DYNAMIC ART! HOWTO CAPTURE AN EXPLOSIVE SCENE IN YOUR PAINTING

DESIGN AND RENDER AFUTURISTIC SPACESHIPSPACESHIP FUTURISTIC

A RENDER AND DESIGN A RENDER AND DESIGN

VEHICLECONCEPTS

INSIDE

“EV

ER

YW

HE

RE

YO

ULO

OK

ED

HU

RT

YO

UR

FA

CE

FR

OM

SH

EE

RA

WE

SO

ME

NE

SS

”–

PA

GE

44

083

ww

w.im

ag

inefx

.com

IMA

GIN

EF

XJU

NE

20

12

IN PLEIN AIR! HOW LEADING ARTISTS ARE TAKING DIGITAL ART OUTSIDE

Send your art supernova! Make your artworkreach for the stars with our expert advice

Cove

rartby

Dere

kS

ten

nin

gVisit

ww

w.b

orn

inco

ncre

te.co

mTurn

topage5formore

MAQUETTE MAKINGWITH JAMES GURNEYCREATE A CRUMPLED

RETRO SPACESUITPAINT A SEXY

SPACE TROOPER

Craft dramatic andcolourful scenes

DEEP SPACE

Your art will live longand prosper with DerekStenning’s help on page 70!

1.5 HOURS OFVIDEO TUITION3D SCI-FI MODELS64 CUSTOM BRUSHES50 IMAGES &TEXTURES

LEARN TO PAINT

Issue83 | Jun2012 | Printed in theUK £5.99

PLEIN AIRTHINKING

FXPosé8 Reader FXPosé64 Traditional FXPosé

ImagineNation20 News25 Competition30 Forum winners32 Letters36 Artist Q&A

Features44 Plein air thinkingArtists are increasingly workingoutdoors, as new technologyenables them to find inspirationaway from their desks.

54 SketchbookImaginative New ZealanderJeffrey Lai shows us hisnotepad full of demons,zombies and ‘real-life’ fairies.

58 Development sheetSee how Emerson Tung createda spiny, water-loving creature,for a short fantasy film.

60 Artist portfolioWhen Dave Rapoza spent sixmonths doing unpaid TeenageMutant Ninja Turtle ‘fan art’people thought he was nuts…

112 Studio profileTyler West went from jobbingartist to running his ownLos Angeles concept art studio.

Reviews102 Hardware & software106 Books107 Training108 Films110 Video games

Regulars3 Editor’s letter33 Digital editions34 Subscribe today53 Back issues94 Next month114 DVD contents

Receive great savings and get every issue delivered toyour door when you subscribe! See page 34

Dave Rapoza

Development sheet Mainstream fantasy? Q&A: Retro space suit

Q&A: Burning objectsSketchbook

Q&A: HolographicsQ&A: Holographics

“Once you’ve stopped to lookaround you realise it’s a badassway for nerds to escape the desk”Shaddy Safadi, Digital Plein Air Society

Contents

June 20126

36

See page 8 for the best new art

58 43

60 54 38

44

your door when you subscribe! your door when you subscribe! your door when you subscribe! See page 34your door when you subscribe! See page 34

Contents

20

20 images from NASAUse these photos in your space art.

Sci-fi models from DAZ 3DPaint troop carriers and flying cars!

Artist Q&A

WorkshopsAdvice and techniquesfrom pro artists…

36 This month’s Q&A topics…Learn how to paint realistic-lookingleather, smoke, clothing, trees, hands,crumpled shiny material and a burningobject – as well as airbrush techniques.

70 How to illustratea close encounterDerek Stenning putstogether a striking cover.

96 Create strongervehicle conceptsJoon Ahn on perspectiveand lighting skills.

82 How to designa cinematic creatureMark Molnar gives hisalien an emotional quality.

75 Starting outin pastelsDifferent types and howto get the best from them.

84 Draw and painta starship trooperMarc Brunet paints a sci-fifemale in an environment.

76 Paint sci-fi arton an epic scaleDavid Demaret creates aspaceship in deep space.

88 Use maquettesto enhance your artJames Gurney is happy toshare his paleo techniques.

76

An epic sci-fi scene

Issue 83 June 2012

June 2012 7

Videoworkshops onyour free DVD…Where you see this badgeyou’ll find an accompanying

videoworkshop in thecorresponding folder

on your DVD.

