Pirate Final Project Post 3 - Rendering

No surprise: rendering took forever. But less than it could have. We decided to use the preset of physical sun and sky instead of looking for a very realistic render, and that way save some render time. This render is enough for a class project, and all that we could do in the amount of time we were given. But some shots took way longer than others to render. The firing cannons for example, because of the smoke. Or just the breaking mast using DMM, that I exported at 300 frames per second for having a nice slow motion. And the ocean is just the preset offered by Maya, which looks good enough for what we were aiming for.

Pirate Final Project Post 2 - More Modeling

Here comes some assets I have created for the project. The renders are made with mental ray.

Pirate Final Project Post 1 - Modeling

The semester, my final project is going to be a fake trailer for a pirate movie (pirate of the Caribbean style). This is a group project, so with my two classmates, we plan to shoot some footage on green screen and place it in a 3D model, use some Ncloth animations for the sails and flag, some 3D Fluid for a burning boat and canons firing, and the DMM plugin for a cracking mast. But first, I had to model the boat. Here comes the evolution of that assignment (it took a week to model).

Projection Mapping

This month assignment was pretty cool.

 We've learned the basic of projection mapping, and had to choose a picture and make our own. When we watched our instructor doing it, it looked so easy. Of course, the reality of it is very different...

 I choose a picture i've taken from downtown austin, because there wasn't much people or cars. I cleaned it a bit on photoshop, taking out stop lights and passer-by.

Downtown Austin

Ok, now basically the idea was to recreate that scene in 3D. Now here is a good tip: you want to do a good projection mapping? CHOOSE A PICTURE WITH CUBIC BUILDINGS, DAMN YOU! Seriously, do you see those two buildings in the back? I was thinking "meh, it's gonna be fine, I'll just have to recreate them", well, I'll tell you what: this was one of my stupidest moment in 3D.

I don't know what smoked the architect who built that building, but it's not cubic, it's not piramidal, it's not triangular or rectangular, but it's everything at the same time! Aaaah! Every time I passed in front of it in the bus during the month, I tried to figure out it's logic, but no! Too complex! DO NOT DO A PROJECTION MAPPING IN A BUILDING LIKE THIS! Or if you do, take pictures of it under every angle, and recreate it as close as possible.

 Anyway, moving on. After modeling the scene, I projected the picture onto the 3d elements, and with a camera was then able to move into the scene. Ok, it's the very short version, it's actually more complexe.

 Because I had issues with the horizon line, I decided to hide it with some fog created thanks to maya fluid. There is still some issues, but overall for a first try, I'm pretty happy. Now I want to try again, but this time with cubes. Gosh, it's gonna be so easy...

 

UT Flag with NCloth

It's been a while I wanted to try NCloth in Maya, so as a true Longhorn fan I decided to create a little flag. But a war flag, you know. Because they are cooler.

UT flag Maya from Vincent Desgrippes on Vimeo.

DMM breaking table in Maya

I was playing around in Maya with the DMM plug-in and came up with that result. Just frustrated the plug-in's limit is that low, and that we need to spend 300 dollars to be able to fully use that wonderful tool of destruction.

The Expendaballs

A shirt design I have made for my volleyball team using photoshop:

Medieval UT Tower

I just wanted to use some new tools learned in class, and so I decided to create a composition about UT.  My idea was: what if UT had a Medieval era?

Here is the original picture:

And here is the result:

The Draghorn is made of a mix from a Longhorn, a Velociraptor and an Eagle.

A Nazi man receives a Raptor in-between giant flowers

That's not every day that I get to draw something fun. Firstly because I never draw. Secondly because I really never draw. My handwriting is awful enough to remind me to stay away from pencils and anything close to painting creation.

Which is why, when we get that assignment to create a photoshop painting from an idea generator, I freaked out.

But then, I have to admit, the fun of creating a nazi man receiving a velociraptor in-between giant flowers helped me a bit to reconsider my skills. So after finding references online, I started painting. And man, I really, really sucked. So much that if my computer was a sheet of paper, I would have throw it away angrily (instead I was only able to wave angrily my arms with sounds of frustration.)

