Podcast available on iTunes - click HERE to subscribe

Download and listen to podcast 42

http://traffic.libsyn.com/3dartdirect/3DAD_042.mp3

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?

Resources

Barbican — Into the Unknown: A Journey through Science Fiction

Snippet from the transcript

DAL : So welcome, Patrick, thank you for your time today.

Patrick: Thank you for inviting me.

DAL: Now, I wanted to just talk a little bit about where you are currently director of at Le Lieu unique in France, this art center, a national art center. It sounds really interesting, not just a place for viewing art but also for inspiring artists, for bringing people together to create art. Tell me about that space that you're directing at the moment.

Patrick: Well, Le Lieu unique is a bit like a small Barbican. It's a place where you can go grab a coffee or beer and then see an exhibition, see a performance, dance, theater, music, go into club nights until very late at night. And so it's open every day of the year from quite early in the morning to late at night. And, yes, it's a place to think about the present and the future, so even though it's not a science fiction place, obviously, we do deal a lot with Utopiales and images of the future and the society we live in because those are my strong interests.

So at the moment, for instance, we have an exhibition about mega structures, so 1960s architecture by people like Archigram, and how they imagined the future in those days. And in June, we'll have H.R. Giger exhibition, creator of "Alien," a big monographic show. So we're not very far from the realms of interest while we're here today at least.

DAL: And have you had that kind of feedback from people that have visited there that they started to...they've been in that space and they are thinking about the future, they are considering the artwork as contributing to that, designing the future?

Patrick: I wish I could say yes to that but I think they're just coming to see...to have entertainment and to think about the world of today actually because we do also a lot of events on politics and we have a literature festival where we have people like Margaret Atwood, but also, we have a lot of other writers and the festival of geopolitics and philosophy. So we are kind of exploring the present to kind of bring new images of the future. So I hope people are touched by what we do. And we have this crazy ambition of transforming the world, one person at a time, but it's a utopia so we have to kind of aim to that, but we, of course, are not gonna achieve that.

DAL: Yeah, and having that space and the exhibition that you're curating here at the Barbican brings people into that way of thinking to hopefully, like you say, change one person at a time?

Patrick: Yeah, because I think we are, at the moment, in an environment where we lack images of the future. You know, we don't have...not just because of the current political situation in this country or in the U.S., for instance, but simply because we are in the world which doesn't offer many alternatives, you know. If you decide that you want to live in a commune or, you know, be off the grids or live with no money, you know, you have to gonna go very far, and you'll be judged for that. I'm not saying this is the way people should be living, but our current environment doesn't bring alternative image of the future, and I think it's important to have some and to show that science fiction, for instance, has come up with all kinds of images of the future, some very strong ones, some desirable ones, some frightening ones, but in a way, it has helped, I think, shape the present.

DAL: Now, you've also been an author and you published a book on the history of the flying car. What inspired you to take a close look at that particular subject?

Patrick: Yeah, it does look like a subject which is ridiculous, and it's a very, very small topic and almost like a detail, but it was a way to talk about the history of the future, really, and the future we're promised and we never got. How, throughout the 20th century, this fabulous year of 2000 was there promising, you know, food and pills, promising super high-rises, and automatic everything, and flying cars. And why do we not have that future and why do we have this program present today which is also highly technological, but where did it change and why the means and the goals of technology have actually changed? Because the flying car is not about kind of being able to fly around, it's about being able to be free, you know, to kind of take off anywhere anytime and, yeah, being empowered in a way.

That's not gonna happen. Even if there is a flying car in the future, you're not gonna be able to take off from your rooftop and fly around and all that. It's gonna be controlled as cars are controlled today, you know. You can only drive on roads, and there are, you know, red lights and there are signs that tell you how fast you can drive. So, of course, this empowerment is not gonna be there. So the future we were promised is obviously gone, and it was also a matter to question the future that we're promising our children today. What is it?

DAL: I think science fiction helps sustain freedom-thinking. I think in a sense, I think it encourages that, and I really like that subject of the flying car, of how it helps visualize freedom. And I think there's many other aspects in science fiction that do the same thing.

Patrick: Yeah, science fiction, I think, is about being curious, you know, and being daring to go where nobody else has gone before, you know, or at least not that many people have gone before. And it's a state of mind more than [inaudible 00:08:43] to kind of extrapolate and use conjecture, so "What if" genre, you know. And if you do this, what will happen? And something extraordinary, of course. That's the entertainment value, the sense of wonder that science fiction generates. But the freedom, as you mentioned, is at the root of that and this will to take a path that is not well traveled yet.

