Montage Studio

In the weeks following my “merge” with Jonathan and the creation of our little collaborative online studio, it became clear to us that, even if the two of us could handle about any modeling request with our force combined, we’d still face some serious trouble in many area.

Things such as concept drawing which, when working with a client, is essential to help the client visualize what we’ll be doing, and if it is what they want, character rigging or even animation in general were still far away from being our “strength.”

Now, as a team, we are one step , if not one immensely-giant leap,  closer to having these area as covered. Thanks to Ben Dansie (http://www.bendansie.com/), we can finally say that our team can handle quite a range of projects.

Here’s a small description of our new friend!

Ben has been drawing since his fingers were able to hold a pencil and hasn’t looked back since. Whilst he enjoys getting into anything from portraiture to metalwork, 3D is now his media of choice.

Having completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts (majoring in New Media) in 2006, Ben continues to explore as many aspects of the 3D process as he can, including rigging, modelling, texturing, animation, lighting and rendering…

As I said, Ben will mostly take place as a Conceptual Artist for us. But he will definitely work along with Jonathan to rig our characters and animate them. As he’s also a very talented modeler, sculptor, and texture artist, he’ll make sure Jonathan and I are jealous of his incredible skills! Here are some examples of his past work:

We’re very, very, very happy to have Ben on our team. So let’s give him a warm welcome!

However, he’s not on the team to show his past works. He’s on the team to get some projects started here at Montage Studio. And first thing we did when he jumped on board, was to ask him to design some cool vehicles and character for us to model. This would be our first collaborative project together and would let us test the workflow. We; he; didn’t just model a cool vehicle and a sweet character, he created some of the most awesome conceptual artworks I have had the pleasure to work with! After some discussion, we settled on one of his sketches. A steampunk airship!

Here is his first “sketch:”

To see more and to follow along with our progress visit the thread on BlenderArtists here:
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=130968

I’m pleased to announce Montage Studio’s third training DVD has hit the (digital) shelves! Meant as a crash course in modeling with Blender for newer users, this training DVD takes the viewer through the basics of the interface, navigation, modeling, etc. Then puts all of it to the test with a step-by-step modeling exercise in creating your first character!

This is part 1 in what will eventually be a three-part DVD series:

Part 1: modeling
Part 2: texturing/rendering
Part 3: animation

With our constant aim to provide quality resources for fellow 3D Artists we have added a new page for models. Through this we will be offering a variety of premade models that can be downloaded and used according to their accompanying license.

To get things started I’ve added one of my base-meshes I like to use for a lot of projects, a low-poly male body. The model consists of 1462 quads, 0 triangles and is unwrapped via three UV maps (head, body, head and body). This model is ideal for game characters, base-meshes, sculpting, etc. All it needs is to be rigged and textured! 

Head on over to the Models page to download!

Hey guys!

This is my first post in our blog, and I’ll do it with a bang!

First of, let me inform you that our gallery system is now fully fonctionnal. Make sure to check it out using the Gallery button at the top of the page. You’ll find two sections, one for still images, and another for our Animations. We’ll make sure to fill it up with more projects as time goes by.

Secondly, and I believe it’s quite important, I’d like to let you know what I plan to do under the banner of MontageStudio. As Jonathan explained it, our goal is push our own skills, but also to share our knowledge with the community. Since MontageStudio now lives as a studio, or an entity if we might say, it is therefore a member of the Blender Community. Jonathan and myself will work, and produce quality learning ressrources to give back the community what it gave us in the past. Jonathan already did alot with his now famous video tutorials and dvds, and here is what I’m planning to do in the next weeks/months.

• As soon as next week, I’ll start recording Timelapses (or visual tutorial as I like to call them) related to mechanical/architectural modelling. These timelapses won’t only benefit the viewer, but also myself.
• As a matter of fact, these timelapses will put the basis in my personnal training to achieve better teaching. I will use the knowledge I gain from these small “visual tutorials” to produce bigger learning ressources such as a complete video tutorial.
• This then lead me to the production of a full training DVD. I expect delivering a first DVD which would cover mechanical Modelling, Texturing, Lighting, Compositing and Rendering by the end of the summer. Keep your eyes open, some more info about my progress will appear on this Blog.

Again, make sure to check out our new Gallery !

Have a nice day,
Jean-Sébastien Guillemette

I’ve been looking forward to announcing this for some time now… Montage Studio is no longer a one-man show. Over the last year another artist and I have been in the midst of discussing a merge, per say. Our plan has been to combine our efforts into an online, collaborative studio; allowing us to tackle more diverse, bigger projects. In many ways these plans were nothing more than a dream, the idea originally came up around two years ago. Now it’s a reality.

But who is the other artist? Many of you may know him from the Blender community as Ecks (previously X-Warrior), every one else can call him Jean-Sébastien Guillemette : ) He is a very talented 3D artist with a great eye for design. His city-scapes and incredible vehicle designs have caught a lot of people’s attention over the years. Not to mention several awards. You can see samples of his work over in the new gallery

What does this instill for the future? We have several goals with this merge:

• First and foremost, to continue to produce quality work and push our own skills.
• Secondly, to provide the best service we can to our clients.
• And third, to produce a range of training DVDs to help the growth and continuation of professional training materials within the Blender community.

This is a really exciting time for us, we’re really looking forward to working together and seeing where it takes us! We’ll keep you all updated, expect some new work and announcements soon.

Thanks!

P.S. Oh in case you didn’t notice, the whole site has also been overhauled with a brand new design, new gallery system, and more up-to-date info.

Thanks to a couple very generous fellows I now have a new website based on Wordpress! The new design will allow the site to be much more streamlined and I’ll be able to update it much more regularly with blog posts and gallery content. For all of those that visit stay tuned for much more info and images! To get started I’ve added a new render of my most recent work in progress for my upcoming demo-reel: