Digital-Tutors announced the availability of three new educational training products: URBAN ENVIRONMENT CREATION WITH MAYA, MENTAL RAY RENDERING TECHNIQUES: INTERIORS and INTRODUCTION TO MUDBOX - the latest releases in a growing library of interactive video-based training for emerging digital artists.
"We are pleased and excited to have such a dedicated and skillful training partner as Digital-Tutors in order to provide the community with Mudbox training materials," said Tibor Madjar, co-founder of Skymatter. "Digital-Tutors is known in the industry for providing quality training for top graphics software and the Mudbox training they have developed is no exception," added Madjar.
* INTRODUCTION TO MUDBOX provides more than three hours of lessons developed to increase artists' understanding of modeling, sculpting and map generation with Mudbox. Highlights from popular topics include: digital sculpting techniques, asymmetrical modeling, texture baking, generating normal maps, generating displacement maps, working with 3D layers, Maya and Mudbox workflow, Maya surface preparation, utilizing local subdivision features, multi-resolution editing, using stamps and stencils, painting masks for non-destructive sculpting, layer management, scene optimization, rendering in mental ray, realtime normal map preview, sculpting brushes overview, interface and tools overview, and additional lessons developed to teach artists digital sculpting techniques with Mudbox.
* MENTAL RAY RENDERING TECHNIQUES: INTERIORS provides four hours of instructional lessons guiding artists' through the process of lighting and rendering an interior set environment with mental ray and incorporating intuitive rendering techniques to create a final composition. Highlights from popular topics include: setting up environmental geometry, effective light placement techniques, emitting photons from a light source, visualizing photon maps in Maya's Viewport, tuning photon intensity, smoothing Global illumination photons with Final Gather, incorporating Maya and mental ray materials together in scene, adjusting photonic attributes of materials, altering geometry for optimum global illumination, rendering images to HDR Format, adding realism with ambient occlusion, fine-tuning renders with external apps, adjusting light exposure with Camera Lens Shaders, using multi-bounce Final Gather as a global illumination alternative, creating and storing rendering presets and additional lessons developed to teach artists interior rendering techniques.
* URBAN ENVIRONMENT CREATION WITH MAYA provides six hours of lessons developed to increase artists' understanding of modeling, UV mapping and texturing urban environments using production techniques currently being used in film, games and architectural visualizations. Highlights from popular topics include: hard surface modeling techniques, modeling with texture, modeling to a camera, strategically adding detail, simulating aging and decay, UV layout techniques, using UV snapshots, integrating Maya and Photoshop, generating displacement maps, texture painting with Photoshop, layering textures, tiling textures, generating procedural maps, adding architectural elements, creating interior illusions with textures, connecting Maya texture nodes, complex scene management, scene optimization for rendering and additional lessons developed to teach artists exterior set modeling and texturing techniques in Maya.
Skymatter Ltd. (www.mudbox3d.com) is a 3D software company committed to providing real-world solutions for the high-end visual effects, game development, and design industries. The company co-founders, Tibor Madjar, Andrew Camenisch and Dave Cardwell, are professional CG artists formerly with Weta Digital. Skymatter's flagship product, Mudbox, is a new 3D sculpting solution that is helping to redefine the world of digital content creation. Mudbox is a primary tool at many of the most notable film studios and production facilities, including Weta Digital, Blur Studio, Cinesite, Naughty Dog (a subsidiary of Sony Computer Ent.), Tippett Studio, Epic Studios, The Orphanage, Radical Ent. and many others.
Digital-Tutors (www.digitaltutors.com) is an internationally known innovator of interactive training whose client list includes thousands of students, professionals, Fortune 500 companies, U.S. government agencies, schools and nonprofit associations from across the globe. Digital-Tutors, an Autodesk authorized publisher, develops award-winning training solutions for emerging digital artists using a unique teaching approach designed by university professors and industry professionals.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
