Seasonal CGI

Good morning readers,

Christmas has come and gone and unlike the rest of the world the UK has yet to see any snow. For this reason we thought that we would take a look at some of the best winter CGI out there, Followed by our own piece of seasonal artwork.

Using 3D Studio Max, Mental ray and Photoshop, the artist Kaes Martin has created a great example of an urban winter wonderland set in 1930's Manhattan. He has been very careful in not going over the top on the snow and avoids making it look like a scene from "The day after tomorrow". This gives him the opportunity to show off the modelling and texturing of some very detailed and complex structures. This is definitely one of our favourites.

Kaes - Martin - courtesy of 3Dtotal.com

Next up is a great visual by Aldo Garcia from Mexico. Using 3D Studio Max, Vray and Photoshop, Aldo creates this amazing secluded retreat. Not your usual alpine chalet but more of a modern piece of architecture placed high in the Rockies. You can really feel the difference in environments from the sub freezing temperatures of the forest to the warm homely feel of the interior. The snow covered trees may be photography composited into the visual but the foreground snow with added foliage and footprints has been created in 3D Studio Max incredibly well.

Aldo Garcia - courtesy of CGarchitect.com

One of my all time favorite CGI snow scenes is next. Originally created as a cinematic shot for Fable 2 by Blur studio. This has been one of the most viewed CGI tutorials on the well known CGI site 3D TOTAL. Unlike the images above this scene was created by a small team of digital artists split up to work on different parts of the image and scene. The detailed trees and muddy foreground, the farm land in the mid ground and the distant hills and mountains of the back ground were all worked on independently. When brought together these give image and amazing amount of depth.

Follow the link below to view the making of this incredible winter scene

Blur Studio - courtesy of 3Dtotal.com

Probably the most well recognizable pieces of winter CGI is of course the Manhattan skyline from the movie "The day after tomorrow". Amazingly this was created by one man Eric Hanson, he spent the best part of a year modelling and texturing numerous buildings to be scattered around the island. With the addition of the ambience and particle effects, this in my opinion, makes for one of the most epic cinematic views of Manhattan seen on the silver screen.

Eric Hanson - courtesy of xRez.com

Last but not least we bring you one of our own seasonal CGI's. Using a building that was originally designed for the warm climate of the Middle East, we built a desolate frozen forest hideout. Using 3D Studio Max, Vray and Photoshop we really wanted to create that frost-bitten, lonely feeling of a cold, harsh winter, as well as the warm festive feeling of Christmas.

SoVibrant 

We hope you enjoyed our seasonal CGI and we look forward to bringing you another instalment this spring perhaps with a few bluebells and lambs thrown in for good measure! 

Media Productions

www.sovibrant.co.uk