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.

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

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.

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 some 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

3DS Max

Regina LaGrone also known as Lady Littlefox is an experienced 3D content developer for Poser and Daz Studio. Her strengths are in character and costume designs including contemporary, fantasy and  cartoon styles. She is skilled in all stages of content development and has modelled in Modo, Lightwave, XSI and ZBrush. She is at present a freelance developer and beta tester for Smith Micro software and has successfully run her own business of Lady LittleFox Studios for at least 16 years.

In this Session

- The origins of Littlefox Designs, how it started some of the earliest design highlights.

- Beta testing for over 8 years at Smith Micro for Poser and Anime Studio. Have you been able to initiate some good changes or fixes during this time?

- One of your earlier experiences in work was being a 3D Avatar specialist – what did this involve?

- The foundations of STAR.

- Key design objectives for the STAR anime figure.

- How flexible and smooth motion is a significant aspect of STAR and how this is accomplished.

- The advantages of facial rigging built into STAR.

- Future content from Littlefox Studios

This is session 32 of the 3D Art Direct podcast talking with Stefan Kraus on WorldCreator, a professional terrain generator including sophisticated erosion and sediment algorithms.

I would like to introduce Stefan Kraus, owner of Bite the Bytes started in 2007, a company based in Fulda, Germany that offers three tools for digital artists – “Terrain SDK”, “Shader Tool” and “World Creator” – formerly known as GeoControl and it is “World Creator” that we are going to focus on with this interview with Stefan.

In this session we learn:-

- How long has WorldCreator been around – when was it first created and by whom?  What inspired the original author to bring this software to life?

- Some terrain generators can have appear to have a steep looking learning curve with a node based user interface to cope with. Is WorldCreator different and easier to use in this respect? 

- WorldCreator uses Isolines to build landscapes. What is an Isoline and what advantages do they have in controlling the form of the landscape?

-  “controlled rivers” and the tools to create various water bodies.  

- WorldCreator has the ability to have landscapes eroded or even have “reverse erosion”

- The simulation of sediments in WorldCreator is unique to terrain generators.

- New developments for WorldCreator in the pipeline for this year.

This is session 31 of the 3D Art Direct podcast with Paolo Ciccone on the new Reality 4 software giving  photo realistic rendering in Poser or DAZ Studio.

In this session we learn from Paolo:-

• The history of the LuxRender engine, which Reality 4 uses.
• What‘s all the fuss about physically based rendering (PBR)  and what are the advantages to the artist?
• Is PBR still advancing and what might we see next with this?
• What are some of the changes that have made Reality 4 easier to use for the artist? 
• All about the presets library and some of the goodies inside it.
• What lies ahead for Pret-a-3D in 2015?

I am very pleased to introduce Oshyan Greene, the business manager of Planetside Software, which produces the highly regarded Terragen, a powerful solution for rendering and animating realistic natural environments. In this session we’re going to discuss the features of a new update for Terragen 3.

In this session we learn:-

- Highlights for Planetside and Terragen 3 during 2014 

- All about new glass shader. 

- Stereo camera handling and support of the Oculus Rift. 

(The Rift is an upcoming virtual reality head-mounted display, being developed by Oculus VR)

- A fisheye lens can now be applied in Terragen 3.2, we discuss uses for the fisheye in Terragen.

- More control over cloud shapes can be applied in 3.2 with the “Taper top and base” parameter.

- Notable media productions created by Terragen 3 

- Plans for Terragen and Planetside in 2015

3DArtLive.com - Live 3D Digital Art Tutorials

3DArtDirect.com- Free 3D Digital Arts sci-fi/fantasy magazine