Arts
Realistic and compelling textures bring video games to life. Learn to create textures and add color, reflectivity, and other surface detail to your games with Autodesk Maya, Mudbox, and Adobe Photoshop. Author Adam Crespi shares techniques ranging from painting with photo references to modeling and rendering high-polygon objects for baking textures. His workflow places an emphasis on optimizing textures for tiling and reuse, both as standalone textures and as part of a texture sheet used on multiple objects.
This course is designed to provide new users with a strong design foundation in Unity 3D 3.5—a game engine for mobile and desktop games and real-time simulations—as well as an introduction to scripting and game functionality. Author Sue Blackman explores the major features in Unity and applies them in actual game situations. She shows how to add lights, texture, multiple views, and effects like fire and smoke to each scene and employ reusable assets. The end result is a sample game with a lush environment, fully animated characters, and some basic interactive gameplay.
This course introduces the features of the V-Ray 2.0 rendering engine and demonstrates how to extend the range of 3ds Max with its state-of-the-art tools, such as irradiance mapping, fur and hair textures and shaders, and stereoscopic 3D rendering. The course covers critical concepts such as creating basic materials, image sampling, color mapping, subdivs, and lighting, as well as the Render Elements, RT, and physical rendering workflows in V-Ray. Exercise files are included with the course.
This course introduces the features of the V-Ray 2.0 rendering engine and demonstrates how to extend the range of Maya with its state-of-the-art tools, such as irradiance mapping, fur and hair textures and shaders, and stereoscopic 3D rendering. The course covers critical concepts such as creating basic materials, image sampling, color mapping, subdivs, and lighting, as well as the Render Elements, RT, and physical rendering workflows in V-Ray. Exercise files are included with the course.
In this beginning editing course, professional video editor and educational technology guru Phil Ebiner takes you through the basic skills using Final Cut Pro. If you are using another editing software, this course will still be beneficial as the content is universal.
Wacom tablets are a popular alternative to the mouse for painting, drawing, and navigating your computer in a more natural position. In this course, artist and teacher John Derry shows how to get up and running with a variety of Wacom tablets (Intuos, Cintiq, and more), covering everything from setup to stylus selection. He then shows how to speed up your workflow and enhance your command of the drawing surface with ExpressKeys, the Touch Ring, and other controls. Plus, learn about tablet ergonomics—which makes your Wacom even more compatible with your working conditions—and follow a few exercises to warm up your drawing arm.
Find out how to set up the HumanIK rigging system in Autodesk Maya and start creating realistic skeletons for your 3D characters. This course shows how to build the bone structure, adjust its size, and add controls. Once the skeleton is defined, author Adam Crespi shows how to animate the rig, and retarget the animation onto other characters. The course also includes an exploration of nonlinear animation using the Trax Editor, and instructions for sending the rig to MotionBuilder to map motion capture data.
In ZBrush 4 Essential Training, Ryan Kittleson introduces ZBrush to artists making a transition from another sculpting program or who may just need some help with the finer points of this powerful digital arts package. The course covers the most popular tools and techniques for digital painting and sculpting in ZBrush, and explains how to export the models and texture maps to other programs for use in games, film, fine art, or 3D printing. The course also highlights the new features in ZBrush 4, such as ShadowBox, clip brushes, and LightBox. Exercise files are included with the course.