Man, I even start thinking of getting a second monitor so that I could use more of these wallpapers! I mean the first monitor would be for my work and second would just “please the eye”. This week has started with the fresh and shiny 3 new wallpapers added to Templates.com Wallpapers product type.

 

This time they are also for any taste and of different styles. One of them is a sketch-styled wallpaper illustrating one of the stages of 3D Models production.

 

 

Then there’s also a 3D car wallpaper – which as I predict will become one of the top wallpapers, you’ll see – is based on a 3D Model of a black aggressive sports car. Very impressive, without a doubt.

 

 

The third new one also has some elements of 3D, it’s a cartoon-style wallpaper with bright colors, graffiti elements and a very nice alien-alike character.

 

 

Anyways, now it’s getting hard for you to choose, huh? But why choose? Go get all of them! They are totally free for Templates.com registered members. And the registration is also free, as always.

 

Alright people, I’m off to talk to the boss about that second monitor thing And as for you, boys and girls, don’t sit around and wait – go and download wallpapers!

Here it goes people! You have probably seen the first part of our 3D Robots Review and now the second part of our spectacularly sensational 3D Robots review is ready! It has all of your suggestions included with several additional items that we thought you will be also interested in. You’ve been waiting for it and here it is, enjoy!

 

Title: Robot Carriste
Author: Christophe Bouchet
Location: Paris, France
Portfolio: http://kyk.cgsociety.org/gallery/
Software: Lightwave 3D, Photoshop

 

 

A credit should definitely be given to the great lighting and an interesting character in this image - comic chunk-robot, although it resembles the creatures from the ‘Fifth Element’ a bit. The design is simple and realistic, nothing superfluous, really extraordinary and breath-catching!

 

* * *

 

Title: Phoenix
Author: Arseniy Chebynkin
Location: Rybinsk, Russian Federation
Portfolio: http://arsxc.cgsociety.org/gallery/
Software: 3ds max, Photoshop

 

 

Beautiful scene, nice contrast, very detailed work. Indeed a great warrior robot! The visual design looks great and fits the concept perfectly. And the carefully crafted decorations altogether bring a good realism effect. An award-winning work by the way.

 

* * *

 

Title: Lifeless
Author: Aleksey Mityshkin
Location: Orsk, Russian Federation
Software: 3ds max7, Vray, PS

 

 

Almost heart-breaking scene, literary speaking. The hanging ‘heart’ element is especially bitter-looking. The whole detail work is impressing - gives you a great perspective on the inside of the robot. The lighting is also very good. And again - great surrounding decorations for the 3D robot.

 

* * *

 

Title: Mad Scropio
Author: Alexandr Atkishkin
Location: Samara, Russian Federation
Portfolio: http://iunewind.com/
Software: 3d max7, vray, ps

 

 

Detailed and complex 3d robot. Nice design and concept. The rocket-launcher on the tail is cool. And the auto chrome coating perfectly fits the robot’s mission. The white reflection makes it all look so extreme.

 

* * *

 

Title: Worker Bot
Author: Sheff
Location: Russian Federation
Portfolio:
Software: max7, fr st1, ps 8

 

 

Great textures and amazing character - so positive and real. And so cute in its simplicity and sincerity. This 3d robot does stand out among others due to its good-natured and humorous concept with its longing for something humane instead of the endless warrior robots.

 

* * *

 

Title: Military Reform [part 2]
Author: Alexey Klimov
Location: Russian Federation
Software: max5, ph7, vray

 

 

The 3d model and atmosphere are perfect. Marvelous textures and details done very professionally. Good ferrum materials, and the russian flag on the left arm looks very conceptual. As one of our readers has noted, it would be a great character for computer games.

 

* * *
Title: 3D Model of a Blue Metal Robot
Author: Gekko
Portfolio: See Gekko’s Templates.com Profile
Software: 3Ds Max 8, Mental Ray 3.4

 

 

A 3D Model from Templates.com (see this Blue Metal Robot in different angles and with a 360 degrees rotation) by our contributor named Gekko. Perfectly produced in its smallest details this fella has a bull’s-eye style element on his face instead of ordinary face parts like mouth or eyes.

 

* * *

 

Title: Robofight
Author: Extrane
Location: Russian Federation
Software: 3Dmax Vray

 

 

Interesting design and impressive detalization, though the blur distracts a bit. The concept of combat fighting is fresh. Unusual composition with a demonstrationally good angle. Nothing unnecessary as in every professional work.

