Missed an issue of 3D Artist? We have a solution! The 3D Artist eMag Volume 1 contains the first 20 issues of 3D Artist magazine on one interactive DVD.

Packed full with more than 2,100 pages of content, the 3D Artist eMag provides everything from issues 1–20 on one disc. Every article is included, from inspirational gallery images to expert tutorials, plus more.

Browse through issue-by-issue, or simply search for the software or subject you want to learn more about – the choice is yours.

Bonus content is also included. The DVD comes with all the necessary tutorial files, plus 100 high-res textures for you use in your projects.

The 3D Artist eMag Volume 1 is available to buy for just £19.99… less than £1 an issue! Purchase your copy now from the official Imagine Publishing online store.

In a massive announcement today, DAZ3D is offering DAZ Studio 4 Pro (retail price $429.95 US), Bryce 7 Pro (retail price $249.95 US), Hexagon 2.5 (retail price $149.95 US), and 3D Photoshop Bridge to everyone, for free.

“We’re excited to make this offer early in the year,” James Thornton, CEO for DAZ said. “We wanted to give any digital artist the opportunity to experience DAZ free 3D software for the first time and a full suite of 3D models and 3D animation software products is available on DAZ3D.com.”

This generous offer from DAZ3D is for a limited time only, so to download the full retail versions of these popular 3D software packages, head to the DAZ3D website before February 29, 2012. The downloads will be eligible for free updates and upgrade pricing on future versions of each product – a potential savings of hundreds of dollars!

February’s issue of 3D Artist is now on sale! Its 116 pages are packed with texturing tuition, character design tips, animation advice, 50 tips for going freelance, plus loads more.

Tutorials in issue 38 include how to create vinyl toy-style characters using ZBrush and modo. Richard Yot talks through a quick and simple process to create characters for still renders or concepts.

There’s a Day of the Dead-inspired DAZ art tutorial from Juan Carlos Soto Segura. Our free cover disc also includes a free DAZ Valerie Elite skin texture worth $29 and an exclusive DAZ discount code to go with it.

If you’re a Blender user, you’ll love Lech Sokolowski’s step-by-step guide to creating realistic arch vis in Blender.

Meanwhile, Richard Pritchard returns to provide the second, and final, part of our character design and development guide. In it he talks texture painting in Mari, rendering options, plus more.

Issue 38′s masterclass focuses on editing techniques for 3D animation. Richard Culver explains how to apply the theories of cinematography to improve your animation.

Wayne Robson heads up the 3D Artist workshop section this month. He provides a great guide on how to texture a tree stump in Mudbox. Wayne’s also very kindly supplied the resource files and video training for the cover disc too.

Features this issue include a guide to going freelance. Top industry artists Andrew Hickinbottom, Neil McCormack, Dan Crossland, Paul McCrorey, Henk Dawson and Rizon Parein provide 50 fine tips for going it alone in the 3D industry.

We also interviewed the motion graphics designer Paul Clements and awesome artist Matthieu Roussel about their careers so far and their nuggets of advice for other 3d artists.

There’s all this and loads more besides. 3D Artist is available to buy now from all good newsagents, supermarkets and at the official Imagine Publishing online store.

Digital editions

Digital editions of 3D Artist are on sale now through the Apple Newsstand. Save 1/3 off the cover price and get your copy immediately. Back issues and subscriptions to this service are also available.

Save money and subscribe!

3D Artist ships worldwide – check out our latest subscription promotions.

LumenRT 2 Review is the second generation of E-on Software‘s revolutionary interactive visualisation product for architectural projects, featuring full physical lighting.

This latest version of the LumenRT product, which is entirely compatible with Google SketchUp, is a major new release for the company, and to celebrate you can currently accss a free trial version for Mac and Windows – available immediately from the dedicated LumenRT website.

LumenRT 2 Review is also now available for free to all registered users of LumenRT 1. This offer is for a limited time only, so to upgrade without delay visit the LumenRT website.