Turn to page 114 for more…

84

20 images from NASAh s i

20 im

ON YOUR DVDThis month’s essential art resources…

Developmentsheet

DDDDDDDD veveveeDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentDeveDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentlopmDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentlopmDevelopmentlopmDevelopmentDevelopmentlopmelopm tttsheetsheetsheetsheetsheetth tsheetsheetsheettsheetsheetsheetheetsheetshee

DDDDDDevelopmentDDDevelopmentDDeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeDevelopmenteDevelopmentveveDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentveveDevelopmentvevevevevevevevevelopmlopmlopmlopmDevelopmentDevelopmentlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentlopmDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentlopmDevelopmentlopmDevelopmentlopmDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentttlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmDDDDDDDD lopmlopmlopmlopmDevelopmentDevelopmentlopmlopmlopmlopmDevelopmentlopmlopmlopmlopmDevelopmentlopmlopmDevelopmentlopmlopmDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentlopmDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentlopmlopmDevelopmentDevelopmentlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmDevelopmentlopmDevelopmentDevelopmentlopmlopmlopmlopmlopmDevelopmentlopmeneeeeeDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentDevelopmentententttDevelopmentPROJECT TITLE:

Emerson TungCountry: US

A concept artist andillustrator living in theSan Francisco Bay Area,Emerson is currentlyworking for a mobile

gaming company. His work has beenpublished in Spectrum 18, and duringhis spare time he produces freelanceillustrations and gallery paintings.www.emersonart.blogspot.comAMPHIBIOUS BEAST

When he was asked by a 3D animation student working on a shortfantasy film to help create a creature that the main character could ride,

Emerson Tung came up with this spiny, water-loving monster

ThebriefI was asked to design a creature that themain character could ride. The clientdidn’t really knowwhat hewanted, butafter somediscussionwe decided to gowith a giant amphibian creature.

Thumbnail sketchesI started out doing some thumbnails in Photoshop.Here I try to include visual clues that this animalcould live on land andwater by adding fins to it. I’malso experimentingwith different types of anatomythe creature could have.While doing these I’mkeeping inmind the environment the creature livesin, how itmoves and so on.

SecondpassI started looking atphotos of lionfish andthey inspired the sketchat the top. The finalsketch at the bottom is aresult of combining thetop two. Instead ofhaving spiny fins runacross the creature’sback I decided it wouldmake amore interestingsilhouette if they startedat the base of the tail.I got this idea fromstudying tadpoles.

58

PROFILE

June 2012

SEND US YOURCONCEPTS!SEND US YOURCONAre you working on a project,or doodling your owndevelopment sketches thatyou’d like to share with us?

LET US KNOW! Email yourWIPs and final images to:develop@imaginefx.com

FinishedconceptFor this piece in particular I used quite abit of Overlay andMultiply layers tocreate the patterns on the creature.The colours I chose are inspired bypoison arrow frogs, lionfish and varioussea snakes. I rendered it with slippery,slimy skin to reinforce the idea that thiscreature is amphibious.

59June 2012

DevelopmentsheetEmersonTung

Orthographic viewsThese orthographic and anatomical views are tohelp the 3Dmodeller. In the pipeline on a 3Danimation it’s always helpful to provide asmuchinformation as possible to the person you’repassing yourwork on to.

DRAW AND PAINT ASTARSHIP TROOPERMarc Brunet takes you through the process of painting a sci-fi femalecharacter in an environment, using a single Photoshop layer

his workshop focuses onadvanced paintingtechniques so I won’t begoing into the structure and

anatomy of the character. Instead, I’llfocus on creating a balanced illustrationusing a strong composition,complemented with a good colour paletteand a well-defined focal point.