But I knew we were allowed to do anything we needed to achieve the painting, so I found some nice pictures of a mountain, and I just draw on it. Yes, that's cheating, but seriously, I can't draw.

But after a while I realized that this method wasn't that bad. I was only using 3 colors, and it gave a style to the image, and at the end I was even a little bit proud of it.

Then I created a tree and made it a brush, which allowed me to create the forest. The grass brush already existed.

And finally, the two characters and the flower. I used the same technique as for the mountain, and it worked pretty well. I can't draw, but at the end, I created a composition.

Now it's definitely not perfect. I don't know how to make it look nicer, and not like an element on another. That will be for next time....

Share Their Voices Editing Contest

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to participate in my first editing contest. The subject was easy: The Latinos in the war. They provided us 50 interviews of veterans, of 2 hours each, with the mission to create a 5 minute editing out of it, about the topic of our choice. We were also free to find footages free of right on internet.

When I read the transcript of Julian Gonzalez' interview, I knew I would chose him. That guy went to France, in Normandy, during the landing, and tells about it with lots of emotions. Plus he wrote a great poem, that I immediately knew how to use.

But that wasn't enough, so I found pictures and video footages illustrating his words, and created some tiny visuel effects for the titles (that you may have already seen on this blog) and for the pictures.

At the end I was happy of my editing (except for the sound of the interview, I didn't have the time to learn how to make it better), and it happens that the jury of professionals which came from Los Angeles for the occasion liked it too, for they gave me the first price.

I am now the proud owner of my first legal version of Final Cut Pro! Hourra!

Now, please, Meet Julian Gonzalez:


Meet Julian Gonzalez from Vincent Desgrippes on Vimeo.

Volleyball Final Project - Post 4 - DONE!

It's always a great moment when you finally decide "Ok, I'm done" on a big project like that. Of course, before that decision you spent hours and hours dealing with minor details that no-one would have noticed, but you want it to be perfect. And now it is, finally, it is time to export.

So you do export, and it takes hours. But when you watch it after, you realize that something doesn't work quite well, so you change it, and re-export, for hours. And when it's done, you realize you forgot to turn the particles on, because you turned them off to be able to work without slowing the machine, so you have to export again, and it takes hours. And you still find stupid reasons to have to re-export it 3 or 4 times until it is completely done.

And then you watch it, and like it. But the day after, while watching it, you realize that this sound effect could have been placed one or two frames after, but for the first time you're thinking "ah, f**k it.", and you are able to watch it without being annoyed by a thing that no-one on earth would ever notice. That's the moment I like the most. Because every project could always be better, could always have a last change of one or two frames, which of course wouldn't be the last, but you have to find the courage to say "no more."

No more. Working on that project was awesome, and watching it is awesome. It is going to be a good video to show my still very new skill, and at the same time an awesome souvenir from my time here; the special effect class and time spent playing volleyball with friends.

I am really glad because I have been able to do everything I planed to for that final project, and even more. I was afraid it might be hard, and it definitely was at some moments, but with hours of work every problem is solvable (and some of them with the help of Ben Bays).

It was very interesting to work on something step by step, in a way it was different from the big editing projects I was used to, because those are generally divided in very different steps, while here almost every steps needs creation, and every time something is created, you feel great, because you are able to think "I created this from nothing, I am a God", and add it to the rest. And while by itself it can be a cool little effect, when it is included to the whole project, it makes that last one look awesome.

But enough talking, here it comes:


Volleyball - The Duel from Vincent Desgrippes on Vimeo.

Volleyball Final Project - Post 3 - Alpha (whatever that means)

A ball into space? Dude, that was the greatest idea! Never had a project that fun!

Of course I had a lot of new problems, but overcame them all, just like that: PAF! (actually it was a bit longer than that).

On my last post I was just finishing to create a nice smoke trail, that I had to turn off to be able to work on the other effects without slowing the machine.

I think my next step was my favorite, and one of my worse at the same time: I applied the face of Wilson, from the movie Cast Away, into a side of the volleyball, so we would see it during the camera rotation.

I first tried to parent my Wilson mask on the ball, but of course it wouldn’t be that simple, and it became completely wild. But the one thing it got right was the rotation: I wouldn’t have to worry to much about that. Just about the position, the scale, and the orientation. Haha.

