2. Table Of Contents
April 2009
Page 3
Page 6-17
Page 19-28
Page 29-32
Page 33-43
Page 44-51
Page 53-56
Page 57-63
Page 64-72
Page 73-79
Page 80
Editors Notes and “Goodies” Information
Special: Exhibition - Mark Gmehling by Tavy Pasieka
Modeling A Warhammer by Thomas Pasieka
There’s No Place Like Home - Making Of by Eder Carfagnini
Developing For iPhone - A Real Experience by Thomas Pasieka
Sci-Fi VFX With CINEMA 4D, Photoshop And After Effects by Andy Lefton
Realistic Tornado With After Effects by Dale Jackson
Interview With Dale Jackson by Tavy Pasieka
Interview WIth Rudolf Herczog by Tavy Pasieka
CINEMA 4D Gallery
Last Page/Contact Info

3. Hi Attackers!
SPRING IS HERE! Or is it? It's April.....aren't the
birds suppose to be chirping and the bees buzz-
ing? Well, not here. Instead it's 28 degrees and
snowing. Gotta love Michigan :)
We are so sorry we had to skip the March issue of
Attack. Those who have paid subscriptions will
have those subscriptions extended by one month.
While I've got you here, I'd like to mention our
new site, 3DA Interactive. Here you'll find we've
been busy making little applications of the iPhone
and iPod Touch. Rune Memory is currently wait-
ing approval from Apple and should go live at any
time. Some of you may be familiar with our Rock
n Roll Dice application. This too will be available
in the iTunes App store soon. Be sure to check
out 3DA Interactive here:
http://3dattack.us/interactive
As always, what you think is important to us. Feel
free to drop us a line at 3dattack@3dattack.us
KEEP ON ATTACKING!
Tavy
GOODIES
The download link for this months goodies is:
(Click on textlink below - right click and copy link)
3D ATTACK GOODIES APRIL 2009
Editor Notes
April 2009

4. Tavy: Hello Dale and thanks so much for taking
the time to talk with 3D Attack today. Why don't
we start with you telling us a bit about who you
are and what you do?
Dale: Hi Tavy, thank you very much for the
opportunity. I’m a self-taught artist. From early
childhood I loved drawing.
Through school I used all the usual mediums
starting with pencil and eventually working in
acrylics and oil.
Then when home computers became popular in
the 1980’s I started trying to do some drawings on
the Commodore 64; working in only four colors
back then if you can believe it! After college I
joined the Air Force and had the privilege of paint-
ing nose art on five of the lead KC-135R aircraft
at Fairchild Air Force Base. One of them, the
“City of Spokane,” is still flying today.
I originally painted this on aircraft 0337 back in
1999. This is the "General's Bird", the command
bird of Fairchild AFB. The crew chiefs didn't like it
too much (all gruff guys), but I was under orders
by the General's wife.
I was commissioned to do this piece by the Gen-
eral and his wife in 1999. I guessed they liked the
art so much that they continued to keep it, be-
cause the art was transferred to another aircraft
0092. Usually things like that happen a lot be-
cause aircraft, like people, get transferred from
base to base and squadron to squadron in the
USAF.
After the Air Force, I went to work as a graphic
artist for the uniform company Cintas in Cincin-
nati, Ohio. Currently I’m doing my dream job in
the Los Angeles area as the lead production artist
for Living Waters (http://www.livingwaters.com/)
and it’s television program The Way of the Master
(http://www.wayofthemaster.com/).
Tavy: When did you realize that Graphic Art was
the career path you would take? Was there a de-
fining moment?
Dale: It was probably somewhere between when I
was commissioned to do the nose art on those
Interview With Dale Jackson
By Tavy Pasieka
57

