Directed by Simon Rippingale and based on a children’s story created by writer Erica Harrison, A Cautionary Tail is a Kickstarter funded 13-minute short about learning to treasure the things that make us unique – in this case a girl born with a tail that expresses her emotions. The project features an impressive voice cast – comprising Cate Blanchett, David Wenham and Barry Otto – and is being brought to life using a collage of meticulously designed hand-made miniature sets and 3D animated characters.

“We wanted to achieve a storybook richness similar to the aesthetic of stop-motion films, with the idea that our audience would think it was a stop motion film,” says Pauline Piper, A Cautionary Tail’s producer. As such the short features 22 beautifully handcrafted miniature sets, using real materials like grass, bark, stones, moss, fabric, copper piping, concrete and wood to give them a sense of life. “Director of photography Callan Green shot on the Canon 5D with Carl Zeiss prime lenses, which gave us a beautiful, warm, filmic look with a shallow depth of field,” says Pauline. “Moving camera plates were shot in stop motion using a motion control rig, with camera data recorded and used to match the moves in post.”

It was on-set CG Supervisor Andres Wanda’s job to ensure seamless integration of CG characters and props into these live action environments. “When shooting each set we captured data such as camera positions, focal length and f-stops to replicate in 3D,” explains Wanda. “We captured lighting references using a camera with a fisheye lens placed in the set where the characters would be. These reference images will be used to generate the lighting used for our characters in Maya.”

Meanwhile, it was animation director Paul Perrott who was responsible in maintaining consistency in the look of the models themselves. “Using Maya as our 3D animation software, we’ve developed an animation style to complement the world of beautiful miniature sets,” he explains. “While taking advantage of the flexibility of computer animation, we’re also conscious of giving our characters a tactile, puppet-like quality so they composite more naturally into the sets. Artists specialising in hand-keyframed animation are meticulously animating every facial expressions and gesture in each shot to bring this heart-warming tale to life. As the story unfolds the shifting tone and mood are reflected in our hero’s appearance and performance and in the characters around her. It’s a labour-intensive method yielding nuanced, engaging performances that we hope will resonate with audiences on an emotional level.”

Given that it’s Kickstarter funded, A Cautionary Tail has been made possible thanks to donations from the creative community, and so far the team are thrilled with what’s been achieved. “We’ve been blown away by the generosity of the Kickstarter community,” beams Pauline. “As newbies to crowdsourced funding we underestimated the support we’d get – we set ourselves the modest target of $40,000 in 60 days, and were stunned and delighted to reach our halfway mark in only one week. We’ve been lucky enough to find three new Associate Producers through our Kickstarter campaign – they’ve come on board with a fabulous $5,000 each – but lots of people have been getting involved by chipping in whatever they can manage. The beauty of crowdsourced funding is that small amounts can make a big difference.”

However, although the initial target of $40,000 has funded the first stage of animation production the team is still hoping to raise another $40,000 to fund lighting, compositing and the final stages of post production. “In the meantime, we continue to be encouraged and inspired by our supporters on Kickstarter and can’t wait to share A Cautionary Tail with all the people who are making it possible,” says Pauline with a smile.

You can view the trailer for A Cautionary Tail below, or watch this recently released production update, offering a sneak preview of a haunting dream sequence.

If you’re interested in learning more about the project, and possibly donating, then head on over to the Kickstarter page.

Artist: Alexandr Novitskiy
3D Artist Online username: Tigerfather
Image title: Blazing Chaser
Alexandr says: This is scene with Ford Falcon 1973 and Ford Mustang 1968. Model of Ford Mustang is simple – I made it specially for this two shots. But the model of Ford Falcon is very high detailed.

3D Artist says: “We love the impact of this shot – captured in the midst of a high-speed battle, the ferocious effects and clever camera angle make the viewer instantly part of the action”

Want to know how to get your art featured in print? Find out right here.

We’re a little late with this one, but we just had to post this extended trailer for the upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man, directed by the aptly-named Marc Webb. From the look of it we’re going to see some first-person web-slinging action; cool smoke effects when The Lizard releases pheromones; a closer look at Peter Parker’s gadgetry; and some fight scenes that appear truly epic. We can’t wait to see what other effects the movie has tucked up its sleeves when its released this summer.

The Amazing Spider-Man is out in cinemas on July 3.

Dark Shadows is the latest collaboration to come from the pairing of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, in which Depp plays a fish-out-of-water vampire, who after 200 years of imprisonment has returned to find his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin, and the dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family has fared little better.

The Senate Visual Effects – a boutique visual effects company located in Twickenham and London – was brought on board to give Burton’s vision life, responsible for 186 visual effects shots involving the Collinwood Manor, the Angel Bay/Fish Canning Factory, the McDonalds/Construction Attack and the Josette Supernatural/Ghost scenes.

