If you have not noticed Alpha version 6 of the Sculptris just arrived to Mac. Even the app is still in the alpha stage of development it’s a pleasure to use. Of course, development now-days takes place under the Pixologic brand but you can still download it and use for free. We can talk about Sculptris as a light and free version of ZBrush app but I don’t think that’s a right way to describe it. You don’t have a wide choice of brushes which come by default in Zbrush but Sculptris Brush engine feels a bit different in some nice way. On the example, I was playing a bit with a Flatten brush and instead of random sculpts and artifacts I have pulled some nice surfaces out of the model in no time with little or no control from the modell. This modell was btw. modelled and imported from another 3D package.

As you can see a OpenGL preview and previews of materials are just beautiful.

I have never worked with the app before but UI was so intuitive I had no problem navigating around and customizing parts with different materials.

This is another view of the same image from above in the wireframe mode. You can clearly see that Sculptris is keeping everything as triangles.

Auto(r) Automotive Design Conference is event started in 2009 by Daniel Tomičić with a  mission to promote designers as authors of automobiles and  automotive design as part of product design in general. With all the speakers, professional designers, automotive journalist, engineers and car enthusiasts Auto(r) conference is with every year taking a new shape and life on it’s own. I am very glad I had the opportunity to be part of it.

I am talking here a bit about cinematography in CG and concept behind Plumero, animation I have done for Croatian Dakar Rally Team. I showed later a 3D model used in the animation and raw no-edited renders to show all the differences and importance of post-production process. In general, I am using almost the same process for both animation and still works. Considering all technical requirements and multiple stages of typical 3D production It was pleasant to hear afterwards they got the general idea how was done.

Paolo Martin having his part of the lecture as he was absolute star of the conference with his Ferrari Modulo design. Designed in golden age of futurism in 70ies this design is to this days still astonishing accomplishment. That comes as no surprise considering all 22 international design awards starting which he got upon initial presentation at Geneva Motor Show in 1970 and Osaka World Fair.

After all that time this an was amazing opportunity to hear Paolo Martin in person talking about the idea and the effort to make it real at the time he was working at  Pinifarina Design Studio. Afterwards, he had experience of working in almost every major car design studio but he is still down to earth, open minded person who gladly shares his unique vision and talent.

David Hilton is an American designer who after successful career in Ford, Volkswagen and Mazda in 2000 started Motorcity Europe, a company specialized in automotive styling and design. I have especially liked the way he could merge and differentiate ideas from multiple design fields or nature even. In his workshop which was also an integral part of presentation he also showed couple  interesting and fast techniques to visualize it. I would definitely recommend it to anybody who also has general interest in design and sketching to attend some of his workshop he is organizing every year. There is more information about it on his company site www.motorcityeurope.com.

Miroslav Dimitrov presenting his work and talking a bit about his vast experience of working for Ford, Ferrari and Lotus. He really showed a lot of different designs and he pointed a lot of different aspect you have to have in mind when you are designing a super car.

Sketch fighter was an another competition in freehand drawing. In no more time than an hour, the contestants had to propose the most interesting solution to a design problem set by the jury. Both the innovative aspect of the idea and the professionalism of its implementation were appraised.

Paolo Martin signing his work. This very nice Ferrari Modulo sketch reprint is now in possession of Elvis Tomljenović, a first winner of Aut(r) Design Compettition in the year 2009.

Author of all the photos featured here is Daniele Madia. He was official photographer for this years conference. If you are interested to see more of his work go and see his photographs from this year’s Geneva Moto Show.

In less than a week, this Saturday I would be speaking at Auto(r) Design Conference. Auto(r) is Automotive Design Conference organized by Daniel Tomicic Art Historian – journalist & CEO of Scuderia Ltd. With this year 2011, it is a 3rd time that this annual conference takes place in Zagreb. It is a truly an honor to speak among all these distinguished guests: car designers, automotive world journalists and engineers.

For more information about the conference, it’s speakers and the program visit the official site www.automotivedesignconference.com.

This years guest speakers are Paolo Martin,Francesco Carbini, Vedran Martinek, Vasiliy Kurkov, Dario Dropučić, Giancarlo Perini, Georg Gedl, Marko Luković and Miroslav Dimitrov. They all have one thing in common, they are passionate automotive enthusiasts and they are more than willing to share their personal experiences and  opinions regarding today’s automotive industry and design world in general. You are all welcome.