Read more link text

Paolo Ciccone is the creator of the Reality plugin. It's both for Poser and DAZ Studio and it introduced Physically Based Rendering (PBR) around 2010, when PBR was not that familiar for Poser and DAZ Studio artists. PBR provides more natural looking renders than previous techniques. Reality uses the LuxRender rendering engine.

http://traffic.libsyn.com/3dartdirect/Session41.mp3

Download and listen to the podcast session 41

Get training on Reality from our previous webinar sessions

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.

In the session of the podcast we interview Paolo on using Reality to render skin materials and look at several scenarios of this challenge. These are the questions we asked Paolo:-

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?

Resources

Latest version of Reality 4 available here

News on Reality 4 from Paolo's Pret-a-3D news feed

Reality Artist's Facebook group

Snippet from the transcript

Paul: Now we're going to have a focus in this interview on skin. So I think it's an interesting material and it's quite a challenge to render realistically until maybe relatively recently. Why do you think that skin has become a challenge for quite a while to represent realistically?

Paolo: That's a very good topic. Well, it's a very complex material, first of all. I mean, objectively it's not like plastic, you know. Plastic is just a shiny surface with a pigment. You see, in fact, the first 3D renderers, they were all pretty much rendering like some type of plastic. And still today whenever a new artist starts working with 3D and that person doesn't have much experience, the results are often plasticky.

Skin, on the other hand, is a very complex material. It's a flexible material. It's made of many different layers and there are many different colors involved. I mean, if you just look at your hand, you know, there is the general skin pigmentation, but then there are the veins, so you can clearly see the bluish tint of the veins. Then, if we look at the knuckles, we see that there are areas that are more reddish than if you look at other parts of the fingers, other parts can be a little darker. And then if you look at the palm of the hand, it becomes more reddish, pinkish. So there are many different hues even in the same spot, in the same area. Skin is made of layers, and then these layers have a certain amount of moisture, and finally we have hair. We look at arms and hands, the back of the hands, or even, you know, the face, or even the nose, has some very fine hairs.

So it's a complex material and it's the one thing that we look at the most. Everyday, or at least, we look at it very often. Because as I'm talking to you as a good Italian, I'm moving my hands so I see them. They are in my field of vision. When we are going to the bathroom in the morning, you know, men shave and women might apply makeup. At least we are, you know, combing our hair. I don't do that much more because I'm getting bald. But, you know, there is a certain amount of personal care that we do routinely everyday, and that is done in front of a mirror. It's a material we know intimately and, in many case, that is in fact also literal. We may be intimate with other people if we are in a relationship, and that means a lot of contact with skin. I mean, it's a material if you want to call it that way that we know very well and it's very hard to fake it because we are familiar and it's a complex material and therefore the technology needs to really go further than with other materials.

Now, traditionally, 3D renderers, before the PBR, the physics-based rendering revolution that we started having in the last few years arrived, all those 3D renderers were...the, you know, what we called biased renderers, those programs were designed to cut corners. I mean, they were designed to stop rendering whenever the result was good enough. So the inherent design of the program was to not be as accurate as possible, just accurate enough to trick our eye. Well, that can be done with some other materials, but with skin is much, much harder because it is a material that is so complex and it's so familiar.

So it is really where the advent of PBR that we have been able to simulate what happens with light. Because the scattering of the light under the surface of the skin, that phrasing of the scattering of light under the surface of the skin means literally, you know, it's another way of talking of subsurface scattering. So that effect... Yeah, we can have subsurface scattering with biased renderers, but the way we render light with PBR is much more accurate, and dye is the extra X percent in the quality of the image that really makes it more credible. I hope I answered your question.

Paul: I think what surprised me when I was reading up this week, I didn't know that multiple layers in the skin, some layers absorb and scatter light differently. I can assume that each layer, you know, would be at the same, but it doesn't, you know.

Paolo: No. In fact, if we look at the surface of our skin, most of the surface of our skin is actually dead skin. It's a little flakes, you know. They say a good portion of dust, you know, the dust we see in the air is actually dead skin. And if you have a cat, it's also cat fur.

Paul: Extra, yeah. So how can the Reality plugin help with gaining that realism with skin materials in a render?

