In the initial period, visitors will be able to click through to the relevant page to post a project or register as a supplier. We have some exciting plans for the period afterwards to improve the experience and make it easier and more seamless for visitors to the CGArchitect site.

If you have any feedback or questions on this, dont hesitate to get in touch – info@tender3d.com.

This weeks picks are all dedicated to one young man Greg Mutt and his awesome 3 videos on Youtube. Incredible verisimilitude (we have always wanted to use that word in a sentence since learning it in college) in both the camera shot, 3D and sound FX this deserves some kind of new award in the Oscars. Enjoy!

“Wild Robot” by Sam Mason

WILD ROBOT from Sam Mason on Vimeo.

Sascha Geddarts “Fallen”

Fallen from Sascha Geddert on Vimeo.

Firefall cinematic by serial offenders Blur Studios

Not strictly 3D but this one will speak straight to the heart of anyone who has done a “12 hour render without hesitation”!  - Money Money Money – “Gettin’ Money With a Mouse and a Wacom Pen (Fuck Comic Sans Fuck Papyrus, Too)” by Daily Planet

Money Money Money - "Gettin' Money With a Mouse and a Wacom Pen (Fuck Comic Sans Fuck Papyrus, Too)" from Brad Chmielewski on Vimeo.

Passion Pictures excellent ad for Coke

Coke Zero 'Invasion' from Passion Pictures on Vimeo.

Money Money Money - "Gettin' Money With a Mouse and a Wacom Pen (Fuck Comic Sans Fuck Papyrus, Too)" from Brad Chmielewski on Vimeo.

Great bit of Abstract animation in Flux by Candas Sisman

F L U X from candas sisman on Vimeo.

Love this image from Tariq Ali from Britain – http://www.tarik-ali.co.uk

It would be no exaggeration to say Alessandro Baldasseroni is one of my all time favourite CG artists – here is his classic “Landing”

Landing

Superlatives don’t do the trailer for Dues Ex Human Revolution justice but heres a few! In terms of impact, storytelling, production values and incredible technical wizadry there are very few games trailers to live with it. Enjoy!

Again – the use of CG here merely enhances a brilliantly thought through advert for Johnnie Walker’s Android. This ones a few years old but loses none of it’s impact. Post done by The Mill http://www.the-mill.com/

The usual lush CG excellence from Psyop for the new Spring Valley advert http://www.psyop.tv/

We had just come out from a project of a miniature city for an event. It was a projection made from 4 points of view in sync, on a series of high cubes, for a total of 200mq. Basically the audience could see a city coming to life from any point of view. The result was exciting and the audience’s feedback was great. That’s when we thought about something bigger, in an important piazza in our city, as a free event for the citizens.

The first step was to offer the event to the council. They were ecstatic, as not always does someone come to their offices with such an event in mind and not asking for any budget! Obviously we had our reasons: we wanted to reduce all the limitations in working in the main piazza, with all its tests at midnight and all the lights switched off. We also wanted to have full control on the output as we had a clear idea in mind about we wanted to do and how to blend the visual effects with a clear theme and historical elements.

office-to-piazza

The historical component on the project was important, but usually that becomes so crucial for the council that they forget about the equal importance of entertainment, without which, the audience simply doesn’t watch the result with the same eyes.

We projected on a 870mq of building, with a total of 36000 ansilumen used (out of 72000 at our disposal). 5 huge projectors worked in sync on a 6k 3D video. But the tricky part was creating the effects that were projected. With such an antique building, we had to model it from zero using mainly some photos we took. The 3D result was a combination of perspective tricks and physics simulations. It was great to hear the kids screaming when they thought the building was collapsing for real.

Testing in the Piazza

The piazza was full. The audience reacted better than we expected. Most of them stayed there to watch the projection again and again even though it started to rain and many came to us to thank us for the experience. That had never happened to me before! 2 days later we posted the official video and realised that many others were already online on youtube and such.

We had many calls the following days, of people interested in creating a similar experience in other buildings and cities. And many others asking when we’ll be doing it again.
Time will tell

Below is an exact spec of the project for those of you looking to understand this incredible new technology.

THE EVENT
On 24.09.10 a very particular event was organized in Piazza dei Signori in Padua.
A 3D mapped projection was created on the Palazzo del Capitaniato, an architectural building full of history, built in the Carrarese era. The evening, called “Magic Night of the Carrarese family”, was targeted at praising the present, reliving the past and imagining the future of the building, through this new captivating projection technique, seen only few times both in Italy and worldwide.
Audience feedback was without a doubt great with the turning up of as many people as the square could hold. The projection lasted 10min at a time and was reproduced on loop from 9p.m. onwards.

The Place
The building chosen for this performance was the clock tower. Not a casual choice, for various reasons.
In the fourteenth century, the building was a wing of the Carrarese palace, which in time has undergone through many transformations. The last being in 1532 with a restyling of the facade in accordance to the classic rule of the sixteenth century – which is what we still admire today. A palace whose evolution can be summed up as a storyboard of a long piece of the history of Padua.
The Palace incorporates the magnificent Clock of Dondi which has a double symbology: the passing of time “in a way never seen before” – which is the issue of the slogan of the event – and that of science and technology that have made Padua excel, at European levels in its golden era of the fourteenth century.

The town square

The Idea
It came into being by Targetdue (technology for communication) and Drawlight (specialized in 3D Communication services). Having done other similar projects together, the two studios decided to propose an absolutely free projection of considerable dimensions in their native city.
With the collaboration of the city council, councilor Andrea Colasio and a team of historians, an unforgettable night was donated to the citizens of Padua.
Tagetdue supplied its powerful projectors “Christie”. Drawlight modeled the entire building in 3D to then produce the contents through particular techniques.
The result is a projection that interacts and modifies the architecture of the building, giving the audience the illusion of a live participation of the special effects such as the collapse of the structure and the fire.

Earthquake!!!

The Technology : The 3D reconstruction
After various inspections and with the aid of historical documentation on the building, the team Drawlight rebuilt all the structure in 3D in every detail. Effects were created using dynamic simulations which interacted with physics causing the collapsing of the facade, the unrolling of the enormous standards, the fire and other interesting tricks, with the conclusion of the building being completely covered with vegetation.
For the simulation and renders (a total resolution of 5760×2160 pixel) drawlight produced a total of 15000 images (25fps), using powerful overclocked machines.
Drawlight wanted to distinguish this 3D projection from others in circulation creating a logical theme which could give reason to the various visual effects. No coloured balls or other geometries (as often seen in this type of projections) but a storyboard bound to the main element of the building: a clock that takes the audience back and forward in time.

Medieval.

The music was created by Max L Studio, who kept to a precise theme which could emphasise the sensation that we wanted to communicate.

The Technology : The projectors and synching
The projectors are Christie projectors with DLP technology at high luminosity. All of them are FULLHD 1920×1080.
Different projectors, of the same line “Roadster” are used.
For the lateral projections we use 2 of 20k Ansilumen.
For the central part, 3 projectors: 1 of 16k and 2 8k.
The whole projections is produced with a total of 36k Ansilumen.
A system of electronics and computers is used. That way we are able to “dress” the building with an accurate 3D reconstruction.
Electronics correct the angle of distortion of projection due to optics calculated in base to the mapping performed on the building by Drawlight.
The parameters inserted are then run by computers that synchronize all the projections and recreate a new facade.
This technology lets us reach resolutions that are bigger than FULLHD, thanks to the sum of more machines that work at 5760×2160pixels.
The pcs also permit to run in real-time the streaming of the clips and their manipulation ( position of the projection area, setting of colour/luminosity/contrast) so as to manipulate the final projection live.

Digital

The Plot
After a 5 min countdown (between loops), the building collapses in front of the audience turning the piazza into total darkness. Then lights are turned on, illuminating the building with various colours, in sync with music. The building shows off all its splendor.
We are now in the present. Lights are turned on inside the building showing silhouettes of people at work: a part of everyday life.
We wanted to play around and confuse the audience having them believe that we were playing with real lights, turning them on and off.
From here on the clock takes us to the past, fragmenting the space-time continuum.
The plaster cracks and crumbles to smithereens revealing its old brick facade.
We are now in the twelfth century. Medieval music accompanies the animation of enormous banners with the Carrarese coat of arms which unroll before us followed by frescoes of artists of that time such as “the Guariento”.
Then the fire, symbolizing the attack by Venice in 1390. The building is later restored (the building actually recomposes) and with the 3D effect it opens like a music box, revealing the old clock mechanism, which still exists today. The movement awakens the clock that now brings us to the future.
After a decomposition of the building in the way of “Transformers”, the projection now takes us into an imaginary future, with “Tron” graphichs, followed then by a tribute to “close encounters of the third kind”, which describes the first contact of a human being with other species.
A sign appears on the building: Man Departs. Man explores other planets, and forgets.
The projection concludes with light probes that fluctuate around the building exploring, (man returns to his native land after centuries), and revealing a forgotten structure, covered by vegetation which emphasises nature’s dominion on all.

Credits:
Target2 (Service video, projectors)(www.targetdue.it)
DrawLight (contenuti, 3D mapping)(www.drawlight.net)
Max L Studio (sound)
Padova Council
Councilor Andrea Colasio
Ugo Fadini (historian)
Arch. Verdi
Francesco Nosella (press studio Studio Lava)
Mirco Muffato
Claudia Vanni
Alberto Baroni
Diego Torresan

Enjoy

Irish animator Brendan Carroll’s beautiful short student films “The Monk and the Monkey”.

A determined young boy, Ragu, is sent by his master on his final quest to become a monk. A seemingly simple task becomes an unexpected challenge for Ragu as he discovers the real value of his quest.

The Monk & The Monkey from Brendan Carroll on Vimeo.

Knights Contract Cinematic from Vlur Studios – it’s first foray into Vray rendering.

David Fincher’s “The Goon” A moody and mental animated adaption of the cult comic book looks like a cult hit in it’s own right!

Eni_worlds

What first made you want to become a 3D artist?

It was completely random! I went to Australia to live for a while, when I was 23 (I’m half Australian). I was sporadically working as a freelancer in graphics, web and such. Then I wanted to check out some audio schools and saw that few of them had a 3d graphics course too. They were showing all the big Hollywood 3d cartoons all over the place so I got pretty interested, till the point were it really started to grow in me and I ended up learning Maya before the 3d studio max course was even started.

Product viz

What are your specialities?

I’ve always worked as a rendering artist, as I love to simulate the real world as closely as possible. Then I found that in order to be able to produce nice images, one has to know a lot more about other areas (nothing new here!), but most of all about taste in general, which is the longest skill to develop and that has to be inspired continuously.
What is the 3D industry like in your country?

You very well know how much I complain about this issue of Italy! Shouldn’t ask me that question!
It’s not that 3D is not valued here. They find it a very interesting resource. The problem stands in the production stage. Usually the client doesn’t understand his/her place and feels that 3D is like some kind of magic lamp where you just wish and it’ll come true with the touch of the “render button”. So there is need to educate the market. But that is fixable, and I guess it’s a common problem in other places too. What is not, is the way they treat services economically. Meaning that any service provided (not necessarily 3D) is paid at least 30 days post delivery at best. With the usual excuses, which have become some kind of tradition among clients, you’re lucky if you get paid within 60-90 days. One person or company cannot change that. It’s built within the foundation of our market and well balanced in its structure. It will eventually change, when we’ll blend more with other countries, production-wise. That’s when you guys (Tender3D.com) come to play!

What’s been your experience of overseas customers with regard to types of work, prices etc?

We haven’t had much experience with that. Potential clients still see the language barrier as a big issue with Italy. We speak fluent English, but we don’t advertise that enough, I guess
The few projects we had from overseas were just great. The work flow was easily organisable as the customer had all the material since the beginning and had clear ideas, too. I find that quite uncommon. It gives you the possibility to create great images, as the time that is not wasted in changes and incomprehension’s is used in improving the product, instead. Prices seemed to be pretty much the same as what we’re used to over here.

Are your friends artists or does all your inspiration come from the online community?

We value our network a lot. Almost all of my friends are either 3d artists or digital artists in general. We meet at pubs every now and then and keep each other updated. That’s were good ideas come from!

United colours of Drawlight

How do you source your projects?

Word of mouth is the most effective way in Italy. If the potential customer knows the company through a valued source, he/she is more keen to know more about it. Then it’s all about your quality/price comparison. Our website is an important connection too. Then we invest on advertising and try to think about new ways of having people talk about us. We just finished an episode zero of a cultural program made in stereoscopy, being among the first here to provide 3d stereoscopic contents that are compatible with a broadcasting channel. Then, we built an event we worked on for 3 months, with zero-budget, here in Padova. A 870 square meters of 3d mapped projection. Something that most people have never seen before. That gave us a lot of visibility. Our message there was that market rules are changing. No need to go to Milan or big cities to find quality. Quality is first, location is less important everyday. In fact, that day lot of people were coming from Milan to watch the projection. We are not a big company. For them, it was weird. So I guess we achieved what we were aiming from.
The other important thing is networking.

Who are the best, and the worst industry types to work for?

Interesting question. I’d say communication agencies. Best and worst. Some of them provide everything for you, they filter the communication with the customer, providing the essential information only. They value long briefings, brainstorming, and understand timing and effort, as their job does not differ from ours that much. Others, can be quite the opposite. They give you low bugdets, which does not give you the possibility to work well. Still, they want the best. They have very strict deadlines as they sold the product without thinking about the “how to”. The worst part is where they create what we call “the triangle of death”. The ABC communication. Us, agency and client. We get one direction from the client, and its opposite from the agency. There’s no direct reference and once things go wrong they can say it was your fault. The “I never said that” sentence.
What inspires your work?

We try to be like sponges. MTV on all day for music and video inspiration. Magazines everywhere and of course, our precious PS3 with PS Move (you know, the body needs to move somehow). The best inspiration is the one that is not conditioned by rationality and stress, and is found when we’re in peace. Our first rule in the office is: If in rush hour, one rises and switches on the PS3, don’t ask. He needs it.
What software do you use and why? How did you start using it, coincidence or choice?

3D Studio max is the main software used here (with many, many plug-ins). We try not to get fossilised with that. Software is not that important. Max is just very flexible with architecture, our main area. But we find it useful with pretty much everything we do, characters apart. After Effect and Photoshop are a must, in order to reach high quality imagery.

Drawlight interior

Got any stories worth telling? Nightmare or dream jobs?

Nightmares? Sometimes I dream about me working 8 hours and then wake up to go to work.. do you get the feeling?
Apart from that.. we had a very particular client once. The project was about 3D object design. He was from Milan so our correspondence was mainly through Skype. He asked for some changes on a Friday, around 6pm. To him, the product wasn’t perfectly on the centre of the frame. The frame was cut and the size was too small compared to a previous version we did. We didn’t know how to solve the problem as what we were seeing was a perfect image, right size, spot centred. To try to show him that the image was right, we built a grid, measured it, put it on top of its previous version. We went on and on till 9pm. Then, it happened. The client realised that the preview window he had on its mac was low in his screen and zoomed out. He moved the window to the centre of the screen, zoomed in and the image was approved. Meanwhile, our friends were having a beer on us.
What sites do you use most often when looking for inspiration?
Some italian ones: gadgetblog.it and designerblog.it
Then Ibelieveinads, the good 3d vision blog and of course stumbleupon and facebook

Can you give us an outline of your creative process, how does a project go from your initial ideas through to completion?
It really depends on the project and the time we have. I’d like to say what everyone says: “we spent a lot of time with briefings, brainstorming and such”. But the truth is, sometimes there’s no time, sometimes it’s not required. For sure, when they give us the possibility to go through all the creative process, without skipping phases, the product quality is assured since the beginning. In all the other cases, it’s about doing miracles, to get the same result.
We try to educate the customer to talk to us a lot about the project, to communicate his/her feelings about it. We need to get to know the client and the project inside-out. The more we know, the better. Our studio is open-spaced. Our organisation is probably different from the most. No hierarchy, no 9to6 hours. For every single job, we vote the right person that acts as the project manager. Deadlines and requirements are on him. Then he decides how to build the team around his needs. This way we don’t get easily bored with jobs. Employees learn how to manage an entire project and feel like they’re producing something from scratch to finish. We introduce clients to the whole team each time. It’s the client that decides whether he prefers to talk to the team or to the “CEO”. We show to the customer what he’s actually paying for.

We find it a good way to interact among us and with the client. But it’s not a rule of thumb. Sometimes it works, sometimes we act in more conventional ways.