So I did what every visual effects composer has to eventually do on a project or another: I spent hours adding keyframes on every single frame. Hours. Because the more I would work on it, the more I would find new ways to make it look cooler, like the Corner Pin effect. And sometimes I would realize (after keyfraying the whole move) that Wilson looked much smaller at the end than at the beginning, so I would have to start over. Again. And again. Until I was finally satisfied, and not upset anymore at the idea of that stupid ball getting lost in sea.

Wilsooooooooon!

But when I watched it again the day after, it looked awesome, and worth of every effort. I loved Wilson again.

On the other side of the ball, during the rotation, I added a lens flare, just for having something cool to see. Might have been one of the easiest thing on the all project.

And between two sessions of work on After Effects, I took my camera, two volleyball friends, and we spent a few hours shooting a small movie. That was very fun too. There was a lot of ball in the face involved.

Back to After Effects, I used a 3D earth I created on another project and made the ball dive into it, and with a white flash brought us back into the volleyball court (I used the same flash for leaving the court and going into space).

Then I had to bring the 3D volleyball into two shots, where the girl is taking it in the face (front and back). Tracking didn’t really worked, but the shots are so fast that I realized I didn’t really need it. After that I just used masks for putting the ball behind the head of the girl, and that’s all.

However, color correcting the ball for making it look real into the video is a bit harder, but I’m sure I’ll end up with something close enough.

Next post, all will be done, and volleyball will finally be back as one of the best sport in the world. All that thanks to a ball in the face. That is the power of volleyball.

Animation

A few weeks ago, Robots were invading the Campus, and we got some nice shot of them. However, my export is having some terrible problems, and the best I can do right now is a video ponctuated by a lot of black frames, which sucks a lot. I don't have time to deal with it now (and it's already been too long, and too many problems on that project) but I'll try to fix that later. For now, enjoy:


Robot on UT Tower's stairs from Vincent Desgrippes on Vimeo.

Now a quick animation with an hand made character and skeleton. I admit that I spent most of my time on my final project (the volleyball into space) so it is a very basic animation, just to show that I can deal with it.

Meet the Headking!


Headking from Vincent Desgrippes on Vimeo.

Volleyball Final Project - Post 2 (The Return!) - Progress

A ball into space, uh? What a stupid idea! Why didn’t I chose something a bit less complicated, like… I dunno… a text into space? Oh, no, wait, I’ve already done this one… But still, this ball is killing me.

Because, first of all, I have to create that ball, that dear and sweet ball. At first I thought that I could use a texture I found on internet, and apply it to a sphere.

Fail.

The volleyball texture I found on internet. I don't want to think about what they did to that poor ball...

Then I tried to modify it, and worked harder to apply it on a sphere.

Fail.

Then I tried to follow a very non explicit tutorial to create a volleyball under Maya.

Fail. After 6 hours of work.

Then I attempted to kill myself.

Fail.

And the next day, I tried to restart to work on that ball from the beginning, knowing where I failed.

Success.

Wait… success? Really? Oh my God yes! Yes it IS a success! And look at that, if I apply a white leather texture on it, it’s just perfect! That’s crazy! I created a Volleyball! I feel like a God!

I’m really proud of that ball especially because of all the lines, who aren’t textured, but real little line on which I used the tool Bevel to create deepness (when it didn’t completely screwed it up, like the day before).

The white leather texture I applied on the ball.

The Masterpiece! Seriously, how cool is that ball?

Then I tried to import the ball into Photoshop and then After Effect and had a lot of issues with light, which Photoshop recreated. I had to create an environment of light all around the ball to erase all shadow. It worked out at the end.

Now I could start to create an environment for that ball into After Effect. Using particles, I created stars that would move toward the ball, giving an impression of speed. The ball is constantly rotating on itself, like if it was moving forward. This part worked out (with the help of Ben to master those undisciplined stars).

I then added the Death Star from Star Wars, which the ball would pass very quickly. The effect worked well, so I know I’m going to use it later on with other ships.

My next step was to create a camera, and to rotate around the ball. Success.

