Editorial
Welcome to the last issue of 2009, where we wrap up two of our tutorial series’ and get you ready for a fresh start in 2010!

We’ll be tackling the final chapter of the Next Gen tutorial series with Joseph Harford for Max, Gavin Goulden for Maya, James Busby for LightWave, and John Hayes for modo, where we’ll be setting up our shaders and materials, and applying textures; moving on to set up a light rig and camera, and finishing with a final render. Each artist also finishes his chapter with a preview of what the character would look like in-game, so turn to p.88 to get your final fix of that Next Gen tutorial good stuff! And for those wondering what’s coming next month, to follow on from such a fantastic tutorial series, well here’s your answer: Due to popular demand we’ll be bringing you a second series of Environment Lighting, this time looking at an outdoor environment, specifically created to make it the ideal demo model for the lighting scenarios we’ll be teaching you. This series will come to you for Max and Mental Ray, Max and V-Ray, Maya, and Cinema 4D. We have a great artist line-up planned for you, and we’re even working on a third series of Environment Lighting tutorials as well, so you’ll want to stay tuned to 3DCreative in 2010 – that’s a heads up from me to you!

We’ll also be finishing up with the final chapter of our Photoshop for 3D tutorial series, with Fabio M. Ragonha teaching us how to create backgrounds for characters. Fabio has very kindly donated two of his stunning character renders to the mix, showing us how to efficiently render out passes to test colors and settings in the post-production stage. Moving on, Fabio will then take us through the creation of a simple but effective background for a full cartoon character – although the techniques can be applied to any kind of character! Check out p.34 for all these post-production tips and techniques.

We welcome back Richard Tilbury this month: Richard will be taking us through the second stage of his Fantasy Scene creation, modeling and lighting his 3D scene; focusing on volume and key forms to get the perfect perspective and lighting scenario for his concept (p.62). Plus we have yet another brand new tutorial for you – this time: V-Ray for 3ds Max! Check out this month’s cover to see the scene that our new featured tutorial artist, Eric Ennis, will be using to discuss the key parameters of V-Ray. This month: Global Illumination! Check out p.46 for Eric’s first installment.

Let’s talk interviews now, as this will also lead me rather nicely into a fantastic new feature coming in the January 2010 issue. We interview the one and only Cedric Seaut, the notorious second place winner of the Dominance War IV competition, and hard surface modeling guru! There’s a sneak peek in the interview of the character that Cedric will be modeling for us over six chapters, starting in the next issue of 3DCreative, so check out p.8 now and get yourselves fired up for some organic and hard surface modeling next month – a great start to 2010, if I do say so myself!

To round up the rest of the issue, we have Thitipong Jitmakusol – otherwise known as Pao – an artist from the award-winning Digital Domain Productions in California, here to bring us the making of his interpretation of a sea creature captain, perfectly fit for a scene in the legendary Pirates of the Caribbean! See p.72 to learn some tips from this master on how to create a stunning character in a short space of time – prepare to be impressed! And in our gallery this month, we see fantastic new creations by Alexis Van der Haeghe, Michal Kwolek, Rebeca Puebla and Sven Juhlin, to name just a few of our December line up. So that’s another mighty issue of 3DCreative for you. Enjoy! Ed.