What are your thoughts on the future of 3D? What direction is it likely to go and what do you see changing the most?
I think 3D products won’t different much in contents, in the foreseeable future. What will change, is the way we will be producing it. Everything will be faster. We will be running a lot more. Customers will get used to reduced production times.
What we’re experiencing now is also a change in the means with which 3D products are delivered. Real-time, Augmented reality, 3D projections, stereoscopic animations: these are the new products that require our kind of contents.
We invested our time a lot in order to be able to deliver all these products. We think that the key is to be very attentive to the changes in the market, especially in such a non-tangible market such as the visual communication one.

That is why we have decided to give Purchasers the option of hiring a Tender3D producer who can make sure that you get the most talented supplier for your budget. Because of our intimate knowledge of the system and especially our relationship with the supplier on it we can make sure to get you the best results, on deadline and on budget while taking the hassle of having to organise it all yourself.

Our producer will sit down with you at the start of the project and discuss the project, go over visual styles, budgets and deadlines to familiarise them with your exact needs. Below you can see the exact details of this service and decide if it is something that might be useful for your next 3D or visual effects project.

• Project manager will sit down and understand the project and clients needs at the start in a 2 hour meeting.
• Set up your account, post your brief in conjunction with the clients instructions.
• Manage the tendering process.
• Present the best options to the client.
• Award the project after consultation with the client.
• Take care of milestone payments. The client can pay manually by bank if they like and we will take care of all the payment processing.
• Advise the client on milestones so they know when to sign off.
• Communicate with the supplier on the direction of the project, with the clients input and knowledge.
• Fee is 10% of final agreed price with Supplier

Contact eoghan@tender3d.com for more details.

Many is the hour I have spent countless hours wrestling, coaxing, screaming at and cajoling various versions of C4D into doing what it was told but I have almost always found that Cinema would come up with the goods I needed at the end of the project. So as a user, although not as much these days unfortunately, it makes me obscenely happy to see the explosion these days in C4D related jobs and studios in the industry. A quick look at and jobs board these days will see an extremely healthy glut of cinema based jobs with a mix of After Effects skills. This shines a very favourable light on Maxon’s decision to get into bed with Adobe suite a few years ago.

So for all you Cinema users out there – Enjoy! Onwards and upwards!

http://www.maxon.net/news/singleview-default/article/maxon-announces-immediate-availability-of-release-12-of-acclaimed-3d-package-cinema-4d.html

Key Highlights of CINEMA 4D Release 12
(Not all features are included in every configuration. Please see the Product Comparison Chart on the MAXON web site for more info)

• Powerful New Dynamics: CINEMA 4D now includes a comprehensive and easy-to-use rigid body dynamics system based on the production-proven Bullet engine. Objects can be connected via hinges, springs and complex joints, and with a simple click, can be transformed into soft bodies.
• Enhanced Rendering Features:
  • Linear Workflow and Color Profiles: Adopting a linear workflow is now as simple as activating a checkbox. Colors and lighting are mixed in a more realistic way, resulting in higher-quality images with less effort. Color profiles are now integrated throughout CINEMA 4D for accurate color representation.
  • IES lights: It’s now possible to apply accurate light falloffs using the IES data directly from lighting manufacturers. Photometric intensities based on Lumen and Candela are also supported.
  • True Units of Measurement: CINEMA 4D now supports units, ensuring that calculations are accurate and scene scaling remains consistent. Units are automatically converted and scaling/unit information is automatically stored within each document.
  • Render Queue: Batch rendering has been streamlined with this augmented render task manager, complete with logging capability.
  • Picture Viewer: CINEMA 4D’s breakthrough picture viewer now includes full-screen playback, a histogram display and navigator.
• New Character Tools: The Inverse Kinetics (IK) system features new dynamic properties. CINEMA 4D Studio also includes a powerful, integrated pose-mixing and morphing system.
• New Deformers: Several new deformers have been added to include options for modifying objects based on a low-poly cage or within the screen space.
• Python: Extensive support for the powerful Python language is now fully integrated allowing users greater functionality to create scripts, expressions and plugins for unlimited creative workflow.
• Others: A variety of other new features include double precision, dual transforms, OpenGL 3 support, new architectural shaders, and an parametric spline L-system.