Interview with Seth Belanger from EnchantedMob

We are so thrilled to announce that Fox Renderfarm just help finished rendering the 3D animation music video named Hard Drive which was animated by EnchantedMob. EnchantedMob is a popular YouTube channel that owns 500,000+ subscribers and mainly focus on Minecraft style 3D animation music videos. The new video Hard Drive has earned more than 1 million views within one week, how popular it is! It has become an ear worm and stuck in my head for days. Let’s have a look about this awesome video firstly.

And we did a short interview with Seth about himself and EnchantedMob as below.

FoxRenderfarm: Hi Seth, would you please give a brief introduction about yourself and EnchantedMob?

Seth: My name is Seth. Sometime in 2010, my older brothers downloaded a 2D animation program called Pivot. With the program, you could create stick figure animations very easily. We all would create whatever funny animation we could think of. It was all for fun and laughter. I was 11 at this time. Since then, I became very interested in pursuing animation. I eventually branched into clay animation and eventually Minecraft animation.

Fox Renderfarm: That’s really a good start, so when and how did you get into the CG industry?

Seth: Skipping over to December 8th of 2013, I discovered Blender. With Blender, I could create 3D animations. Shortly after, in 2014 I created a brand new channel for 3D animation specifically for Minecraft. My main motive for Minecraft animation was from the music videos produced by CaptainSparklez. Those videos still inspire me today. From December 2013 to February 2015, creating Minecraft animations on EnchantedMob was just for fun and entertainment.

Fox Renderfarm: Blender did a great job for a lot of 3D beginners. And what other 3D software, renderers and plugins you used? Any preferred one and why?

Seth: It wasn’t until the summer of 2016 when I switched to Autodesk Maya. It took some time to learn, and I found the Redshift rendering engine which was referred by a fellow animator. Redshift is great and I still use it today because of how fast it renders. This year, I have been increasing the quality of each video, which has been bringing larger render times.

Fox Renderfarm: Great, so how did the idea of creating Minecraft style 3d animation music video comes out?

Seth: Like I mentioned previously, the idea of creating Minecraft style 3D animation was developed in 2011 and I began using this style of animation in 2014. This style came about because it is simple to animate box-like characters, and because of Minecraft’s popularity.

Fox Renderfarm: I see, while what is the first music video published on EnchantedMob Youtube channel? And what is the most difficult problems you met on creating it at that time?

Seth: In February of 2015, I uploaded my first music video “Survive The Night” to EnchantedMob. It was by far my most difficult video to make because of the 6 minute length of the song and the amount of characters in the video. It payed off; however, as that video is my most popular video to date, with almost 50 million views. When this video skyrocketed, I started to focus on creating more Minecraft music videos and taking my YouTube career a bit more seriously, while still enjoying animation.

Fox Renderfarm: That’s really brilliant work. Would you please share some details about your just finished work: Hard Drive? Got some new problems on it?

Seth: Recently, I discovered Fox RenderFarm. Fox allowed my channel to reach a higher level of render quality, while also keeping render times reasonable. This can be seen in how well the renders turned out in my newest Minecraft music video “Hard Drive.” This video is unique in that it has already gotten over 1,000,000 views less than a week after its release, which is surprising given that I’ve never made an animation based on the game Undertale before.

Fox Renderfarm: Since you mentioned us about the GPU rendering service, what you think about us? Happy with it?

Seth: Fox Renderfarm’s GPU rendering service is very good and much cheaper than lots of other render farms out there. Personally, my favorite quality of Fox Renderfarm is their willingness to help their customers. Any question I’ve had about Fox Renderfarm were quickly answered, and their support team took great good care of my account and render tasks.