But when I created the smoke trail, I started to have some issues.
First of all, one of Andrew Kramer’s tutorial inspired me to create the smoke (see the tutorial on http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/smoke_trails/ ). But I had a hard time putting the smoke right in front of the camera and behind the ball. Once again, Ben rescued me.

The cloud I used to create the smoke.

Once my smoke was in position, I duplicated it, and used it to create the fire and sparkles effect. Then the main problem was that I had way too many particles, and it slowed down the project. But it looked awesome.

With the same idea, I used that footage of fire in order to create it.

Here is a little preview of the effect of the smoke, fire, and the rotation.


Preview final project FX from Vincent Desgrippes on Vimeo.

Just to let you know, it took one hour to render... that tiny little piece of footage, one hour. I don't want to think about the final export...

I realize that time passes super quickly, and that I’ll have to shoot the footage that will held the special effect. Just have to find a girl who will agree to take a fake ball on the face. Easy…

Then I’ll finish to add the few effects I have in mind, add the sound FX, and put everything inside a small editing.

But it's alright, because now I love this project.

Volleyball Final Project - Post 1 - Preproduction

Pitch:

A guy hits a volleyball so hard that it goes into another dimension, than comes back and smash a girl in the face.

Description :

I have to admit that, at first, I had no idea what to do for my final project. When I realized that it wouldn’t help to keep cursing Ben Bays in English or in French for not giving us something more specific than “do anything you want”, I started to put my ideas on the table:

I wanted to do something cool.
I wanted to do something funny.
I wanted to play volleyball.

Of course that last line was being a problem, because I really needed to find an idea. Then I thought “why not including volleyball in my project?”. Yes. That would be awesome. For me. Probably lame for others tho. Because how could I mix volleyball and special effects, with my still poor skills, and make it look cool?

But I had absolutely no other idea, so I started to seriously think about it.

Ok, it has to be funny. What is funny in volleyball? There is only one true answer: Someone taking a ball on the face.

That’s a beginning. Or, more precisely, an end. Now, what would come first?

Me (because I have to be part of it, as every good French narcissist), probably serving. After would come some cool shoots of the ball hit, with funny faces. The effect would start here.

I would use Maya for making a ball in 3D, and import it into after effects where I'll create all the other effects. We would then follow the ball through space (because it would go so fast that it would leave our dimension), now would be the time for a series of cool effects, like light speed, rotating around the ball and letting us discover for one rotation the face of Wilson from Cast away, stuffs like that.

It would also cross the way of some famous spaceships, like a Star Wars Stardestroyer, the Star Trek Enterprise, the MIR station, Tintin rocket, the ship of toy story. The ball would go so fast that it would start to burn, as in coming into the atmosphere, and create smoke. It would start to have the look of a meteorite.

It would then ends its course in the face of my opponent (a girl, because I’m a jerk) in an explosion of pain (I’m pretty sure After Effects has a lot of tools allowing us to create pain).

A final joke for ending it, a fast credit involving volleyballs, and that’s it. Also, because I still kind of feel bad to hit a girl in the face (even if it's my specialty in volleyball), the short movie will end with me taking a ball into the face, without effects. because it's always fun.

It’s maybe a bit ambitious, I don’t really now yet how I’m going to do some of those effects. I also hope that the 3D ball won’t slow after effect too much. But I think I can have a lot of fun doing it. Plus I get to look cool while hitting a ball, and that’s priceless.

Fire and Clouds

Today I decided to make a small commercial for a famous company. Why? Because my tests with the matte tool brought me to that situation.


CertenPoint Energy from Vincent Desgrippes on Vimeo.

I first used a green screen video we shoot in class. Then, with the matte tool and some cool footage, I created those both natural energy, pumping the ground. That's when I thought it look like an energy commercial.

I just needed to zoom out, and create a world. Which I did by taking a map of the world on google image, duplicated it several time, and made it rotate on itself. Then, with the CC shpere effect, I had my planet. The clouds are coming from the same process, with the effect Fractal Noise.

A few particles, a title, and the commercial was born.

"It works on steam!"