 

* * *

 

Title: ROBOFANT
Author: MODOX-3D
Portfolio: http://modox-3d.deviantart.com
Software: C4D+Vray

 

 

A beautiful 3D model of metal elephant robot, extremely impressive! Everything is great - materials, light and details. What I also like about it is how ordinary elephant’s parts are adopted to the robot parts - pay attention to the legs and proboscis.

 

* * *

 

Title: Machine Messiah
Author: mobiusdog
Portfolio: http://mobiusdog.deviantart.com
Software: 3dmax, mental ray

 

 

Kinda aggressive character but looks very realistic. The model itself is made with all the details necessary for an overall impressive effect - the materials, lighting that gives this nice shining at the edges - everything looks great.

 

* * *

 

Title: GH-Bot
Author: Shikijiyu
Portfolio: http://shikijiyu.deviantart.com/
Software: Maya, Mental Ray.

 

 

Even though extremely mechanized the grasshopper still looks like real one - especially the head. As for the details and the concept - I can only admire this idea. I mean if it were real it would surely work as there are springs in the legs and wires attached to the feet. Gorgeous one!

 

* * *

 

Title: Destroyer Droid
Author: mech7
Portfolio: http://mech7.deviantart.com
Software: SolidWorks 2006

 

 

This model is a little similar to the “Mad Scorpio” mentioned above due to the color scheme and with how aggressive it looks. All of the rest is also well-composed - great details and lighting that gives the glare to the material.

 

* * *

 

Title: ISO 206
Author: ajdin
Portfolio: http://ajdin.deviantart.com

 

 

This alien-alike character has beautiful smooth lines which are for some reason not very popular among other 3D artists. Because of these aerodynamic shapes and the material the model as a whole looks realistic enough to be presented in some sci-fi movies.

 

* * *

 

Title: M.A.R. 9000
Author: emciem
Portfolio: http://emciem.deviantart.com
Software: modeled with Maya, rendered with vue. postwork with photoshop.

 

 

This one is one of my favorites! Spectacularly well materials and details - these rust sections (and the shades of these sections) simply take my breath away! And because of the lighting - which is also brilliant of course - what we get is a photo realistic effect. I simply love it!

 

* * *

 

Title: Googlebot
Author: emciem
Portfolio: http://emciem.deviantart.com

 

 

Also one of my favorites This time it’s not that large-scale and detailed work but nevertheless there is also a photo realistic effect. The details of the legs with all these wires and devices also add realism to the 3D model. Besides the character itself (not as a model but as a creature) is so charismatic!

 

* * *

 

Title: Cyborg Head 02
Author: mmarti
Portfolio: http://mmarti.deviantart.com
Software: 3D Studio Max 4.26, rendered with V-Ray, Lighting - HDR Image

 

 

This cyborg head is a little similar to the Terminator’s head, don’t you think so? Even if so it is still brilliantly done. What I especially love about this work are the materials - the metal has these little defects and scratches and because of them looks so realistic that it even scares!

 

* * *

 

Title: Victorian Justice Machine
Author: MattiasA
Portfolio: http://mattiasa.deviantart.com

 

 

Also a work in which the materials play the role of the prime impressive element. I’m not saying that other aspects aren’t good, they really are great and the model is a complex of it all. It’s just that in this particular case metal makes it all look as an artwork sculpture. Not to mention how great the character concept is with all of the Victorian age details.

 

* * *

 

Title: Mecha BUG AD
Author: Rasyidxtreme
Portfolio: http://rasyidxtreme.deviantart.com

 

 

A futurist 3D model of a fighter insect of some kind. Again - the materials are perfectly detailed, the scratches add a tremendous portion of realism to the character. The color scheme and the lighting are also adorable even though there are no glares that we all love so much

 

* * *

 

Well, that’s about it! And yet we are pretty sure that there’s a lot of other 3D Robots left behind - it’s impossible to embrace them all on one blog Although maybe sometime in future we will gather them, who knows.

 

We hope you did love these two posts and as always - you are very welcome to comment on anything you wish.

While we are working on a second part of our sensational 3D robots review - which by the way will be posted in a day or two - I’m offering you to take a little break and see what other beauties we’ve got especially for you. I’m talking about a set of FREE wallpapers with our most popular and most beautiful 3D models and illustrations on them. Besides, since you appear to love 3D Robots so much we have even produced several wallpapers with our 3D Robots on them.

 

You can see some of the wallpapers’ screenshots below in this post and I assure you this is only a tip of the iceberg as there’s a lot more of this awaiting you in our special section of FREE Wallpapers.

 

 

 

 

You are free to download and use as many of these wallpapers as you wish. All you need to get access to them is to register a free account at Templates.com. By the way after you register this free account you will get a couple of additional benefits. For example you will get access to our other freebies - free samples of 3D Models, Website Templates, Illustrations and Icon Sets - all of our product samples with source files. You also automatically get 5 credits right after your account is registered.

 

I don’t know about you but for me the benefits are pretty obvious. My desktop is now finally perfect with the wallpaper of the Eco-Hi-Tech “at” (@) sign and I’m so damn proud of it

It appears to be that 3D robots presented here at Templates.com are not the only ones that are worth attention. We have collected several interesting works from all over the Internet that we think you should see. Truly beautiful and of high quality - that’s what they are. Enjoy!

 

***

 

Title: Optimus Prime
Name: Kevin Bao
Location: Shanghai, China
Website: http://blog.sina.com.cn/cgkevin (Chinese)
Area(s) of expertise: Lighting, Modeling, Texturing

 

 

The scene is created with Maya and rendered in MentalRay. The image is composed with the help of Digital_Fusion and Photoshop. The use of classical Dong Feng truck, great lighting and texturing bring the feeling of amazing realism to the 3d robot.

 

***

 

Title: Obsolete
Name: Pawel Hynek
Country: Cracow, Poland
Profile: Pawel Hynel Profile

 

About his inspiration Pawel says that “It was somehow inspired by Battlestar Galactica and idea of Cylons. Creation of man, abandoned by him. Where lays the border of responsibility for our deeds?”

 

 

Model is created with 3ds max and rendered in Vray. The bittersweet message of today’s reality behind this rather original scene is delivered to us with the help of great attention paid to details of the 3d robot - the rust and dirt - along with impressive shades and lighting. Modelling and technique work is excellent. Yet, the pose seems to lack some weight and the bike seems to need some dirt or rust on it, too.

 

***

 

Title: Automaton
Name: Kazuhiko Nakamura
Country: Kanagawa, Japan
Kazuhiko Nakamura Website

 

 

Modeled and rendered in Shade, and used “Total textues CD” for the texture mapping, the scene looks disturbing and horryfying, mysterious and beautiful in its carefully executed grunge colors and deem lighting - just perfect for the genre of surrealism. Meticulous modelling and the overall complexity is stunning. The buzzsaw tongue of the 3d robot on the left looks especially expressive.

 

Read the rest of this entry »

Recently we’ve been talking a lot about integrating 3D servers into website designs. We have even illustrated how great it looks at our official blog.

 

Today it’s time for you to find out how to actually integrate our 3D servers into website designs. With this simple tutorial you will know how to do that in several steps. We assure you that there are no special skills or software components needed for that, you only use standard Adobe Photoshop tools. This time we will show you how to make this:

 

 

Ok, here we go.

 

1. Choose a design that you want to apply 3D servers to. It’s recommended that you take a design of a website that is oriented towards hosting or dedicated servers so that servers would be something organic there.

 

 

2. Choose a server that you want to put into your design. In this particular tutorial this is Model #933

 

 

3. Next is the server preparation. Make sure it has transparent background (servers from Templates.com always do have the transparent background), otherwise you will have to manually remove the background. Besides you should fit the server image’s size for your design (or you can do it later when the server is already at the design with the “Free Transform” tool).

 

4. Then you should prepare some space at your website design for a server. Just move the layers with other elements (in this case we move them symmetrically to the right and to the left).

 

 

5. Next is you simply drag and drop the server layer to the design with a space prepared. Please mind the layers order as the servers have to be on top of all of the surrounding elements (except for the logo layer in this particular case).

 

 

6. Then we duplicate layer and flip it horizontally - this will be the second half of our servers section.

 

 

7. Move the second part to the proper place. In this example we move it to the left.

 

 

The result is several nice servers symmetrically oriented.

 

 

8. It would also be great if you add the shadows to the servers, it always looks so impressive! Create a new file and make a vertical line with a Brush tool (Brush radius is about 50-60 pixels, color is #6A6A6A for example)

9. Apply Gaussian Blur to it (Filter => Blur => Gaussian Blur, blurring radius is about 25-45 pixels) and select the height that you need.

10. Drag the selection to your initial design but be sure to put in UNDER the servers layer. There you go - servers are now at your website design. Voilà!

 

 

Well, there it is! You see that the process is indeed really simple and even fun. Enjoy it

Here’s one for you, my friends: why are obvious design requirements and being constantly declined and ignored on the Internet today? I mean if the modern design is about paying more and more attention to the visual aspect than this aspect should not be forgotten, right? And it’s not only a matter of fashion or being trendy, it’s more about the convenience and usability: the visitor today tends to spend less time on the website and therefore in order to deliver the message webmasters are to make this message more vivid. What happens in reality is that the designs for some reason stay old-fashioned and are overloaded with texts (that are in turn appear to be ignored in most cases). Don’t get me wrong – audience becomes no dumber and people do still read texts, but in order to stand more chances in turning the visitors into customers the designs HAVE to be optimized to be less time-consuming in delivering the message. Illustrate, my friends! That’s what will bring you fame and fortune.

 

Let’s take for example a web hosting sphere. Hosting providers were always considered to be the headliners in having their share of attention (which is easy to explain as they are the only tool of getting the precious space). “Wait a minute!”– you will say. “How can one possibly illustrate such an abstract concept as web hosting?” A good question as every good question it has to have a good answer Here it is: “DISPLAY HOSTING SERVERS AS AN ILLUSTRATION!”

 

Take a look at how it can be with the actual hosting websites examples (Server 3D Models from Templates.com have been used for this):

 

LunarPages.com

 

BEFORE:

 

 

AFTER:

 

 

Server 3d Model #1106 has been used here.

 

Velocity Servers

 

BEFORE:

 

 

AFTER:

 

 

 

Verio Servers

 

BEFORE:

 

 

AFTER:

 

 

 

There’s nothing revolutionary about it and that’s a tremendously simple design hint to be honest. Nevertheless for some reason only up to 30% (according to our own research) of all of the hosting providers apply it. Of course some of the big players can afford that as they already have their own loyal audience and their brand is powerful enough to attract new customers only by being presented at the top position of SERPs. But on the other had why not to diversify your means of influencing the visitor, after all this is a GUARANTEE of a greater conversion rate. Besides, it is a proved fact that if a person looks for a package or an offer where the word “server” appears he or she intuitively expects to see a nice shiny server that his data is going to be stored on. Another important thing is that text blocks are less comprehendible than the graphical illustrations and putting a server image is way much more striking than the text. Text is good for explanations and clarifying while images attract attention and impress. It’s a shame to ignore such an easy and effective tool.

 

To prove how great illustrations are if combined with an ordinary (or even extraordinary) text we will ourselves illustrate the things mentioned above. We have found several hosting providers websites that we think might want to consider some design improvements. These are all good companies by the way and they provide great quality services. PLEASE NOTE that we are not trying to offend any company’s reputation by this, we only generate suggestions and illustrate those suggestions. Besides this whole thing DOES NOT mean that they have a non-usable design, it’s only about diversifying their ways to attract even more customers.

 

Here’s another portion of striking examples. This time it’s not about actual hosting companies, just a couple of innocent designs that have had such a bad luck to get into our sight

 

INNOCENT EXAMPLE #1

 

BEFORE:

 

 

AFTER:

 

 

 

Server 3D Model #1331 has been used here

INNOCENT EXAMPLE #2

 

BEFORE:

 

 

AFTER:

 

 

Server 3d Model #933 has been used here.

 

INNOCENT EXAMPLE #3

 

BEFORE:

 

 

AFTER:

 

 

 

Server 3D Model #1239 has been used here

Quite impressive metamorphoses, huh? Once again, please remember that these are only our suggestions about how putting a simple image of a 3D server to where a visitor expects it to be can change the whole train of a visitor’s thought and urge him/her to take the mental steps that you need him/her to take.

 

Please feel free to express your thoughts and suggestions on this issue (no matter how critical they may be) in the comments to this post, we promise to answer every single question and take every single comment into consideration.

 

We also welcome your graphical variants of design suggestions for hosting providers’ websites. We will publish the best works as the updates to the post. Besides that we will reward the best redesign suggestions with discounts for the Templates.com products. Please be sure to use the Servers 3D Model images from Templates.com in your designs (okay if with the sample watermarks) and send the design screenshots to fred.murray[at]templates.com

Greetings, my friends, for today is the glorious day of Templates.com official blog launch! So be sure to remember this day in order to be able to tell your grandchildren of it or mention it in your memoirs

 

Anyways, here’s why you will love this new blog. The major thing about it is that it will be the only official news provider for the revolutionary project of Templates.com and from this blog you will constantly get new proofs for that revolutionary character. All of the news, updates, releases and reports will also be posted here. In other words this and only this place is the right one to get all of the info you might possibly imagine. Enjoy premium blogging with us!