5. KC-135s and when I became a logo artist for
Cintas. At Cintas I worked a graveyard shift, and I
really dreaded that part of it… but as I look back I
think it was working those long late nights for
three years that really sharpened my skills with
Photoshop and Illustrator. Then when I went to
work for the ministry at Living Waters I not only
got to do CD/DVD design and catalog design, but
also banner, billboard and book design.
And then came the day
when I volunteered to try
to fill in the gap as a visual
effects artist for the TV
series, and I opened up
After Effects and CINEMA
4D for the first time.
It’s been an amazing jour-
ney; one that I feel has
been directed by God to
lead me to where I am
today, working for, what I think is one of the most
important ministries in the world. I’m extremely
blessed.
Interview With Dale Jackson
By Tavy Pasieka
58

6. Tavy: What software applications do you include
in your pallet? Are there any you are interested in
incorporating in the future?
Dale: This is a great thing about working at Living
Waters Publications. I'm able to have the freedom
to push the envelope there. I use Cinema 4D 10
Studio, Adobe After Effects CS4, Adobe Pho-
toshop and Illustrator CS4. I also have E-on VUE
XStream with it's plug-in into C4D and Zbrush 3
for Mac, both which I'm currently training myself. I
also author DVDs, so I use either Encore or DVD
Studio Pro.
And for added special effects I use Particle Illu-
sion 3 for particles and I use many plug-ins for
After Effects. I would love to get Real Flow, but
that's out of budget at the moment.
Tavy: When looking through your online gallery
one can't but notice your fondness of the aircraft.
Can you tell us a little about a couple of your pro-
jects that involve various aircrafts?
Dale: Sure! I’ve loved aircraft since childhood,
and that’s actually what sent me into the Air Force
in the late 1990s.
As I said before, as I was nearing the end of my
term of service I wanted to bring some life to the
huge fleet of KC-135s at Fairchild AFB. I spent a
lot of time visiting the five different command
squadrons to talk to the commanders about what
they wanted to paint on their aircraft.
Pin-up art was out of the question, not only be-
cause of my own convictions, but also those of
the base General’s wife. So it was important for
me to come up with logos that would reflect
squadron pride. I used Photoshop 4 at the time,
and then made masks, and either airbrushed the
art directly on the aircraft skin or hand painted it.
It was nerve-racking painting “City of Spokane”
while the General of the base came to watch. As
of today, I have two pieces of aircraft art still fly-
ing: “City of Spokane” on a KC-135 Stratotanker
and a 9/11 piece I did for an airshow F-15C Eagle.
Tavy: Also, when I was looking through your gal-
lery, I noticed a couple of references to Septem-
ber 11, 2001. I don't usually ask questions like
this, but how did that day impact your life person-
ally?
Interview With Dale Jackson
By Tavy Pasieka
59

7. Dale: I guess I endured it like most Americans; I
was in tears and filled with anger at the same
time. I’m glad for the unique opportunity I had
when I was approached by a fighter pilot from the
West Coast F-15 Demonstration Team to do this
September 11 themed logo for his F-15C.
The pilot wanted a logo that displayed the twin
towers and a medieval knight holding a sword
with the words "Lest We Forget." On this project I
had the logo made into a decal so it could be eas-
ily applied directly to the aircraft. In hindsight I
wish I’d known more about decals when I was
doing my original nose art pieces… but we all
know hindsight is 20/20.
Tavy: You have done work for some very famous
names, Kirk and Chelsea Cameron to name a
couple. Please share with us a bit about their
"Camp Firefly" project you worked on.
Dale: We got to know the Camerons when Kirk
approached Ray with his desire to become a part
of the ministry at Liv-
ing Waters. We con-
s i d e r t h e m d e a r
friends and have
known them for almost
nine years now. The
work their family does
with Camp Firefly is just
extraordinary. For those who
are unfamiliar with the camp,
each year it provides several specially selected
families of terminally ill children a cost free week
of wonderful memories that will strengthen and
comfort that family years after their child dies.
As far as the work I did for them, it started when
Kirk came to me about the logo and we talked at
great length about its design. I suggested it
would be wonderful to do a CG animation of a
firefly going through the grass and then forming
into the logo, and he agreed. So I started in Pho-
toshop by sketching a few frames. Then I worked
on the firefly itself, the surrounding blades of
Interview With Dale Jackson
By Tavy Pasieka
60

