Throughout the lessons we will model, pose, texture and shade a 3D character. We will use lot of different techniques within ZBrush and Softimage to bring to life a bio-mechanical concept. Along the way we will learn creative ways to use a wide set of tools to build details in a quick and effective way. All the techniques shown can be translated in different kinds of pipelines and can bring up a huge speed up to your usual modeling and texturing workflow.

This tutorial will guide you through the entire start-to-finish process of building your ICE tree simulations and rendering the final results, with special emphasis on the concepts and workflows that you can incorporate into your own Softimage projects. We will learn how to create ICE trees and add dynamic forces such as wind and gravity to our simulations, we will learn how textures can be used to drive particle appearance and behavior, we will learn how to incorporate realistic light dispersion and absorption properties into our ICE volume particles, as well as many additional features, techniques, and workflows that will prove to be invaluable to all Softimage users who wish to use ICE tree simulations in their own projects.

We'll start the tutorial by giving you the foundational skills and vocabulary you'll need in order to move around within Softimage, and then we'll jump right into the Modeling section of the tutorial. After completing the Modeling section, you'll get the chance try your hand at Texturing, Rigging, Animation, ICE Dynamics, and finally, Lighting and Rendering your own animation. Our goal is not to weigh you down with technical information, but rather to help you develop good workflow habits and allow you to reach a point where you can be very comfortable using Softimage.

We’ll begin this tutorial by learning the new terms and nodes we have access to, such as the topology data type, modeling ICE Trees, and empty meshes. Next we'll learn about some limitations of the topology nodes by creating an ICE tree that deletes all polygons outside a Null. We'll then begin our main shatter project by creating all the objects and nodes to shatter our own object. Then we'll learn methods of controlling our shatter points and correctly setting the Chunk IDs. Finally we will break our chunks out into separate meshes with a compound we will create using the topology nodes. As a bonus, we will set-up a basic rigid-body simulation and learn how to set the center of mass using a quick custom compound.

We’ll begin the tutorial by creating ICE extrusions with curves and strands to create our base stair element. We'll then create copies of our element inside an empty mesh. Then we'll create a control curve, find the transformations at various locations along the curve, and transform our copies to be on the curve. We'll then create a second curve to control other aspects of our copies and package everything into a compound. We'll then learn how to create controls to easily modify our copies without having to understand our ICE tree.

We’ll start off by covering what ICE is and what it is used for. We'll then take a look at working in the ICE tree so you learn how to use ICE in your own projects. After that, you’ll learn how to add forces to particle and create compounds. To wrap up this project, we'll go over how to work with Strands and Lagoa. This series of step-by-step videos were developed with artists new to ICE in mind so we will be moving at a steady, easy-to-follow pace making sure you understand terms and basic techniques. To view more Beginner’s Guide courses; visit our library where you'll find the largest collection of free, high-quality CG training videos.

The objectives for this fast-pace, intensive course include successfully transferring data between two ICE trees, create custom particle effects and understand how data flows in Softimage. By the end of this training, you will have the ability to solve these types of ICE problems in your own projects. Before following along with this tutorial, you should have experience using Softimage and ICE as we cover what would normally take hours to accomplish in a shorter span of time. If you are an artist new to Softimage, ICE or Lagoa, we have several courses to get you started.

We will begin this project by learning how to create Lagoa simulations using the create menu presets. We will then learn about the four essential parts of a Lagoa ICE tree. We will then learn some of the force and accuracy settings we can use to control our simulation. We will then get into the heart of the Lagoa system, the Lagoa Main Material. We spend several lessons breaking down each aspect of the material, as different settings can create completely different looks and particle interactions. We will then learn some tips and tricks for working with Lagoa in Softimage including viewing an ICE cache as it simulates, using the Polygonizer to create a mesh around our particles, and how to use the Lagoa Fluid Shaper to create a more realistic fluid. Finally, we will learn how to apply Cached Sim Post Effects to changed our particle cloud without re-simulating.

We'll begin this project by learning the basic concepts behind ICE such as the main uses of ICE, the basic workflow of ICE and how ICE nodes work together. We'll then learn about the various data types and the importance of context while working in ICE. Once we understand the ideas behind ICE, we will take a few lessons to familiarize ourselves with the Softimage interface. Then we will begin building a particle simulation from the ground up and learn about various ICE nodes and workflows. We'll finish by rendering out an image sequence of our finished particle simulation. This series of lessons was designed to launch someone who has never touched Softimage into being comfortable with the interface and working with ICE. This will allow us to create particle simulations in ICE quickly and easily and begin exploring this powerful platform.

Over this course we will learn how to use states and state machines as well as conditionals to trigger specific reactions and how to switch to new states. We will also cover how to work with multiple states to build interesting particle interactions using beneficial projects.

Popular highlights include: Strands Overview; Creating and Editing Strands; Generating Strand Trails; Strand Construction and Shaping; Strand Alignment and Rotation; Strand Animation; Shading and Rendering Strands; Using Various Strand Compounds; Strand-related ICE Attributes; Randomizing Strand Colors; Applying Colors and Properties Along Strands; Applying Forces; Particle Goals; Building Strand-based Systems; Strand Profile Curves; Repeating ICE Processes; Generating Points; Initializing ICE Attributes; Assets and Compounds Provided.

Popular highlights include: Detailed Overview of all ICE Nodes; When to Use Specific Nodes; Understanding How and Why Nodes Work; Working with Vectors and Matrices; Applying Color Effects to Particles and Meshes; Using and Distorting UVs with ICE; Working with Strands; Setting Random Values; Conversion Tricks and Techniques; Driving Parameters with Other Parameters; Building Various Deformers; Creative Solutions to Various Scenarios; Emission and Simulation Control; Particle Generation; Mathematical and Geometric Concepts in ICE; Particle Behavior and Motion Control; Condition Testing and Execution.

Popular highlights include: In-depth Overview of XSI Interface; Navigation and Tools; Customizing User Experience; Polygon Modeling Workflows; Extruding Faces and Edges; Extracting Geometry; Assigning Materials and Textures; Material Manager; Creating Shader Networks with Render Tree; Texture Layer Editor; UV Projections and Sub-projections; Creating Custom Shelves and Toolbars; Rotoscope Preparation; Lights and Shadow Types; Creating ICE Tree Networks; Applying Dynamic Forces to ICE Particles; Building Particle Volume Shaders for Rendering; Deformers; Path Animation; Parenting Objects; Utilizing the Render Region; Automating Animation with Linked Parameters; Keying Panel to Create and Manipulate Keyframes; Understanding the Operator Stack.

Popular highlights include: Understanding ICE; ICE Framework; Navigation in ICE; Working with ICE Nodes; Types and Contexts; Intrinsic and Dynamic Data; Sharing Data Between ICE Trees; ICE Compounds; ICE Particle Simulations; ICE Rigid Bodies; Using ICE Attributes in Render Tree; Visualizing ICE Data; Previewing ICE Data; Rendering ICE Particles and Meshes; Building Deformers; Building Complex Systems with ICE; Importance of Comments; Learning Best Practices and Workflows; Tips and Tricks.