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Frédéric Dewit and Margot Brun, currently in their fourth year at French digital arts school ESMA Lyon, have unveiled tools designed to help 3D artists. They also developed a resource-sharing website and gave us a few details about their future projects.
RenderFactoryCGI
The students have created a website, renderfactorycgi.com, where they provide various resources, including tutorials, tools, and project breakdowns. For example, you can find rigging tutorials and a project inspired by the movie Bumblebee. The site was created in response to requests from others seeking help or information on their projects. The aim is to share their passion and knowledge with the community.
On the site, you can also download ToolsKit 2.0 for Maya, a set of tools designed to streamline artists’ workflows. Features include object renaming, managing and organizing character controllers, rigging tools, and more. The video below provides a comprehensive overview of the capabilities of ToolsKit 2.0.
The site will continue to expand with new content, including additional courses, a Nuke script to merge .EXR render passes by light group, compositing tutorials, information on deep compositing.
Frédéric Dewit is also working on other tools beyond ToolsKit 2.0. One notable project is a standalone pipeline tool that integrates with Maya, Houdini, Nuke, and other software. This system aims to facilitate scene setup, provide various scripts and tools for each supported software, and simplify tasks like scene cleaning, nomenclature verification, and .ABC import/export with a single click. This tool is still under development.
Demoreels
With one year left at ESMA Lyon before entering the professional world, Margot Brun focuses on lookdev, lighting, and compositing, while Frédéric Dewit is interested in rigging and scripting/pipeline development.
Their final student films will be showcased on 3DVF when the time comes. In the meantime, check out their latest demo reels and visit renderfactorycgi.com for more information and resources.
