TUTORIAL: Walking the Dog with character studio 3
by Michele Bousquet
Discreet has just released the packed character studio 3 plug-in for 3D Studio MAX 3, showcasing a host of new tools for making character animation easier and faster. Even if you've never worked with freeform mode before, this tutorial will show you how to take advantage of these new tools to animate a four-legged character doing a basic walk sequence.
THE ARTIST'S CANVAS: "Marking Image": The poor man's custom texture work
by Eni Oken
By now it should be pretty obvious that the mark of good 3D work lies not only in the curvaceous, organic NURBS model, but also in the texture work that is applied on to the surface of the geometry. This involves doing more than choosing a texture map from a commercial library and slapping it on to a model: it requires custom-made texture maps, carefully made to suit the final geometry.
ETERNAL TRUTH OF THE MONTH: Hey 3D Companies: Play Well With Others Dammit!
by Swami Rendsalotsa
Prognosticating about what software companies do and don't do is a habit of this mystic, who is rooted in a long tradition of speaking up when something in the CG universe isn't quite right. And this is definitely the case in my latest musing here at 3Dgate. What I am referring to is the utter lack of cooperation between competing 3D software companies in creating an open, cross-application compatible file format for 3D data.