Fox Renderfarm: Thanks for your kindly compliment. Do you have any idea about your next work? Is that OK to have a sneak peek : )

Seth: While I normally try to keep projects secret at first, I’ll go ahead and spill the beans on my next music video. This next video is returning to the ever-popular FNAF Sister Location game, and it will be animated to a song by the Content Creator “Chaotic Canine Culture.” And heck, while we’re at it, I may as well say that I think the video can be finished before the end of June. So, to anyone reading, stay tuned! 🙂

Fox Renderfarm: That’s a big news, we are so glad that we can know it here in advance. OK, so is there anything else you would like to add or say?

Seth: I recommend using Fox Renderfarm. Their support team alone is a great reason to use their company. 🙂

Fox Renderfarm: Haha, thanks again for your recommendation. Nice to talk with you, and we are quite look forward to your next work.

The Rookies 2017 Finally Kicks Off And Ready for Submission

The Rookies is a global competition for young designers, creators, innovators, and artists. After got awesome achievements in 2016 which received a total of 1,824 entries from 479 schools in 77 countries. The Rookies 2017 competitions finally kicks off. And FoxRenderfarm is proud of being the Exclusive Render Farm Partner for the great event in 2017.

About The Rookies

The Rookies is the acclaimed international competition for young creatives. Founded in 2009 to showcase the most talented student designers, illustrators, film makers, animators, developers, digital artists, and launch them into the career of their dreams.

The Timeline of The Rookies 2017

• Open for Submissions: March 7
• Submissions Closed: May 29
• Final Judging: June 21 – June 30
• Winners Announced: July 7

How to Join The Rookies 2017 Competition

1.Visit The Rookies official website: http://www.therookies.co.

2.Create an account.

3.After that, create your own portfolio page for showing your work.

4.Upload your work.

Note: Please make sure you are student or recent graduate at least 18 years old.

The Whole Categories of The Rookies 2017

● Illustration
● Graphic Design
● Motion Graphics
● Photography
● Architecture
● Industrial Design
● Film Making
● Web & Mobile
● VFX & Animation
● Next-Gen Gaming
● Virtual Reality
● Robotics

The Prize for The Rookies 2017

● The latest popular software, hardware, gadgets, media and FoxRenderfarm’s exclusive cloud rendering service
● Random giveaways for all entrants
● A job or internship for working on biggest studios in the world
● Scholarships
● Expert reviews & industrial rankings for helping you on future careers

How lovely the prizes are there! It is totally free to enter, why not come there to show your skills and win the awesome prizes now?

FoxRenderfarm Cooperates with WeeklyCGChallenge Now

We are honorable to announce that FoxRenderfarm is cooperating with weeklycgchallenge.com and be one of the sponsors for this great event now.

What is WeeklyCGChallenge?

WeeklyCGChallenge is an awesome event held every 2 weeks (revised lately because of the votes by weeklycgchallenge Facebook fans) with a specific topic, every CG artist can join it by submitting your own CG artwork (2D & 3D are both available) during this period. After submission, a jury will select the three best entries for every challenge.

Note: Traditional art is not allowed in this event.

What You Will Get from WeeklyCGChallenge?

First of all, there are a lot of different prizes you can choose, such as the FoxRenderfarm rendering credits, textures.com credits, 3d models etc., please check the full prizes here. Secondly, you will be one of the members in the Hall of Fame as the winner, this is a great honor for CG artists who did great in those competitions, your artwork would be viewed by many other CG artists and you would be known by them which makes you famous in this industry, it will definitely benefit both your skills and career. Thirdly, you could make a lot of friends there since many CG artists submit artwork and offer reasonable comments & criticize on WeeklyCGChallenge’s Facebook group.

The Team Behind WeeklyCGChallenge

Zacharias Reinhardt is the man who founded weeklycgchallenge.com, he is an awesome 3d artist and also a Certified Blender Trainer. Along with another four talented 3d artists: Rico Cilliers, Cedric van der Kelen, Julien Kaspar and Lukas Walzer, they formed the jury team behind Weekly CG Challenge. And with the professional jury team, they could ensure the competition to be justice and fair.