Over the years I’ve started to gravitatetowards a technique where all the

1 Telling a storyEvery illustration should start with this question: what story am I trying to tell?

In this case I’m trying to paint a whole scene, a scene that includes a character and itsenvironment. The only way to incorporate the two, to make the viewer “travel”, is bycoming up with a story for your scene. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy, but a littlebackground tale will go a long way. So my idea is that after her spaceship crashes, ourfemale trooper bravely ventures out to explore this uncharted planet.

2 Compositionblock out

Rather than doing a line drawing at thestart, I prefer to block out the shapes withrough brush strokes. It gives a faster feel tothe composition, quickly placing all themajor components in the image early on.This step should only look decent whenyou squint – it’s supposed to be veryrough. After the shapes are blocked out,I add some outlines to help me definethings a little more, such as her armour.

3 Choosing the horizonBecause I’m painting a character in

an environment, it’s crucial to have bothelements feel believable. If the perspectiveof the character doesn’t match thebackground then it’ll look wrong. I alwaysdefine the horizon early on because ofthat reason; it has such a big impact onthe painting. As a rule of thumb,everything over the horizon line willalways be shown as if you were lookingup, and everything under the line will beas if you were looking down. Of course,the horizon itself is the point where youreyes are looking perfectly straightforward,neither up nor down.

components of the painting progressivelycome together at the same time and this iswhat I’ll be trying to explain here. I knowa lot of artists prefer going about apainting in a more methodical way, butfor those like me who are a little lessdisciplined, I think this is a greattechnique to try out.

The idea is to build a good compositionusing colours, lighting, shapes and levelof detail as you go. Since each of these

components plays a huge role in thecomposition of a painting, I find it easierto slowly refine them as the paintingprogresses, rather than having to limitmyself when one of those doesn’t quitematch the others at the end.

We could compare this to a modeller,who slowly refines his model as he goes,rather than going ahead and sculptingcrazy details in only one area. Let’s diveright in, shall we?

T

June 201284

Workshops

Marc BrunetCOUNTRY: US

Marc is a 3Dcharacterartist workingin California,for Blizzard

Entertainment. He isalways trying to improveas an artist and feels thebest way is to watchother artists do whatthey do best.www.bit.ly/ifx-mbrunet

DVD AssetsThe files you needare on the disc, in

the Marc Brunet folder inthe Workshops section.

character in an environment, using a single Photoshop layerMarc Brunet female sci-fi a painting of process the through you takes character in an environment, using a single Photoshop layer

3 Choosing the horizonin character a painting I’m Because

2 block out Rather than doing a line drawing at the

In depth Paint a trooper

June 2012 85

4 BackgroundThe background is always the first

element of the scene I want to work on,because it dictates the horizon line and asa result how the character will look. Here,to go with the story, I want the horizon tobe low in the frame so viewers will look ather from a lower position, making her feelmore powerful and impressive.

5 Colour paletteColours tell a story of their own.

I want the scene to be sunny, whichmeans warm colours. Yellow will be thedominant colour, with blue as thecomplement. The dominant colour isalways slightly more saturated, and thecomplement is desaturated for balance.For the outdoors, the complementingcolour is easy to place: you’ll have it as asubtle ambient colour coming from thesky and in both the background (blueatmospheric perspective) and foreground(in the shadows, therefore only lit by theambient light coming from the sky). Tofurther define my focal point, I pick arandom saturated colour and use it onone of its components (I’ll do moretowards the end). This could be as simpleas colouring the eyes a bright green.

6 Evolving conceptPractising speed-painting forced

me to approach my paintings this way.Because there’s a deadline to meet, itmeans the whole thing has to cometogether at once: composition, coloursand concept. What it means is simple: Ihave to always be ready to drop an ideaas I go, even though it might have beena good one initially. For this painting,I’ll start by changing the ship in thebackground, then the entire environment,then the armour concept. Not much ofthe original idea is left – just its core – butas a result of not being too sensitive aboutpainting over things, I’ve ended up witha better composition. This is also whyI force myself to use a single layer; there’sno going back, only forwards!

