September 24, 2009

The Digital Arts Guild website has re-launched with exciting new features! We’ve upgraded the site to a database-driven content management system. This enables us to provide all sorts of new services to our members. If you’re looking for high quality learning materials for computer graphics, we’re here to help you.

Now it’s even easier to join the growing community of CG artists. As a Guild Member, you’ll get free access to members-only content, and you’ll be notified when the site is updated. Just click the “Join the Guild” button, and you’ll be taken to a registration page. Once we verify your email address, you’ll be able to log in with your username and get access to premium content. Note: you can change your email address in the future, but your username is permanent.

We’ve added new content to several areas of the site. For example, there’s a new video tutorial on 3ds Max Modeling. In this two-hour video series, we use various polygon tools to construct a restaurant chair. The project is inspired by real-world reference material.

As the site grows, we’ll be rolling out entire course curricula for 3ds Max and Maya. Right now, you can get a taste of that with the Lesson Notes provided with all new video tutorials. Each Lesson Notes article is designed to accompany a specific video series. Students’ learning outcomes are better when they have a written outline of all step-by-step procedures and explanations. The Lesson Notes are a valuable resource provided free to registered members.

Digital Arts Guild also provides software training to individuals and small groups, in person or via webconferencing. Take a look at our course offerings, and contact us to request rates and further information.

We’re excited to be a part of the ongoing revolution in image-making tools. Our mission is to help as many people as possible to learn 3D software and techniques. Every year, the tools become better, faster, cheaper, and easier. More and more people are picking up 3D skills, which means we are seeing more creative visions in entertainment, art and design. We are proud and honored to help spread knowledge and put the means of media production in the hands of the people.

In this series of 14 free videos, we use various polygon tools to model a piece of furniture. Our design is inspired by reference images from the real world. Over the course of the two-hour series, we explore the following learning outcomes:

Project Folders
Scene Layout
Editable Spline
Extrude and Sweep Modifiers
Editable Poly
Loft Compound Object
Basic Materials

Maya is an incredibly powerful tool for the creation of moving images! If you are interested in character animation or visual effects, then Maya is a top-tier application in your industry.

Maya is a whole world unto itself, so it takes a while to get your bearings. In this two-hour video series, you get to explore the entire production workflow for animation. We use the classic bouncing ball exercise because it clearly illustrates how to achieve convincing animation, including position, rotation, and squash & stretch. Along the way, you also get to learn the basics of cameras, materials, lighting, and rendering. We finish up by converting our Maya image sequence to a movie with Quicktime Pro.

Some of the coolest ideas in 3D graphics have actually been around for a long time. The techniques of image-based modeling allow 3D objects to be synthesized from two or more photographs. This is a form of photogrammetry, which was invented by Edouard Deville in the late 1800s.

While at the 2009 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Christian Greuel (President of Realtime Arts) had his face scanned by Dimensional Imaging. The resulting raw mesh was very “heavy” — it had a high polygon count. Greuel did a quick optimization on the model in 3ds Max and composited this image in Photoshop.

Digital Arts Guild is proud to present our first series of free video tutorials. With these new videos, you'll get up to speed in the interface of Maya or 3ds Max in no time! They're available as YouTube movies or downloadable Quicktime files.

The tutorials are written and presented by Aaron F. Ross, an Autodesk Certified Instructor with ten years of teaching experience. Our goal is to help you master the tools of the trade, so you can create new and wonderful games, films, and visualizations. If you like what you see here, let us know, and tell your friends!