I think I just had the best assignment of my life, along with my 3D class: "Hey guys, let's build and old west town!". Useless to say that we were all very excited about it. We could choose which building we wanted to create, and I chose the locomotive, because old west locomotive are badass.

So here is the evolution of my little baby:

The New Blair Witch Project (with green screen)

They lied to us! The blair with project didn't simply used 2 cameras, but also a green screen!

The proof right here, at the end of the movie :


The Very New Blair Witch Project from Vincent Desgrippes on Vimeo.

Looks like our dear professor hided us that he also own some good actor (dancer?) skills!

A bit of 3D

Our new After Effect assignment is to create something with 3D, Camera and stuff. I'm currently working on an editing project that needs a title, So I decided to combine both projects. Here comes the results (that had to be soft, the editing project being about a WWII veteran).


Editing contest from Vincent Desgrippes on Vimeo.

With particles, it's always funnier!

But not necessarily easier. I had a real hard time finding an idea for this new assignment: create an animation that uses at least 3 types of particles. After around 756400 new compositions, I decided to inspire myself from an old Andrew Kramer's tutorial that I've seen a while ago, and from there I just added new particles, and a text blasted away. Nothing very fancy, but I admit that I spent more time on my locomotive.


The Particle Assignement from Vincent Desgrippes on Vimeo.

What about a text in space?

New After Effect assignment: creating a text.

Once again, I'll leave my favorite Star Wars universe for something different (creating the text in the beginning of Star Wars didn't seem that exiting). Instead, I played with a bit of 3D and a camera, some particles, and animated some texts. As you can see, I was very inspired about what to write.


What about a text in space? from Vincent Desgrippes on Vimeo.

I also made another text animation, even if it doesn't fulfill the assignment, but just in the idea of playing around with light. I know all of you dreamed at least once about watching a Textrise. Enjoy.


Textrise from Vincent Desgrippes on Vimeo.

Track me if you can

New after effect assignment on tracking, using mocha, specialized after affect software for tracking data.

But what to track? First attempt, a sign on the street:


Pretty Girl Ahead from Vincent Desgrippes on Vimeo.

Considered failed, it's shaking too much.

Second attempt, a construction site on campus, now finished with a french touch.


UT new building from Vincent Desgrippes on Vimeo.

Considered failed too, still shaking too much, can't get a correct track. So for the pleasure of a good track, here is a video that already exists on the blog, which also fulfilled the assignment. (PS: special effect created by following a tutorial on www.videocopilot.net)

Here comes the light!

Assignment of the week: to light our robot.

This lighting takes place during Brobot’s reign of terror. The spotlight placed in front of him is supposed to create a huge shadow, synonym of power (every powerful man stood at least once in his life in front of a camera with a huge shadow behind him, most of the time performing a demoniac laugh); while a red reflection on a close object is showing the darkness of his cybernetic rusted soul, probably possessed by Satan… or something.

Besides that, a direction light lighten the left part of the sphere in purpose of creating a soft light in the head areas that the spotlight doesn’t fill.

On the other side, Brobot_02 is clearly in the shadow of his other self, subjected to the events. The absence of light makes him look weaker, and the shadow of Brobot, present on the sphere, clearly indicates that his other self is constantly watching him.

But as you all know, Brobot_02 soon became able to confront his other self, and eventually, to have his own powerful shadow.

The Attempt of Walk

For this new After Effect assignment, I tried to keep my Star Wars theme, but encountered much bigger problems. Trying to animate an At-at just with the tool parenting can be associated to empty an ocean with a spoon, and after a few hours of frustration, I had to accept that my idea wouldn't work.

Instead, still using that idea of parenting, I realized something less cool, more stupid, but, at least, doable.


The Walk from Vincent Desgrippes on Vimeo.

Brobot, a few years later

A few years passed, and both Brotot and Brobot_02 earned a new look. Now, they look old.

I’ve added some personal texture (of wall, wood, plants…) for giving them a look more realistic. With that, I added some bump mapping and some displacement for the head and the guns, playing around. Once you figure how it works, it can go really fast.

For the record, all the textures are coming from the island of Alcatraz.

The Chase

Using what I learned on Photoshop to make the Star Wars effect on the Grand Canyon (I guess I can admit now that it was a fake), I decided to apply it for our brand new After Effect assignment, about the basis of the software.