OK, after learnt so many details about WeeklyCGChalleng and its advantages, it’s your time to decide and join this great event, come on and win the amazing prizes now!

3 Films Rendered by FoxRenderfarm Eligible for 89th Oscar Best Animation Award

 

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science (AMPAS) recently released the official notice that 27 animated films participate 89th Oscar Best Animation Award which creates the highest record.

To my surprise, 3 of these submitting animated films are rendered by FoxRenderfarm: Monkey King: Hero Is Back (China), Kingsglaive Final Fantasy XV (Japan) and Bilal (Dubai). Back to 2014, Mr. Hublot rendered by FoxRenderfarm won the 86th Oscar Best Animated Short Film Award. At this time, let’s hope animated films rendered by FoxRenderfarm can win this special award again.

As a great CG film in China animation history, Monkey King: Hero Is Back has won the 30th China Golden Rooster Awards for Best Art Film and the 16th China Ornamental Column Awards for Excellence Fearure Film. Now Monkey King: Hero Is Back sets Chinese animation record to compete with Hollywood film studios for Oscar Best Animation Award.

Produced by SQUARE ENIX, Kingsglaive Final Fantasy XV earned worldwide acclaim for its verisimilitude and stunning special effects.

Produced by Barajoun Entertainment in Dubai, Bilal is the first 3D Animated epic film in Middle East, telling a story of an immortal hero of Arabic history.

27 movies run for the 89th Oscar Best Animation Award as follows:

The Angry Birds Movie

April and the Extraordinary World

Bilal

Finding Dory

Ice Age： Collision Course

Kingsglaive Final Fantasy XV

Kubo and the Two Strings

Kung Fu Panda 3

The Little Prince

Long Way North

Miss Hokusai

Moana

Monkey King: Hero Is Back

Mune

Mustafa & the Magician

My Life as a Zucchini

Phantom Boy

The Red Turtle

Sausage Party

The Secret Life of Pets

Sing

Snowtime！

Storks

Trolls

25 April

Your Name

Zootopia

FoxRenderfarm Finally Supports GPU Rendering

Rendering and previewing in a flash!

The craze for Marvel’s superhero movie Deadpool swept over the world;
As the first full CGI realistic human feature film in Asia, Legend of Ravaging Dynasties dominated the headlines once the trailer came out.
These two movies were rendered with GPU rendering engines.

Obviously, GPU computing card and GPU rendering engines are gradually used in film production. It is a good start!

Now, as the leading render farm in the industry, FoxRenderfarm launches GPU rendering. Let’s start free trial with FoxRenderfarm’s GPU rendering.

 

Let’s get it started!

What’s the differences between GPU and CPU?

A simple way to understand the difference between a CPU and GPU is to compare how they process tasks. A CPU consists of a few cores optimized for sequential serial processing, while a GPU has a massively parallel architecture consisting of thousands of smaller, more efficient cores designed for handling multiple tasks simultaneously.

Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman made a painting demonstration to show the difference between CPU and GPU:

What’s the advantage of GPU Rendering ?

In the field of graphics rendering, not only films and animations, but also CG art, GPU with its computing ability and architecture specially designed for graphics acceleration provides the users with a more efficient rendering solution, namely the GPU rendering solution. GPU rendering has great advantage of fast speed and low cost. Moreover, GPU rendering becomes more and more available now, lots of works with high quality rendered with GPU has come out. GPU rendering tends to be popular with users at home and abroad.

Thinking of the CPU as the manager of a factory, thoughtfully making tough decisions. GPU, on the other hand, is more like an entire group of workers at the factory. While they can’t do the same type of computing, they can handle many, many more tasks at once without becoming overwhelmed. Many rendering tasks are the kind of repetitive, brute-force functions GPUs are good at. Plus, you can stack several GPUs into one computer. This all means GPU systems can often render much, much faster!

