory, but it does this while rebuilding surfaces on the fly (dynamic subdivision). This doesn’t seem...
6 tags
Retopology for 3D sculpting with type
3D and typography is something you see often but it’s not something that’s written about beyond the “how to make easy 3D logos” type tutorials, since the target of these kinds of things are usually designers. A lot of programs like Maya make it easy to create extruded and beveled type but the problem comes to when you have to deform it. The topology is always a problem and...
4 tags
My 12-core Westmere 2010 Mac Pro Review is Live
I reviewed my recently purchased 12-core Mac Pro for Ars Technica. Read the full review here.
5 tags
Use Photoshop to generate stock model previews
Yesterday, I picked up a pack of Dosch models to make things a little easier for this visualization job. The problem was that they didn’t come with a PDF or rendered previews, so I had to use Adobe Bridge to wait for them to render previews, which was slow since they were the kind of models with 300,000 polygons for a coat hanger. Anyway, I knew that Photoshop CS3 and above can open 3D...
6 tags
Grab my FBX Converter Service
I’m in the thick of production here and, since Autodesk still hasn’t released a 3DS plug-in that works for Maya 2011 x64 OS X, I’m having to use the FBX Converter to translate these Dosch models. To speed things up, I made an OS X right-click service for this so I don’t have to leave the Finder:
Install Autodesk’s FBX Converter and put this Automator workflow file...
