DataLife Engine - Softnews Media Group

Withthis highly-requested series of tutorials, well take an in-depth lookat the entire production pipeline for creating a transforming roboteffect using industry-standard CG software.
Overview
Thisprocess was created by bringing together our top designers,illustrators, modelers, texturers, riggers, animators, lighting andrendering artists and compositors to focus on the specific hurdles andproduction decisions that goes into each step of creating a transformingrobot shot. Youll get a look at the entire production pipeline fromthe conceptual phase through the composition of the final shot. Thisseries is intended for intermediate to advanced artists and a strongunderstanding of your preferred choice of software in the various stepsof the pipeline is highly encouraged. This series is specificallycreated to have the techniques be applicable to any industry-standard CGsoftware. If a certain step in the pipeline, software or an equivalentapplication in the pipeline is new to you, check out our BeginnersGuide and Introduction courses to quickly get up to speed beforebeginning.

- Transforming Robot Production Pipeline Volume 1: Concept and Design
Inthis tutorial we will learn about the process of creating concept artfor a transforming robot within a production pipeline. To get started,you should know that this course will focus on providing you with a highlevel glimpse at my thought process in designing our robot. While wewont focus on painting every brush stroke, I will be walking youthrough each step, demonstrating techniques as well as providing insightinto the process. First, well jump in and knock out some quicksilhouette options to establish our robots form and pose. After spendingsome time roughing in possible details for our silhouette, we willbegin refining forms in grayscale. We will then learn about the coloringprocess for this project from base color all the way through finishingdetails. Well wrap things up by learning about some final steps thatwere taken before handing our artwork to the next artist in thepipeline. After completing this course, youll not only know how theconcept art was painted but also understand the design decisions weremade leading up to our finished concept

- Transforming Robot Production Pipeline Volume 2: Truck Modeling
Inthis Professional Series course, we will explore some the techniquesand concepts involved in building and preparing the vehicle portion ofour transforming robot project. This specific high-level course wasdesigned to evolve your workflows, and give you some concepts to keep inmind as you go through the process of building the vehicle portion ofyour transforming robot. Well look at a few modeling techniques to makethe model more realistic, UV layout concepts, and cutting up the modelin preparation for its transformation. Before we start, I recommend youhave experience using Maya as we cover a lot of information in a shorterspan of time. We wont be going through the modeling of this truckstep-by-step, so if youre an artist new to Maya or to modeling, theBeginners Guides and Introduction courses are perfect places to startgetting up to speed. From there you can check out any of theintermediate step-by-step project based courses, automotive coursesespecially, and they will take you through the entire process and giveyou the tools you need to complete the model.

- Transforming Robot Production Pipeline Volume 3: Truck Texturing
Inthis tutorial we will learn about the process of texturing ourtransforming robots vehicle form. To get started, you should know thatthis course will focus on providing you with a high level glimpse at mythought process in painting the textures for our truck asset. While wewont focus on painting every stroke of our textures, I will be walkingyou through each step, demonstrating techniques as well as providinginsight into the process. Throughout this course, we will revealvaluable information about this process including targeting geometry forpainting on a complex model, using lights and masking to paint texturein hard to reach places, and using MARI 1.4s layered painting unprojectand project workflow to create decals for our vehicle. After completingthis course, youll not only know how the texture maps for our truckwere painted but youll also gain insight into the thought processbehind painting them.