There is also a huge advantage that comes along in CG production. GPU rendering is so fast it can often provide real-time feedback while working. No more going to get a cup of coffee while your preview render chugs away. You can see material and lighting changes happen before your eyes.

GPU Renderer

1.Redshift is the world’s first fully GPU-accelerated, biased renderer and it is also the most popular GPU renderer. Redshift uses approximation and interpolation techniques to achieve noise-free results with relatively few samples, making it much faster than unbiased rendering. From rendering effects, Redshift can reach the highest level of GPU rendering, and render high quality movie-level images.

2.Blender Cycles is Blender’s ray-trace based and unbiased rendering engine that offers stunning ultra-realistic rendering. Cycles can be used as part of Blender and as stand-alone, making it a perfect solution for massive rendering on clusters or at cloud providers.

3.NVIDIA Iray is a highly interactive and intuitive, physically based rendering solution. NVIDIA Iray rendering simulates real world lighting and practical material definitions so that anyone can interactively design and create the most complex of scenes. Iray provides multiple rendering modes addressing a spectrum of use cases requiring realtime and interactive feedback to physically based, photorealistic visualizations.

4.OctaneRender is the world’s first and fastest GPU-accelerated, unbiased, physically correct renderer. It means that Octane uses the graphics card in your computer to render photo-realistic images super fast. With Octane’s parallel compute capabilities, you can create stunning works in a fraction of the time.

5.V-Ray RT (Real-Time) is Chaos Group’s interactive rendering engine that can utilize both CPU and GPU hardware acceleration to see updates to rendered images in real time as objects, lights, and materials are edited within the scene.

6.Indigo Renderer is an unbiased, physically based and photorealistic renderer which simulates the physics of light to achieve near-perfect image realism. With an advanced physical camera model, a super-realistic materials system and the ability to simulate complex lighting situations through Metropolis Light Transport, Indigo Renderer is capable of producing the highest levels of realism demanded by architectural and product visualization.

7.LuxRender is a physically based and unbiased rendering engine. Based on state of the art algorithms, LuxRender simulates the flow of light according to physical equations, thus producing realistic images of photographic quality.

GPU Computing Card Parameter Table

Now FoxRenderfarm is applicable to Redshift for Maya and Blender Cycles. There are more than 100 pieces of NVIDIA Tesla M40 cards in FoxRenderfarm cluster, each server has 128G system memory with two M40 computing cards. Welcome to FoxRenderfarm to experience the super fast GPU cloud rendering!

Interview with Rafael Chies: The Man behind Tribute to Monkey Island

We are glad to introduce Rafael Chies, the creator of Monkey Island scene which has been picked by CGSociety, ArtsStation, Evermotion and 3DTotal, and the work was been retweeted by hundreds of thousands CG artists. How popular it is! Please check the awesome scene here:

Or you can feel free to check the full work on Rafael’s behance gallery here. And thanks so much for Rafael to share some time and give us an interview as below.

Q:Hi Rafael, would you please give a brief introduction about yourself?

A: Hello! I was born and currently living in Brazil. I always loved cartoons, fantasy and everything that’s wacky and absurd. I mean, real life needs some magic! When I was a kid, I was always drawing, messing with Lego, Play-Doh, playing video games and exercising my creativity but I never thought I could do this for living.

Q: OK, so when and how did you get into the CG industry?

A: When I finished high school and went to college, I joined a starting course that proposed mixing technology and art. There I found a whole new world of animation and digital art. That time a friend told me about an internship on a small local TV Station and I applied. I started working there with motion graphics and learned a lot. Someday I opened Maya and it completely amazed me so I decided to take some classes, slowly I was abandoning After Effects and Premiere and becoming a 3D artist.

Q: What are some major projects you have worked on?