With its new real-time engine, LumenRT 2 Review has a number of new features and enhancements, including:

• Complete physical simulation of light
• Physically accurate reflections
• Adjustable time of day
• Precise anti-aliasing and motion blur
• Soft shadows with varying softness
• Water and underwater effects
• Advanced material rendering
• Photorealistic skies
• Low quality mode for optimised performance on slower boards

A complete list of features in LumenRT 2 Review for SketchUp is available on the LumenRT website.

Check out this movie rendered in real-time with LumenRT:

iCloud For Beginners is Imagine Publishing’s first ever multi-touch eBook for Apple’s iBooks 2.It teaches you everything you need to know about iCloud, Apple’s revolutionary backup and sync service.

iCloud For Beginners contains helpful guides and step-by-step tutorials to ensure you really get the most from your iPad, iPhone and Mac.

What’s more, since the book is specifically designed for Apple’s iBooks 2, it also features slideshows, interactive images and more.

iCloud For Beginners is available to buy for just 99p or $1.99 on iTunes and the iBookstore worldwide now.

Have you cleared a special space on your desk for your 3D Artist calendar? If so, we want to see it!

Send in a photo of you and your calendar in your studio for a chance to win a 3D Artist goodie bag.

How to enter

Email your photo to 3dartist@imagine-publishing.co.uk with ‘desk calendar’ as your subject header or upload your image to our official Facebook page.

Closing date for all entries is 1 February 2012.

Terms and conditions

All entries must be submitted by the 1 February 2012 deadline. Judging will take place within four weeks of the closing date by the 3D Artist team. The Editor’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. Employees of Imagine Publishing, their relatives or any agents are not eligible to enter. Imagine Publishing and its partners have the right to substitute the prize for a similar item of equal or higher value. Prizes cannot be exchanged for cash. From time to time, Imagine Publishing or its agents may send you related material or special offers. If you do not want to receive this, please state so clearly on your competition entry. All entrants agree to participate in any promotion related to this competition.

MakerBot Industries is offering one lucky 3D Artist reader the chance to 3D print their very own designs on a Thing-O-Matic – in the comfort of their homes.

The custom, fully-assembled Thing-O-Matic 3D printer is thousands of dollars’ worth of 3D printing wizardry. And to win? Simply design your own pet monster and upload it to Thingiverse.com with the tag ’3DArtistMag’, so the judges can find it.

The deadline is 1 March 2012, so there’s still time to design the coolest pocket-sized monster the world has never met! Visit the competition page for full competition details and how to enter.

As a helping hand, our catalogue of inspiring toy designs should help aid your brainstorming, while our free tutorial on how to create a watertight 3D model for printing should serve you very well indeed.

Good luck!

Calling all artists! Send in your image for a chance to win an AMD graphics card and a copy of modo 501 for Mac or PC.

How to enter

Send in a high-res 3D image from your portfolio to 3dartist@imagine-publishing.co.uk with ‘AMD/modo competition’ as the subject header.

Please note that modo must have been used for at least part of the workflow. (A free 15-day trial of the software is available from Luxology’s website.)

The new deadline for all entries is 17 February 2012

Prizes

1st place
• AMD FirePro V7900 2GB high-performance graphics card worth $999
• A copy of modo 501 for Mac or PC worth $995

2nd place
• AMD FirePro V5900 2GB worth $599

3rd place
• AMD FirePro V4800 worth $299

For further information on modo 501 or AMD’s range of graphics cards, visit www.luxology.com and www.amd.com

Terms and conditions

The submitted artwork must be an original, finished creation you own the copyright to – fan art, commercial work or art based on someone else’s concept will not be accepted. modo must have been used for at least part of the workflow too. Judges from 3D Artist, AMD and Luxology will pick their top three images out of all the entries. The competition deadline has been extended from 12 December 2011 to 17 February 2012. Judging will take place within four weeks of the closing date. The Editor’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. Employees of Imagine Publishing, AMD and Luxology, their relatives or any agents, are not eligible to enter. Imagine Publishing or its agents may send you related material or special offers. If you do not want to receive this, please state so clearly on your competition entry. All entrants agree to participate in any promotion related to this competition. The winning images may be used by AMD and Luxology for marketing purposes.

Today’s launch of Shaderlight V2.1, a leading plug-in for Google SketchUp, makes real-world lighting even easier than ever to achieve in Google’s free software.

