Leaderboard

There are a few really cool YouTube channels that I wanted to share with people. In the past, I recommended Corridor Crew (one of their members, Clinton Jones, spoke at a MAXON webinar last month). All of these sites support my love for visual effects: a craft I have admired since the 1960's when I first saw 7th Voyage of Sinbad (an old Ray Harryhausen movie). I firmly believe that to be a better CGI artist, you need to study how they used to fake reality using physical methods. Remember that the old methods helped form the visual language we try to replicate in the computer today. That decades old visual language was formed from a desire to create what looks "good" more so than what looks "real". So we need to understand that language especially when it comes to lighting, atmosphere, detailing, and generally creating that general sense of verisimilitude that is hard to create in any medium. The old adage of "you won't know its there, you will only know it when it is not there" has never been more true. So here are some sites (links in titles) that I have found that can help with developing an eye for that visual language using old and new techniques: Befores & Afters - A great site that breaks down specific VFX shots from movies and shows. InCamera - To be launched on 9/23/2020. The show has a tremendous premise -which is this: while CGI is great, the physical effects world of LED lighting, 3D printing, prosthetics, etc. have been advancing as well and that something truly amazing can be created by combining the two. This will be a "must watch" for me....and the whole point for this post --- please go there and subscribe!!!! VFX Geek - Both old and new effects are highlighted here. Where was this channel when I was young? Oh yeah....they didn't have the internet back then. Visual language also embraces "form" language. Form language is important when trying to model things that just don't exist but somehow "feel" right. Never has this been more true when creating sci-fi based organic or non-organic models. For sci-fi organic modeling, just google Neville Page - top in his field (IMHO). For non-organic, well...my interests are very narrow as you will see by the links below: Howard Day - Just pure modeling appreciation here in my favorite genre - spaceships. No instruction - just eye candy. Watch it to be inspired. Ansel Hsiao - In short, Howard Day on steroids (and Howard Day is awesome). To be honest, to really appreciate the scale and depth of the detail he puts into a model, better to look at the stills found at http://fractalsponge.net/ For one person to model to that level of complexity takes mental stamina as well as amazing talent. Polygon Pen - So you have seen the work of Howard Day and Ansel Hsiao and now want to model a 300,000 polygon space ship of your own. Well, you best bone up on the hard surface modeling techniques in Cinema 4D that can be found at this site. Ian Hubert's Lazy Tutorials - Short tutorials (2 minutes or less) that touch on neat tips and tricks in Blender. As they are short, they really spend more time on the essence of the technique/approach rather than the "how" and as such are translatable to other applications. Dave

great tips, maybe we could add modeling "orgy" by John Dickinson @Motionworks (something like MILG "Live") https://www.youtube.com/johndickinsontutorials