7 ForegroundWhen the stage is set it just seems

easier to make the character work with itrather than doing the opposite. I wouldalso consider the spaceship part of theforeground (blue in the image); to me itacts as another character that I can poseand position to best fit the composition.This explains why I’m choosing to changeit completely. It’s the supporting role ina way and it works to make the maincharacter more important by not beinghigher than her. It’s similar for the rocksin the foreground, too. Their purpose isto wrap the canvas to make it seem likeeverything – even the environment –is making room for her.

8 Armour designJust as everything else comes

together along the way, so too does thedesign of her armour. I adjust the detailsand shapes of her armour to complementeverything else, while still making it alittle more interesting than the restbecause, after all, she is the star of thisshow! The idea for her chestplate goesfrom all opened up, to closed, in the earlystages and then, when the backgroundis completed, it just feels cooler to reducethe horizontal lines on her and make herchestpiece bigger, and then give it aweirder shape. Her legs are supposed tobe all robotic but again, to make her standout a little more, I choose to model themon real legs in the end.

Colour choiceis crucialI try to use the ColorBalance window a lotthroughout a painting, tohelp me find the perfectcolour palette. I knowthat I’ll never get it rightthe first time and it’salways worth tweakingit along the way, to tryand get it closer toperfection. Differentmonitors display coloursdifferently, so make sureyou see your paintingon as many displays aspossible and fix thecolours if needed.

June 201286

Workshops

Fliphorizontally

Alt+E+A+H (PC & Mac)Sometimes a simple flipcan reveal flaws you’vebecome used

to seeing!

5 Colours tell a story of their own.

seems just it set is stage the When easier to make the character work with it

8 comes else everything as Just together along the way, so too does the

6 concept Evolvingforced speed-painting Practising6

way. this paintings my approach to me

9 Surface qualityAt this point most of the painting

is locked down, but there are stillopportunities to enhance (or ruin?) thecomposition. Surface quality plays a smallyet important role now. What kind ofmaterial I use for her armour, thespaceship in the background, how shinythings are – all these choices affect theimage. I give the spaceship a matt finishto help push it back in the distance a littlemore while giving her armour a shinierappearance. After this, it’s just a matterof depicting different materials to keepthe viewer interested. Visual variety iskey, which is why I add metals, leathers,plastics, flaws, flat surfaces and so on.Each red dot in the image representsa different material.

10 Skin tonesA character’s skin is always tricky

because the wrong choice of colours canmake them look sick or take away fromthe believability. I always start with anorange-brown base, and then build upwith lighter tones of desaturated orangesand pinks. Just like with every othercomponent in the image, the skin alsoreceives the ambient blue light comingfrom the sky directly above.

11 Light sourcesThe way to approach lighting

in a scene is straightforward, yettricky to put into practice. In mostcases, as in this piece, the scene willhave three light sources. The usualsetup is one main light comingslightly from the top, its bounce lightcoming from the opposite direction,and the light coming from the skyalways from the top.

12 Final compositionThe composition is almost there. I want to add a horizontal hole on the ship to

break the vertical lines. There are only a few problems left and it’s just faster at this pointto fix things rather than go back and repaint it. I’m moving her hand further from herbody, with the help of her helmet, to break the verticality in that area, too.

13 Polish passAt this point the image is basically

finished. If this were a speed paint itwould be more than enough, but theremaining 50 per cent will add such ahuge amount of clarity and readabilitythat’s always worth doing. I simply gothrough everything and clean up theremaining black outlines.

14 Adding more depthAt this point the painting looks

pretty final, but it’s lacking depth. The lastbig step is to push the ship and the rest ofthe environment back, to further isolatethe character and put her centre stage.This can easily be done by addingatmospheric perspective, or moreobviously by adding particles in the air,such as sand or dust, to act as a thickerform of atmospheric perspective.