Joining forces with Visa lighting, ArtVPS is offering Shaderlight users a readily available library of lighting fixtures as SketchUp 3D models, incorporating IES lighting files that are ready to render. These 3D models contain the correct lighting information so that, when rendered with Shaderlight Pro, the scenes are lit as you’d expect in the real world.

Chosen from Visa Lighting’s collection of fixtures on Google 3D Warehouse, the Shaderlight-ready SketchUp models are available to download from Google 3D Warehouse now. Simply import a model into your scene, hit render, and Shaderlight will render the correct lighting and colour detail for each fixture.

Lighting fixtures with embedded IES profiles will only render correctly using Shaderlight V2.1. The new Shaderlight release also allows users to embed IES files in their own SketchUp models to share on Google 3D Warehouse.

“Lighting is a critical part of any design but can take a huge amount of time and expertise to get right,” Kate Marshall, marketing director from ArtVPS said. “By providing ‘Shaderlight ready’ lighting models, anyone can create real world lighting, simply.”

Existing 2.0 users can download the update now to upgrade to 2.1 for free. New users can buy the latest version from the Shaderlight website. You can also download the free 14-day trial of Shaderlight Pro to try out the new feature.

Ready-to-render light fixtures are available for download from the Shaderlight library on Google 3D Warehouse.

Finger Industries is an illustration and animation studio based in Sheffield, England. Founded nine years ago by Marcus Kenyon and Jonny Ford, their compact but hardworking team handles everything from book covers to music videos. Clients include Lloyds TSB, Mamas & Papas, HSBC, plus more.

3D Artist: You’ve produced some cool work for high-profile clients – how do you ensure your visuals have commercial appeal while still retaining character and originality?

Marcus Kenyon: It’s a hard thing to pinpoint as it’s something we just ‘do’; however, understanding the client and ad agency’s needs is key to getting the message across. Once that is done we focus on translating it into something that looks good and works or animates aesthetically.

Working in a good team really helps too. We all know our own strengths and weaknesses, but are all happy to argue the case or speak up should something not working. A clear communication with the agency also really helps, along with clear and concise client feedback.

3DA: What software and hardware do you rely on to get the job done?

MK: 3ds Max is our main software and we use V-Ray as our shader. We have recently been running Chaos Group’s Phoenix FD 2.0, which is awesome. Other programs we rely on include Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash for any 2D and textures, as well as Premiere Pro for editing.

In terms of hardware, locally we have HP machines, quad-core 3GHz, with varying amounts of RAM (between 6-10GB) with 1GB cards running either Windows 7 64 or Vista 64. We network render with these machines, but have two more in our server cabinet that are dedicated render servers – these are 3GHz Quads with a nice, fast chipset and 16GB RAM each on Windows Server 2008. As these are dedicated to Max only they run very quick; meanwhile, we render through Backburner 2008.

3DA: What tips and tricks do you use to save time on a project? Do you buy stock models and textures – that sort of thing?

MK: Time saving can come from numerous sources. Good file management, planning and scheduling makes a big difference and is possibly the biggest time saver. Reusing base 3D models can be advantageous – sometimes we can modify an existing 3D model to save a complete rebuild from scratch… particularly humanoid characters.

CGTextures is our main texture source, and we collect a library of these images for straight use or modification. We also use photos and make our own HDRIs. We don’t buy stock models – everything is made from scratch.

We also use a genius project-management piece of software called Streamtime, which is controlled by our production manager, Rachael. The program enables us to individually record our time working on each project without disturbing the production process. From this we draw financial reports, invoices and project templates that help us predict, shape and schedule future work.

3DA: Can you offer any any advice for artists eager to work in the industry?

MK: Exposure: get online, get on the phone and do what you can even if it means getting paid pennies before you can demand the big bucks!

There are a lot of online portfolio sites available where you can showcase your work for free and to millions. Ensure you keep this up-to-date and keep churning out quality work to show off your talent.

Additionally, don’t be precious, be part of a team, be honest and speak up if needed.

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The full interview with Finger Industries originally appeared in issue 36 of 3D Artist, on sale from the Apple Newsstand and the Imagine Publishing online store now.