The purpose of the assignment was to make us use After Effect's basic tools, a bit of sound, and an effect of our choice. That was enough for creating a little Star Wars chase, starring the Millennium Falcon, Tie Fighter N°47, and John Williams in guest star.


The chase from Vincent Desgrippes on Vimeo.

Oh, and it was supposed to last less than 10 seconds, but I had some issues with an annoying space warp and couldn't find a way to deal with it. So even if this video LOOKS like 15 seconds, I can assure you it's actually less than 10 (probably something like 6 or 7). Space warps suck.

Also, I don't know how long I'll be able to make Star Wars assignments, but never homework have been funnier.

The terrible story of Brobot

Brobot is born in 2087, from a Vacuum Cleaner and an abusive father. Very soon, he started to show a strong propensity for violence, due to his father issue with gasoline, which couldn’t be controlled anymore after 2093, when his mother died from asphyxiation (a rumor speaks of deliberate murder; the one foot square chewing gum she tried to clean from the ground would have been put there on purpose, maybe by her husband).

When Brobot’s father died during the terrible shutdown of 98, his uncle Francis, a respected Mixer, tried to teach him the Robotic Code of Honor. By trying to make him a better machine, his uncle started to notice Brobot’s sudden changes of behavior. He was sometimes very sweet, very robot, showing interest in repairing others, while other time he was just this war machine that even the famous robotic company Pear started to fear.

That’s where Francis realized that his nephew was becoming a schizophrenic robot.

Brobot_02, the gentle side of Brobot, was doing everything he could for repairing the damages of his other self. In 2113, he met Tania, a machinegun who convert herself into earth’s protection, and was a respected leader of Greenpeace. Brobot never accepted her, and tried several time to attempt to her consciousness. Since there, Brobot and Brobot_02 were officially in war.

Brobot would destroy everything Brotot_02 was caring about, and Brotot_02 was repairing them faster and faster. The legends says that at the end, Brobot_02 was repairing robots even before Brobot destroyed them.

It’s only in 2267 that Robota, a beautiful Drill, finally succeeded to reach Brobot’s lines of code, and convinced him to stop the war against his other self.

But Brobot’s redemption, that’s another story…

(For this Maya assignment, we were asked to create a robot using only polygons and the basic movement tools. My plan for making it was to create a head, and to see what would come next.)

When I'll be old, I'll build cities...

For my first assignment on perspectives, I decided to choose the one that looked the funnier: the 3 points perspective. But after drawing my lines, I realized it was probably also one of the hardest. There was suddenly so many lines, everywhere! Especially when I started to build my city: it just became wild.

But after a few minutes (or more probably a few hours), my futurist economic center finally started to look like something... watchable. Probably only by me.

However, after a long fight with a stubborn scanner, and a dressing under Photoshop, my buildings finally looked like actual building. Painted by a 4 years old, alright, but still, they looked cool.

Memo for the next time: drawing a box.

A few months later, adding texture to the city:

May the force of Photoshop be with you.

Here is a nice picture of myself during my winter break’s road trip in Grand Canyon:

A few days later, I heard a Star Wars event would take place in the Grand Canyon too, I was going to miss it… but as a huge fan, I decided to go back, and take the VERY SAME picture, but with the millennium falcon at the back.

 

This is so much better that way. Now some people may argue that I used Photoshop for having this result… that I actually used a mask for getting the Star Wars ships into my picture, and then added the effect “screen” to the Death Star and Star Destroyers layers for giving the impression that they are far away. They even say that I used a drop shadow for the Millennium Falcon, and a slightly motion blur for making it look more real. Finally, they add that I probably spent hours just trying to figure out what to add to that big ship for making it look even more real, but without finding a solution. But those kinds of accusations are just stupid, it was much easier to go back to the Canyon and take another picture… tsss…

Soon they will tell me that the Death Star never went at Paris for the Emperor’s holidays, that I just used a mask on the clouds… well, they weren’t there the day I took that picture too.  

 

Unfortunately, I lost the picture of myself with Darth Vader playing soccer, but I don’t desperate to find it again one day…