Photos by Laurent Nivalle, an official photographer of the conference for two years in row.

This August, I have received a full scholarship for two, two weeks Blender Advanced Courses from TOSMI. TOSMI is a part of MEDIA, the European Union’s support program for the European audiovisual industry. Both Blender training courses were taking place in Sofia, Bulgaria and were organized by Petko Dourmana artist & chairman of InterSpace Association. Courses were designed to introduce media professionals to the benefits and possibilities of an open source pipeline in audio-video production and to date are the leading professional training course for Blender.

Professional 3D Animation with Blender were also taught by some of the best Blender animators and Art Directors like Bassam Kurdali (USA) and Sebastian Koening (Germany). Both were very happy to share their vast knowledge from their projects. I was particularly interested in production of Elephant Dream which Bassam directed in years 2005/06. By the way this one would be remembered as the world’s first open movie, made entirely with open source graphics software such as Blender. Epic!

For ones still don’t know, Blender is a free open source 3D graphic application. In no more than 25mb you get full capability of 3D modelling, un-wrapping, rigiging, animation, simulations, node-based compositing & rendering not to mention the sequencer you can use for both video and animation editing. At the time being, a working 2.5 version was just released. Even it is alpha stage, the progress in terms of UI design alongside many other features (compositing, rendering) is just phenomenal. Considering the program was in active development many of these new features were literally added almost under night. Due to the nature of the development most of them were undocumented but thanks to two trainers and two intensive weeks I really managed to grasp many different aspect of the software. I remember clearly the very beginning of the course by the extent of features and flexibility of the workflow. Thanks to it’s new internal architecture now everything is parametric, every last bit and single function of the app could be controlled by the UI and Python, powerful scripting language. On the other hand, the biggest downside of the program from my perspective is missing ngon support. Still, I felt a way better using it than any other 3D commercial package.

Trainers

Bassam Kurdali (USA) – 3D animator/filmmaker, director of Elephants Dream. His character, ManCandy, began as an easily animatable test bed for rigging experiments. Under the aegis of Freefac, Bassam is continuing to explore a model of production that capitalizes on commonwealth. He teaches, writes and lectures around the world on open production and free software technique. Born in Aleppo, Syria, Bassam trained in the United States as an electrical and software engineer. His newest project is Tube.

Sebastian Koenig (Germany) – A wide range of 3D works, for example architectural visualization, organic modeling and character animation, compositing and matchmoving (with Syntheyes). Blender is his main tool, simply because of the great feature-set, the great and flexible interface, a fast and straight-forward workflow and a lovely community. Currently he is teaching at www.cmiVFX.com, where he is creating online video-tutorials geared towards professionals and studios. More info from his site at www.sebastian-koenig.com.

Miroslav Brozovic (Croatia) – About 10 years of experience in 3D and 5 years in Blender. Has been using it for freelance videos, stills and games ever since. Miro has also been involved as a trainer in several 3D workshops.

Veselin Zografov (Bulgaria) – Musician in the band Stand Up Comedians and responsible for sound recording and sound design in many animation, documentary and feature films.

The 3D model featured at the top, is part of the project I am currently working on.  I will put some more information about it in a upcoming post.

Ivan Santic, a member of HyperIsland’s Crew12, has got himself one of the least blog-looking blogs around. The way he’s used Flash, added his portfolio and made use of mouseover images in the right hand column, all makes for an experience that feels far from any WordPress site I’ve ever visited in the past. In addition to his knack for design, Ivan’s got some good 3D skills, obviously.

After coffee that’s the best thing to boost me up. Big thanks to Wiktor Persson for bringing me the good news.

I was chosen alongside 61 other students which formed at the time the very new Crew12, 12th generation of students. It was a great opportunity to get a good grip on design, decision process and industry itself.

I was soon on my way to learn that Hyper Island’s Digital Media program was very intense one even though it was taking part in the most relaxed environment you can dream of, in small baroque city of Karlskrona. Karlskrona is also known by it’s naval base and it’s naval museum which just across the school.