New Tutorial: Creating A HDRi For Use In A 3D Package - Photoshop & HDRShop

Its finally here! I apologize for the delay on the tutorial I have been incredibly busy recently, but here it is.

The tutorial takes your through the process of capturing and creating a HDRi (High Dynamic Range Image) for use with a 3D modelling package such as Maya, Cinema 4D, 3Ds Max...etc. These images are used to add realistic indirect light to your scene and can also be used for reflections on your geometry. Being able to capture/create these images will help massively with scene matching your models as you are essentially capturing the light of the actual place then wrapping it around your scene.

If you have any questions please leave a comment or feel free to send me an email. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel and the site. Thanks for watching.

Project: Travis

Hi all, I have just began work on a new project and have been drawing up some concepts for it. My original idea was to create a stylised character. With this in mind I started to think up possible personalities for my character and ended up choosing a young skater/rocker. Below are the sketches I came out with. (Click the images to view it at a larger size.)


Here is the initial concept of the full body. Let me know what you think.

This is my initial rough ideas for my characters head shape, possible hair styles, and then the final sketch of his head.

Chipper Animation

Here is the animation I created of Chipper along with the new STFX Studios Projects intro video. The shots in the animation were chosen purposefully to show different aspects of the model/rig/animation. Apologies for the compression of the video, its just something that comes with uploading to YouTube, I may switch to Vimeo at some point.

I would also like to add that I got most of my textures for Chipper from http://www.cgtextures.com/ which is a  great resource for obtaining all sorts of textures to use on your 3D models. Give it a look.

I hope you like it, let me know what you think or if you have any questions. Don't forget to subscribe to the site and the YouTube channel.

Say Hello To Chipper!

Here is Chipper! This is a project I have been working on for some time now. My initial inspiration was Disney Pixar's Wall·E. The story behind him is that he is a gardening/environmental robot, so has been left outside and gotten rusty and dented. I used the fact that he looked a bit like Wall·E to create a similar style image which I have posted below. I created the model in Maya, unwrapped it in 3D-Coat and textured it in Photoshop. I wrote a complete MEL script to drive the tank tracks in relation to movement of the robot. The model is fully rigged and has several controls for various features such as his eyes and hands.

I will upload the animation I created very soon and I could upload another video taking you through what went into Chipper if people are interested.

Hope you like it. Let me know what you think, or if you have any questions.