Paolo: Well, Reality uses a renderer called LuxRender. We were the first of doing it in the Poser and Daz Studio universe, and that was in fact on the 29th of this month we celebrate six years because Reality was released on August 29th, so this interview is really right on time. We started doing that years ago, way before anybody was talking about PBR in the Poser Studio universe. I think actually the Reality is the reason why we have so much widespread PBR rendering today in this market. We popularized the technique, we popularized the idea that you could have a PBR with Daz Studio or Poser. The reason why we were able to do it, that I was able to do it is because I'm using LuxRender, which is an open source renderer….

Read more link text

Once upon a time Chuck 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.

In this session we interview Chuck about his newest game creation of Zed. There's a Kickstarter campaign to complete development of the game right now. But you can download a demo of the game- discover how immersive it really is! Check out the demo version and support the Kickstarter campaign of this rich and unique illustrative experience.

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.”

Podcast available on iTunes - click HERE to subscribe

Download the podcast HERE by using right click and save as. 

http://traffic.libsyn.com/3dartdirect/Session40.mp3

In this session of the podcast we learn:-

- Zed is in the “meditative” niche of gaming. How is Zed different from other games?

- How Chuck’s lucid dreaming created some of the design ideas for Zed.

- The similarities and distinct differences between Myst and Zed.

- The intriguing and unique Zed architecture and landscapes.

- Zed’s puzzles

- Chuck’s work as an illustrator for Babylon V and other projects.

Resources Mentioned

Zed's Kickstarter campaign

The demo of Zed (for download)

Eagre Games website

Read more link text

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 Haaksma manager of business development and marketing.

Podcast available on iTunes - click HERE to subscribe

Download the podcast HERE by using right click and save as. 

http://traffic.libsyn.com/3dartdirect/Session39.mp3

In this session of the podcast we learn:-

- The original and persistent 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 of Renderosity.

- Initiatives that highlight community members, artists, vendors and staff members.

- Digging into some of the demographics of the Renderosity community.

- Who are some of the longest serving (surviving) 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.

- Thinking about being a vendor? What tools are offered to vendors at Renderosity.

- How video tutorials are now an important part of the Renderosity marketplace.

Resources Mentioned

Poser 11 tutorials series by Mark Bremmer

How to be a vendor at Renderosity

Renderosity Forums

Video Tutorials on Renderosity

Reality plugin

Blacksmith 3D

Best of Character Artwork from DAZ Studio and Poser : Reserve your Seat Now

Live Webinar Event this Saturday 20:00 BST/12:00 PDT/15:00 EDT

Get sci-fi artwork, inspiration and in-depth interviews with digital artists and industry leaders for free each month

%CODE1%

Subscribe now and receive the PDF FREE every month

Read more link text

http://traffic.libsyn.com/3dartdirect/Session38.mp3

In this podcast episode, we’re focussing on the subject of the exploration and colonisation of Mars, which is part of our overall theme for our forthcoming Digital Art Live magazine issue 8. We'll feature artwork on the colonisation of space .

I was very privileged to talk to Nicole Willett the education director of the Mars Society and to hear her enthusiasm on the positive cases for getting humans onto 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.
About Nicole Willett

Nicole is an Educator and an Education Director. Her goal is to teach all people their place in the universe and realize that we are all made from recycled stars. She advocates that we must continue to explore the solar system, particularly Mars. Her passion for science has led her to many  amazing experiences in her life and she hopes to inspire others to follow their passion.

Read more link text

In this session of the 3D Art Direct podcast we interview 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

View the 3D Art Direct podcast in iTunes 

http://traffic.libsyn.com/3dartdirect/Session37.mp3

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)

Oshyan Greene - Business Manager at Planetside

Read more link text

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.

Download and listen to the podcast session 36

Get training on Reality from our previous webinar sessions

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.

In the session of the podcast we interview Paolo on the latest version of Reality (4.2) and we cover the key features of this plugin which has fantastic advantages for rendering your artwork:-

• It's made for the artist - less technicalities to worry about.
• Provides stunning results
• Fast rendering
• Allows GPU+GPU+Network rendering
• Powerful materials library which allows easy editing
• Automatic conversion of materials from Poser or DAZ Studio (including the latest shaders)
• Offers great materials to work with
• Very handy material presets
• Render whilst you edit a scene
• Change colour and/or intensity of lights whilst rendering
• Available for Windows (32 and 64 bit) and OSX

Resources

Latest version of Reality 4 available here

News on Reality 4 from Paolo's Pret-a-3D news feed

Runtime DNA Reality gallery

Margotmaine's Reality 4 inspired artwork at Renderosity

Snippet from the transcript

Digital Art Live: Now, Reality is described as being made with the artist in mind. So by definition, does that allow the artist to focus on the art rather than all the technicalities that you could get with a rendering machine?