A: Back in 2010 I started working at Santa Transmedia, a Brazilian production company focused on advertising. I started as junior 3D artist and became CG Supervisor two years later. There I worked in some interesting projects for many nice companies like Honda, Chevrolet, LG and more. At middle of 2014, HypeCG invited me to work as Lookdev Supervisor at a new TV show called “Dino Adventures”, that was a great experience! After one year, when finished the first season of the show I decided that was time to new experiences and became a freelancer artist, a couple months later, the guys of Privateer Press invited me to work as Lookdev and environment artist in a five minute cinematic. It’s been amazing and I’m currently in the last month of production!

Q: That’s really amazing experiences and the work you finished. Then what tools you use? And any preferred one?

A: I mainly use Maya, Zbrush, Substance Painter and Photoshop. To render I use V-Ray and Redshift.

Q: That’s great, and would you please share some details about the just finished work: Tribute to Monkey Island?

A: I spent many years totally focusing on my professional projects and career and thought that was time to start doing more personal works, where I could totally express my feelings and taste. Also this way I could show my skills as lookdev and environment artist. I always loved adventure games, especially from Lucas Arts, but Curse of Monkey Island have a special place in my heart. I used Maya to block all the structure of the restaurant and planning the scene. Most of the assets were modeled directly inside Zbrush, from spheres\cubes and Dynamesh, then exported the low\mid poly version to Maya. The textures I made on Photoshop and Substance Painter. All the rendering was done in Vray inside Maya. I broke the render in several parts to have more control in post and optimizing the render time.

Q: Good work indeed. Then what media/website picked and shared this work? And how do you feel about it, excited?

A: A Making of will be online soon at 3DTotal, also made interview for 80 Level. On Artstation this project got Picks gallery and Trending Gallery, CGSociety, Evermotion and other important media also shared my work! I’m so happy with the feedbacks of this work, especially when people that played this game when child comes to me and said that loved this piece, it’s incredible rewarding! Makes me want to work harder and harder!

Q: Congratulations! So what do you think about FoxRenderfarm’s cloud rendering service? Happy with it?

A: I’m really happy with it! It’s totally easy to use and the 24/7 support is awesome, helped me a lot!

Q: We are so honored! BTW, is there something you are currently working on or are excited about starting?

A: I have one more Monkey Island project that I’m about to start! It’s an awesome scene, I think that is gonna work really nice in 3D!

Q: That’s wonderful, we are desperately looking forward to your new work. Anything else you would like to add or say?

A: Thank you so much for supporting me! Keep doing this great service.

TITANIC: A Great Movie Rendered by LightWave 3D

LightWave 3D is a cost-effective 3D animation software developed by an American company NewTek. It’s one of the most important 3D animation software in the industry.

Due to LightWave’s easy-to-use and powerful functions in biological modeling and character animation, LightWave 3D is widely used in the filed of film, television, advertising, games, animation, etc. LightWave 3D’s rendering module is based on ray tracing and radiosity, which makes its rendering quality perfect. So, LightWave 3D is popular with animation studios, film and television VFX studios and game developers.

The magnificent ship model in Hollywood blockbuster “Titanic”, the special effects in “Red Planet”, the game scenes in “Dino Crisis 2” and “Resident Evil – Code: Veronica”…they are all produced by LightWave 3D.

FoxRenderfarm is applicable to LightWave 3D! FoxRenderfarm has numerous rendering nodes and huge storage, they can provide a lot of servers as what customers need and save much rendering time for the projects. FoxRenderfarm’s powerful technical team can make different rendering solutions according to customers’ requirements. Customers can put more time and energy on artistic creation.

Now, let’s look at what this render farm supports:

1.Support multisequencing rendering
2.Support freely choosing scenes
3.Support enabling pipeline settings by force
4.Support LightWave_2015.3, other versions can be configured according to customers’ requirements
5.Support Lightwave Render and Lightwave Arnold Render
6.Support Non-ABCD drive path
7.Rendering resolution and output format can be set by files

At last, enjoy some pictures rendered by LightWave 3D!