https://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/tutorials/creating-a-combat-finishing-takedown

Mastering a finishing takedown animation is made easier with a professional workflow that’s been tried and tested through years of production experience. Senior Animator Patrick Przybyla has worked on a variety of AAA action titles and is now sharing his proven techniques in over three hours of detailed training. Best suited for intermediate-level artists, this workshop kicks off in Maya, the primary animation package that Patrick has used throughout his career in games. He shares insights into his selection process when choosing rigs and models for heroes and enemies, and explains why Kiel Figgins’ rigs — as used in this workshop — are known and trusted by so many industry professionals.

In this series, Martin Teichmann, Environment Modeler at Naughty Dog, takes you through his complete production workflow to build a stylized game ready environment; a process that requires not only technical and artistic knowledge, but also insight into the mechanics of game play in order to deliver the best experience for the player.

In this series, Martin Teichmann, Environment Modeler at Naughty Dog, takes you through his complete production workflow to build a stylized game ready environment; a process that requires not only technical and artistic knowledge, but also insight into the mechanics of game play in order to deliver the best experience for the player. In this second volume of the series, Martin guides you through the creation of the rock and vegetation assets needed for a detailed game environment based off the references and block meshes created in Volume One. He covers the modeling process for high-poly rocks in ZBrush, how to create the low-poly using 3dsMax, then creates the rock textures using Substance Designer. Assets are imported into Unreal where material creation is addressed as well as Rock LODs. Martin creates the stylized trees in Photoshop and 3dsMax, imports them into Unreal and demonstrates the technical setup for animated foliage using vertex animation. At the end of this volume, you should have a good understanding of organic asset creation and be ready to move on to Volume Three where Martin discusses final scene assembly in the Unreal Engine.

In this series, Martin Teichmann, Environment Modeler at Naughty Dog, takes you through his complete production workflow to build a stylized game ready environment; a process that requires not only technical and artistic knowledge, but also insight into the mechanics of game play in order to deliver the best experience for the player. In this first volume of a three part series, Martin guides you through his ideation process, reference gathering and the initial stages of development for a large environment. He creates a meaningful block mesh in 3dsMax which can then be turned into modules to split the environment creation process into small tasks. Using the example of an arch module, Martin demonstrates the asset’s creation through low-poly modeling and texturing in 3dsMax, hi-poly sculpting in ZBrush and texture generation in Substance Designer. Basic software knowledge is required as the workshop primarily focuses on workflow and the development of a unique art style. At the end, students will have a thorough understanding of the layout and early production process for game environments, and be ready for volume two where Martin moves on to the terrain, rocks and foliage.

In Complete Lighting in Unreal Engine, Charleston Silverman walks you through the lighting system and tools available in Unreal Engine 4. Using a pirate ship cabin created for this tutorial, this environment utilizes features and techniques such as modulated and static mesh emissive lighting to bounce and volumetric lighting. Some of the topics covered include: general lighting dos and don’ts, standard light actors: points, spot, and directional, dynamic lighting techniques, light functions, IES profiles and post processing. Charleston then covers techniques to improve optimization, quality and performance as well as config modification to enable advanced features. For those looking for a thorough understanding of the lighting system in Unreal Engine, this title offers valuable insight, tips and techniques.

This tutorial teaches how to create dynamic and exciting combat animations in a step-by-step method that is used by many professional animators. The core foundations of combat are covered such as strong posing, aggressive timing and appeal. Riot Games’ Senior Animator Jason Shum shares his process from the initial idea stage to final polish.

Gnomon – Cleaning Up Scanned Assets for Production with Scott Denton

http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/tutorials/cleaning-up-scanned-assets-for-production

Discover how to take pre-existing scanned assets and quickly and professionally clean them up using a combination of Wrap 3, ZBrush, and Maya. This workshop by Modeler and Generalist, Scott Denton, details the clean-up of a scan created by NYCap3D using the state-of-the-art photogrammetry ​​solution, RealityCapture, along with assets produced by 3D Scan Store. A brief preview of Zoo Tools is also covered.  Throughout the course of the workshop, Scott discusses how to use Wrap 3 and ZBrush to transfer textures and displacement details from the 3dScanstore mesh. He also goes over some of the specific setups and essential tools inside of both Wrap and ZBrush that help to speed up the overall workflow. Scott teaches the important export options that you need to know and includes a demonstration on how to hook the textures up in Maya to achieve a render worthy of being passed on to a look-development artist. Helpings of industry tips are included along the way, particularly when it comes to what look-dev artists expect of modelers, plus tricks for organizing and naming your files like a pro.