Paolo: Well, yeah, that was one of the goals from the beginning. I do have a background in art. I studied at the Art Institute. So I'm trying to balance the two different interests I have, one is the technical, logical programming interest, and the other, the artistic side of my mind. So from the artistic point, and from talking with several people in the forums and directly Poser and DAZ Studio users, I have a pretty good idea of what the artist is expecting from software.

So when I looked at integrating LuxRender in DAZ Studio and Poser, I saw that LuxRender is really a very complex piece of machinery. It's a very sophisticated software. And it took me a long time to really understand all the intricacies of the program. I'm still learning, by the way, because LuxRender is still evolving.

But I didn't want to have such a learning curve for the user so that that they needed to get involved into the technicalities. I really think that the way people use Poser and DAZ Studio is for creating art by inspiration of the moment. A lot of people adopt these softwares to try to express some need they have internally. And there's nothing more frustrating, or at least it's very frustrating when you're trying to express yourself and you can't find the words or the tools, or you have to struggle with a user's manual.

Now, a little bit of study is expected to be done on any product, but a little bit is much different than being swamped by details. And so one of the concepts that was crucial in the development of Reality was to shield the user from the complexities of the underlying technology.

And paradoxically, what happened is that Reality provides a more realistic, a more professional result for Poser and DAZ Studio users, but it makes the process easier than using the underlying technology, the built-in technology of DAZ Studio and Poser.

Digital Art Live: Sounds like a win-win then for the artist.

Paolo: Yes. And I keep working on it. Like any software, it's an evolving process. So I'm looking at what we have today and I'm thinking, okay, we can simplify this, we can make this a little less technical. But it's an effort that is going on continuously. It's a focus of my development, and it was one of the founding principles of Reality when I started six years ago now. Because it was released in 2010, but of course the development started a year before.

Digital Art Live : So, for example, you don't see something like a complicated node system?

Paolo: No. I really think that is such a letdown. Actually I'm writing a three-part story on my blog. I published the second part today, and I really started addressing that in the story, in the articles because nodes are...it's a funny thing that even this morning, just this morning, I received a comment in the blog from a customer who said, "To tell you the truth, I don't even know really what the node does." So that exemplifies, that really demonstrates how the node system is so far away from what the artist wants to do.

And the fact is that in computer science, we are very familiar with graphs. So there is a lot of talking about graphs, like this and that, etc. Graphs are great tools for mathematicians and programmers. When you're looking at the problem, like defining a material, how to create all the properties of a material, it leads automatically to a graph.

Read more link text

In this session of the 3D Art Direct podcast we 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.

http://traffic.libsyn.com/3dartdirect/Session35.mp3

Download the podcast

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

Resources

Poser 11 Software from Smith Micro

Poser 11 gallery from Runtime DNA

 

Read more link text

My guest today is Chris Hecker. An excellent sci-fi digital artist using Vue, 3DS Max and Photoshop. There’s a recurring theme through part of his portfolio of depicting futuristic large scale cities. And this is a natural response perhaps from growing up in the environment of the industrial landscape of East Germany as well being awed by the production paintings of the sci-fi movies that we all love.

Download the podcast MP3 file here by using right click and save as.

http://traffic.libsyn.com/3dartdirect/Session34.mp3

In this session we learn:-

• Which artists and movies inspired Chris the most as he started as a digital artist.
• How learning about concept art and matte paintings helped Chris gain breakthroughs in his artwork.
• How recording workflow speeds up your improvement rate as an artist
• Creating cityscape scenes with Cinema 4D, Vue and Photoshop.
• Use of World Machine and Xenodream
• About being part of the Luminarium group of artists on Deviant Art
• The making of "Come a Little Closer", "Sky High" (shown above) and "Leaving the Fields of Steel".

Resources

Chris Hecker's (Tigaer) Deviant Art

The Luminarium Deviant Art group

E-on's Vue software

World Machine

Cinema 4D

Read more link text