8. grass, the background and the tree in Cinema 4D.
I added extra blinking bugs with Adobe After Ef-
fects, and the sparkly trail was done in Particle
Illusion 3. As my knowledge of Cinema 4D grows,
I'd love to do more animations for Camp Firefly.
Tavy: Are you currently working on any other
projects you can tell us a thing or two about?
Dale: One of the projects that I'm really eager to
delve into is one where I have to create a realistic
hand with a quill pen. This is for an upcoming
book cover. Ray Comfort, founder of Living Wa-
ters, is an author of more than 60 books. I'm ex-
cited about this project because it would be my
first extensive use of Zbrush and Cinema 4D
integration. I have created still life scenes before
using Cinema 4D, so I plan on doing the same for
this next project.
I will be creating a still life
scene of a study or table
with all kinds of books, trin-
kets, and science gizmo's
and then a realistic hand-
writing with a quill pen on
paper or a journal. I have
total carte blanche on the
scene, and the gears in
my mind are whirling with
ideas. I can't wait to get into
Zbrush and see how it interacts
with Cinema 4D.
Tavy: CINEMA 4D is your 3D weapon of choice.
Why....and is there anything you would like to see
implemented in future updates that would en-
hance your workflow?
Dale: I would love to see more training in future
Cinema 4D, more of those sample scene tutorials.
I've taken an official Cinema 4D course and re-
ceived my certificate of completion, but as every
artist knows, there's no end to learning.
If they could just pump up the training a bit more,
covering the difficult areas of modeling – let's say,
realistic water, fire, clouds, etc... that would make
me happy! As it is, I love working with Cinema 4D
Studio because of the intuitive GUI.
Interview With Dale Jackson
By Tavy Pasieka
61

9. Tavy: When you're not busy creating awesome
animations and renderings, what do you enjoy
doing in your spare time?
Dale: I actually love to build scale model aircraft
and sci-fi starships and I also love to play violin. I
also love to have my two boys work with me on
models.
My boys mean the world to me, and I love teach-
ing them about my hobbies and art… but obvi-
ously most importantly, about the God of the Bi-
ble. Jesus ranks as the number one priority in my
life.
Tavy: Dale, there are thousands upon thousands
of aspiring graphic artists in the world. If you
could share with them a little advice and wisdom,
what would it be?
Dale: Shortcuts! That may sound strange at first,
but when I was under the tutelage of a graphic
designer at Cintas, he taught me—no hammered
into me—the importance of memorizing shortcut
keys. It is such a time saver. If I were still going
up to the task bars and dropping them down to
select things, my workflow would be like molas-
ses. Shortcuts are lifesavers. Memorize them, use
them, they speed up your workflow so much.
Also, learn the rule of 80/20. I had to learn to not
be such a perfectionist on the tiny details that no
one but me would ever notice. When the time
crunch is on, you have to learn to focus on what
Interview With Dale Jackson
By Tavy Pasieka
62

10. absolutely has to be done, versus trying to per-
fectly create everything.
Tavy: Thanks again! It's always a please to get
to know outstanding artists within the CINEMA 4D
Community. This was a real treat! I'll give you the
last word.....
Dale: Thanks, Tavy. I want to encourage three
things for your readers.
First, if you’re a parent, make sure you’re putting
your children above your work. Make the time you
spend with them rich and precious, because you
won’t have them forever. Don’t’ let your projects
over shadow your time with them—you’ll never
regret it.
Second, if you’ve got talent, find a worthy cause
and donate some of your time and work. For ex-
ample, find something like Camp Firefly, approach
the leaders of the charity or cause, give them
some samples of your work, and tell them you’d
like to do some work for them pro bono. I feel like
everyone should try to contribute something to the
public good.
Finally—and I’m sure you could have easily pre-
dicted this—make sure you spend some time
thinking about what’s going to happen to you after
death. Obviously I’m a Christian, and although
this is completely out of scope for this interview,
I’m compelled to bring it up. If you have ques-
tions, you can always visit the website for the min-
istry that I am a part of: LivingWaters.com.
Interview With Dale Jackson
By Tavy Pasieka
63