These shots included extensive green screen work to full CG environments, ghost FX and creature animation. “For Collinwood Manor, although both the exterior and interior sets were built at Borehamwood and Pinewood Studios respectively, extensive work was required to replace vast screens and build additional portions of the Manor,” said Anton Yri, The Senate’s visual effects producer.  The life-size exterior was only built to the bottom of the first floor and the rest required visual effects utilising a mixture of hi-res stills, matte paintings, CG builds and elements from a 1/3 scale model shot.

“Out single most complex shot was a sweeping camera move over Collinwood Manor under construction,” Yri continues. “Starting with a basic art department model of the Manor, the 3D team deconstructed it, removing roofs and walls and replacing them with wooden beams and the interior structure of the house. CG period scaffolding was then added to the exterior along with a CG crane in the foreground to add more dynamism to the shot. The Manor surroundings were created using a mixture of sea plates, matte painting and model element shoots. To add life to the scene, 18th Century construction worked elements were then dotted around the various walkways.”

The scene in which Collinwood Manor burns down presented another set of challenges for The Senate, although its experience in creating the lumber warehouse fire in Kick-Ass certainly helped. For Dark Shadows, The Senate set the model house alight and then filmed it burning at high speed in order to give the flames a greater sense of scale. The models shots were then blended with the life-size foreground of the Manor and supplemented with additional flame elements wherever necessary. Foreground smoke elements and an overall fogging were added to create the illusion of a raging inferno. An animated collapse of the mansion’s tower was also added, giving the fire a more emphatic effect.

Two supernatural sequences also required The Senate to develop a watery ghost effect for the spectre of character Josette. As Tim Burton wanted to avoid anything too magic looking or ethereal, The Senate applied layers of simple 2D distortions, glows and subtle transparencies onto green screen elements of Josette, creating a more old-fashioned but nevertheless ghostly effect. These effects were then placed into 3D space and composited into the various corridors of Collinwood Manor, with the shots enhanced with lighting passes, flickers and glowing effects on the walls.

The Senate’s work also included creating CG crabs that crawled over Josette’s body when she is first revealed (one even clambers out of her mouth) and causing the witch Angelique to physically crack up and fall apart, as if fault lines were opening up over her body. “We were entrusted with a broad range of work which required a great variety of visual effects techniques – from extensive green screen work to full CG environments, ghost FX and creature animation,” stated Yri. “We has a significant number of short requiring CG, which when coupled with meeting the demands of a visionary director, made Dark Shadows a challenging yet hugely rewarding project.”

Creative retoucher Josh Kitney has been creating 3D images in modo since version 301. Discover his latest techniques in modo 501 in the following free tutorial…

Estimated time to complete tutorial: 30+ minutes

Step 1: Assemble assets

Good assets make great CGI. Look for or shoot an image that you want to place your field into – this gives you good art direction for light, colour and form. I want tall grass, so I make a long piece of grass, duplicate it a few times, and change its shape slightly. Do the same thing for the wheat grass too.

Step 2: Ground plane for assets

Make two poly planes,: one for the close up, and one for the distant, filler elements. Try and keep everything on a 1:1 scale so the first plane is about 15 x 10 metres and the second distant plane is around 45 x 30 metres. Give them a few divisions and sculpt some variations for a realistic feel. Assign separate materials to them (close grass, distant grass), but give them the same texture – I used Dirt 01 from the Materials>Organic>Dirt folder.

Step 3: Assign grass up close

Within the Groups tab, make a Long Grass folder and place your grass models into this. In the Shader Tree create a Surface Generator called ‘Grass Close’ within the Close Grass material group: Average Spacing 10cm; Minimum Spacing 1cm; Particle Ceiling about 30K. In the Items tab, make a replicator: Prototype ‘Long Grass’; Point Source ‘Grass Close’; Random Twist X=30 Y=720 Z=30; Random Scale Y=200%.

Step 4: Assign grass at a distance

For the distant grass do the same as before with respects to surface generators and replicator creation – remember to name them differently. This time: Average Spacing 25cm; Minimum Spacing 5cm; and a Particle Ceiling of 100K. Set Random Twist to X=30 Y=720 Z=30, and Random Scale to Y=100%.

Step 5: Assign wheat distribution

Duplicate both poly planes now, as we’ll use them for the wheat grass and name them close/distant wheat. Make a mesh group again just like the grass groups, named ‘Grass Wheat’. Again, in the Shader Tree, create two new Surface Generators called ‘Close/Distant Wheat’ and place them respectively within the wheat material groups. In the Items tab create two new replicators.

As the wheat is less populated over the field, we’ll change a few things. This time we use an Enhanced modo texture, under Organic>Veins. Place this above the Wheat surface generators and set its effect to Surface Particle Density. You may need to invert its colour. Our spacing is a little different here as we don’t want it to cover the field like the grass.

Step 6: Render setup

Here I use Ambient Occlusion and Depth Output, and I place an Alpha channel in all the materials folders used for easy post-editing. You have plenty of render options to use within modo to make post work a breeze; use them and it will save you loads of time!

Each issue of 3D Artist magazine is packed with tutorials for a variety of software. 3D Artist magazine is available from all good newsagents, supermarkets and at the official Imagine Publishing online store.

Digital editions of 3D Artist are also available through the Apple Newsstand and Zinio. Save money off the cover price and get your copy immediately. Back issues and subscriptions to this service are also available – check out our latest subscription promotions.

Wacom has put together a customer survey about the Cintiq product line to help the company continue its dedication to offering the best products possible. The questionnaire takes approximately 20 minutes, and everyone that takes part will be entered into a prize draw to win the following:

• 1 Cintiq 24HD
• 2 Cintiq 21UX
• 1 Adobe CS Design Standard
• 6 Intuos5 touch M
• 40 Bamboo Stylus solo

Take the survey before 28 May 2012 for a chance to win.

First celebrated in 2008, The Unity Awards is an opportunity for projects created using the Unity game engine to receive recognition across a number of categories. This year’s categories include:

• Best Student Project
• Best Technical Achievement
• Best Visual Experience
• Best Gameplay
• Best Serious Game
• Best Non-game
• Community Choice
• Golden Cube (best overall game/project)

“There is a torrent of amazing content created by the Unity community of developers each year,” said David Helgason, CEO of Unity Technologies. “It’s incredible to have the chance to acknowledge the talented and dedicated groups and individuals who use Unity in ways that continue to inspire us to improve our tools, engine, and company.”

Nominations for awards categories will be accepted from 15 May to 15 June. For more information and to find out the entry rules, visit the Unity Awards 2012 website.

Did you know? Unity is a free game engine used in everything from games to arch-vis, military simulations, previous and more. Check out our free tutorial on getting started in Unity, and download the software for free from the Unity website.

Deciding that digital artists spend way too much time in front of the monitor, sculptor and teacher Ryan Kingslien is striving to bring the very best in traditional and digital sculpting to Los Angeles, with real, in-person workshops at SculptCon 2012.

Celebrate the traditions of sculpting in every form imaginable with legendary make-up effects sculptor Brian Wade, fine art sculptor and marble master Cicero D/avila, creature sculptor Glauco Longhi, and fine art sculptor Ed Byth.

SculptCon will contain workshops by traditional artists as well as make-up FX guys. Why? Because the goal is one and the same: to sculpt mind-blowing, awesome stuff.

The schedule so far:

• 2-day creature sculpting workshop with Brian Wade – 7-8 July
• 2-day traditional and digital sculpting with Cesar Dacol Jr. – 21-22 July
• 4-day sculpting the figure workshop with Cicero D’avila – 27-30 July
• 3-day sculpting the figure workshop with Edward Eyth – 21-23 July

Glauco Longhi will also become a resident artist throughout the month of July. For more information about the workshops and artists, head to the SculptCon website, and follow @ryankingslien on Twitter for up-to-the-minute Tweets.

The 3D Art & Design Book is the perfect guide for both beginners, and those more experienced in the world of 3D art and design. Providing an insightful introduction, the book also contains features, interviews and tutorials from character and vehicle design to arch-vis and custom typography. There are also masterclasses and a helpdesk to further enhance skills and techniques.

Digital Artist Collection is the definitive guide to digital art, with features exploring the diversity of digital styles and powerful applications now available to artists, and detailed step-by-step guides covering a range of genres from pop art collage to manga illustration, the Digital Artist Collection is perfect for both enthusiasts and professionals.

Both bookazines come packed with ideas and inspirational artwork, plus a free CD containing tutorial files and more – everything you need to get creative. The 3D Art & Design Book is on sale now from www.imaginebookshop.co.uk and all good newsagents, priced £14.99. The Digital Artist Collection is priced at £12.99.

Artist: Damir Karimov
3D Artist Online username: Damir
Image title: July morning
Damir says: “Warm July morning, serene and care free… Programs used: modelling [in] 3ds Max, rendering [in] Maxwell Render, Post-production [in] Photoshop”

3D Artist says: The lighting of this scene is absolutely beautiful, and perfectly captures a hot summer’s morning. The objects have been carefully placed to interact with the lighting, supplying all those wonderful shadows while highlighting the important elements that tell the story. Fantastic work! Now, if we could render our office with some of that glorious sunshine…

Maxwell Render is built around the concept of light that behaves as it would in the real world. Find out more about how Maxwell rendering and demo the trial on the website.

Want to know how to get your art featured in print? Find out right here!