15 Final tweaksThe last few tweaks that I always

add at the end of every painting are asimple contrast/brightness balance andsome overall Color Balance tweaks. Thefocal point can still need some refininghere, so I’ll add saturation to her haircolour to help define it better. I then flipthe image a few times horizontally tomake sure there’s nothing left that’sbugging me, and I call it done!

PHOTOSHOP

CUSTOM BRUSH:SOFT ROUND 150

This default Photoshopbrush is amazing to geta quick idea of the finallighting or to add somequick highlights. Most ofthe time I use it in theOverlay brush mode.

Create yourown brushesA new world opened tome when I started tocreate my own brushesin Photoshop. I know alot of people like to askfor other people’sbrushes but they worka thousand times betterwhen you create themto fit your exact needs.For each new painting,I always end up creatingat least a new one tohelp with a particularsituation. Once you getthe hang of it, it’s veryquick to do.

Color BalanceCtrl+B (PC)

Cmd+B (Mac)Quickly access the ColorBalance window to

tweak the colours ofyour painting.

In depth Paint a trooper

June 2012 87

9 Surface quality At this point most of the painting

still are there but down, locked is still are there but down, locked is

11 Light sourceslighting approach to way The

12 to ship the on hole horizontal a add to want I there. almost is composition Thepoint this at faster just it’s and left problems few a only are There lines. vertical the break

13 basically is image the point this Atit paint speed a were this If finished.

Polish pass

1414 looks painting the point this At pretty final, but it’s lacking depth. The last

Adding more depth

15 always I that tweaks few last Thea are painting every of end the at add

Final tweaks

TYPES OF PASTELS

There is a knack to using pastels, and Terese Nielsen introducesthe different types and how to get the best from them

1 Choosing your pastelsThere are several types of pastels.

Hard and soft are the most common. Softpastels have a rich, buttery feel and areeasy to blend. Hard pastels, including thepastel pencils, are great for adding detail.Oil pastels have an oil binder, are lessopaque than soft pastels and don’tsmudge as easily. The newest water-soluble pastels create semi-transparentwashes when water is brushed over them.

2 Blending and paintingwith pastels

Pastels are blended on the paintingsurface, rather than on a palette. Withoutbuying dozens of individual sticks, avariety of colours can be achieved throughlayering and smudging. Start with darkercolours, working up to light. Blending isdone by layering the pastels with variousstrokes such as crosshatching, dots/pointillism or smudging with differenttools. Try blending with cotton swabs,#9 brushes, fingers, sponges, kneadederasers or tissues.

3 Selecting thesurface for pastels

The key to selecting paper for pastels is tochoose something that has texture ortooth. If it’s too smooth, the pastels won’tadhere to it. Check that the paper ispH-neutral. If it’s not acid free, it can shiftthe colour of the pastels and causeeventual brittleness in the paper. Goodchoices are canvas, watercolour paper,pastel paper and sand board.

buy toned paper, or tone it yourself usingan acrylic or watercolour wash.

To prevent over blending and smudgingwhen using pastels you can use a mist offixative on that area. Beware: if thefixative is sprayed too heavily, itdramatically dulls and darkens thevibrancy. Practise with some quick trialruns spraying the fixative to experimentwith the light mist approach.

astels produce vibrant colourswith the ease and control of apencil. They’re an especiallyportable medium with no

need for water, brushes or palettes. Softpastel sticks do become dusty or dirtywhen transporting, so carry a cloth towipe them off before drawing. It’sgenerally easier to work on a tonedsurface rather than pure white. You can

STARTING OUTIN PASTELS

Soft pastelsThese are rich and luminous in colour,provide a loose grainy texture and are easyto blend with varied surface effect, but are alittle fragile.

Hard pastelsA little less vibrant in colour, but more stablethan soft pastels. They’re great for detail.

Pastel pencilsThese come in a pencil ‘lead’ form and areeasy to control. Pastel pencils are ideal forfine detail and rendering, and are a harderlead than soft pastels.

Oil pastelsThese pastels contain an oil binder. Theyhave a thick intense colour, but don’tsmudge and blend like soft/hard pastels.They can also be blended with an oilmedium or turpentine.

Water-soluble pastelsThese can be used just like a regular softpastel, except that you can also createwatercolour-like washes with a brush andwater, providing great variety in effects.

se k

S

Canvas

Softsmudging

withfinger

Roughblending

withfinger

Feathering BlendingwithQ-tip

Pointillism Crosshatch

Watercolourpaper

Pastelpaper

Sandboard

June 2012 75

Quick technique Pastels

2 Bw

g

Telsls

P

e bend Terese Nielsen

t f m t

Terese NielsenCOUNTRY: US

Teresegraduatedwith greatdistinctionfrom Art

Center College of Designand has freelanced 20years illustrating forcomic books, LucasEntertainment, bookcovers and gaming art.www.tnielsen.com

Price £33 Company Smith Micro Software Web www.mysmithmicro.com Contact Via website

AnimeStudioDebut 8.2GENTLE TOUCH Use Wacom’s multi-touch gestures to improve yourcartoon creation skills with the latest version of the animation favourite

his update to Anime StudioDebut and its specialist Proedition (priced at £132)incorporates multi-touch

gestures from the new Wacomtablets (see page 102).

These multi-touch options workprimarily with the Navigation tools tohelp you pan and zoom across yourcanvas with ease. They also workspecifically with the Layer, Camera andDraw tools, but only offer basic tweaksto existing tools rather than bringinganything new to the table.

When using multi-touch gestures theactive points of contact with the tabletare shown on screen as red dots. Theycan then either be used as a cursor foractivating tools as if using a mouse orstylus, or for editing selected elements– such as bone coverage – via two-finger pinch or zoom gestures. Studioonly offers options for one, two and‘more than two’ finger gestures, butthese can be improved if used with theIntuos’s customisable gestures options.

This is where gestures in Studio areespecially useful. We have oftenbemoaned the program’s uglyinterface; by using multi-touch it

reduces your reliance on finding yourtools. For example, navigation optionscan be combined so that you can panacross the page and zoom and rotateyour canvas simultaneously withoutdeselecting your in-use tool.

This combination of features workswell in Debut, but it’s not suited for Pro,where precision and accuracy are key.The vector drawing tools are fiddly –using them with your fingers onlymakes this more so.

Anime Studio Debut and Pro alreadyoffer great value for money and are stillpacked with features. Both versions(free to existing users) now include anew Character Wizard that enables youto create fully realised characters withwalk cycles and expressions. You canalso import, edit and update layeredPSDs, while the Automatic ImageTracing tool, which makes it possible toinput and convert sketches to line art.

Although the added bonus of multi-touch doesn’t solve any of AnimeStudio’s minor niggles, it gives anincreased flexibility to your workflowthat helps improve the experience ofusing an already excellent program,whichever version you purchase.

T

Creating stunning animations is now eveneasier thanks toAnime Studio’s integrationofmulti-touch gestures fromWacom tablets.

Multi-touch gestures are shown as red dots, so youcan seewhich part you’re interactingwith.

BecauseAnime Studio doesn’t use Bézier curves,vector drawing can be tricky, especially on a tablet.

Reviews

104 June 2012

Featuresn Supports gestures

on Wacom tablets

nGestures combine

tool functionality for

ease of use

nUse Intuos custom

gestures to simplify

workflow

nNew character

wizard

n Import and edit

layered PSDs

nExport high-

definition video files

nConvert sketches

into vectors with

Automatic Image

Tracing tool

SystemRequirementsPC: Windows 7/Vista/

XP, 500MHz CPU,

480MB hard drive

space, 256MB RAM,

Flash Player 9,

Internet Explorer 7,

optical drive,

internet connection

Mac: OS X 10.5, G4/G5

CPU (500MHz or

above, Intel CPU

recommended, 540MB

free hard drive space,

256MB RAM, Flash

Player 9, optical drive,

internet connection

Rating

Price £479 Company Corel Web www.corel.co.uk Contact 0800 376 9272

CorelDRAWGraphicsSuiteX6PICK ‘N’ MIX Digital painting, photo-editing, vectordesign and page layout – all in one value package

ZBrush uses fibre-based shapes tomake thesoftware farmore than a virtual clay studio.

FiberMesh settings enable you to createeverything fromhuman hair to shaggy coats.

CorelDRAW is a great all-round performer for thoselooking for an out-of-the-box solution for vectors,photo editing andwebsite design.

orelDRAW has been arounda long time now, but hasnever escaped the shadow

of Adobe’s collection ofdesign programs. However, whenjudged on its own merits theCorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6acquits itself well. It includes a rangeof applications including CorelDRAWitself, Photo-Paint, PowerTRACE,Website Creator and many moresupporting utilities, such as abarcode generator and font manager.

CorelDRAW is a vector drawingapplication and page layout tool, andwith this upgrade it’s received a lot ofnew features. Vector shaping toolsenable you to pull, twist and shapevector objects without having tolaboriously edit paths, while a ColourHarmonies tool gives you options totry out new colour schemes acrossyour work. There’s also advancedOpenType support and a range ofdocument styles available.

Photo-Paint, the image-editing tool,does offer some neat painting optionswith the major new one being theSmart Carver. This is essentially a cloneof Photoshop’s Content-Aware tools.There’s also a new web design toolincluded: the capable Corel WebsiteCreator X6.

Even though the CorelDRAW suite isgreat value for money, it’s always goingto be playing catch-up with Adobe’sindustry-standard tools. This isn’t a badthing, mind – and CorelDRAW fans willlove the new additions. Whether or notthis is the right suite of tools for a digitalartist is another thing. We think that it’smore suited to businesses which needan all-in-one design solution for printand online (creating logos, for example.)

As it stands, CorelDRAW is a nicelyput-together suite that has some greatdrawing and painting options – but itwon’t be the first choice for a digitalartist who’s looking for a tool forcreating fantasy imagery.

C

The rate of development offeatures in Pixologic’s popular 3Dsculpting and painting tool is hardto keep up with. The latest toy forartists to play with is FiberMesh,enhanced in 4R3 after itsintroduction in 4R2b a monthpreviously. (Both releases are freeto existing ZBrush 4 owners.)

FiberMesh enables you to paintclumps of long strands onto anothersurface. Tinker with the settings,and you can create hair, fur or grass– indeed, any material that relies onintense repetition for its effect.Enhanced in 4R3 with additionalcurling options, the effect is brilliantand adds all sorts of texturalpossibilities to your sculpting.Crucially, this update enables you tosave settings to load later, so youcan create a library of fibre effects.

Other tweaks in 4R3, such asimproved shadows in previewrenders, are technical rather thangame-changing, although the abilityto call up your lightbox presetlibrary from within major palettes isa nice time-saver. And, at long last,an auto-update tool helps you keeptrack of Pixologic’s dizzyingupgrade schedule.

GETTING HAIRY Tryyour hand sculptingwith hair, fur or grass

Price $699Company PixologicWeb www.pixologic.com

RATING

ZBrush 4R3

105

Software Graphic tools

June 2012

FeaturesnCorelDRAW – vector

drawing

nPhoto-Paint – image

editing and digital

painting

nWebsite Creator

nDocument styles

nPage layout tools

nOpenType support

nCustom colour

harmonies

nVector shaping tools

nContent-aware

editing tools

nNative 64-bit

support

SystemRequirementsPC: Windows 7 (32- or

64-bit editions), Vista

(32- or 64-bit), or

XP (32-bit), all with

latest Service Packs

installed, 1.5GB hard

disk space, 1GB RAM,

resolution, DVD drive,

Internet Explorer 7

or higher

Rating