I just realized I haven't posted my demo reel yet, after all those months. Anyway, it's mostly stuff I've already posted on the blog, but with a cool music.
9/27/12
4/24/12
It's raining today, let's create some sunny landscapes
In a past article (Realflow related) I talked about the project I was working on with Ben Bays, Space Station Caveman. For this project, I have to create two shots: a tower falling from the sky and splashing into the ocean, and a spaceship under water taking off.
I soon realized that modeling and animating wouldn't be enough: I needed a landscape. That's how I started to train myself to the software Eon Vue. A really cool software. In a few hours, I was able to create awesome landscapes. Here come some of my creations:
The past two models are for the spaceship taking off. The next one is for the tower falling.
And finally, this one was created watching a tutorial, minus the 3D Island part.
I soon realized that modeling and animating wouldn't be enough: I needed a landscape. That's how I started to train myself to the software Eon Vue. A really cool software. In a few hours, I was able to create awesome landscapes. Here come some of my creations:
The past two models are for the spaceship taking off. The next one is for the tower falling.
And finally, this one was created watching a tutorial, minus the 3D Island part.
I made fire!
Like Robinson Crusoe or Tom Hanks in their respective islands, I've decided to create fire (and it fits to my work, with the whole 3D Island thing: one day or another, every Island needs a fire .)
Anyway, following tutorials I came up with two results.
The first is just a flame. I didn't use mental ray to render it, but it looks cool anyway.
The second one is much more awesome, and more oily like fire. I particularly enjoy the smoke.
I've used the same process to create the smoke coming out of the canons in the Pirate video, except that the lighting isn't the same.
The second one is much more awesome, and more oily like fire. I particularly enjoy the smoke.
I've used the same process to create the smoke coming out of the canons in the Pirate video, except that the lighting isn't the same.
Realflow, or how to get closer to my Boat
Yesterday, my dad bought a boat. A tiny one, to go fishing on the river next to our house, the Seine (in France). I was happy for him, and then he told me: "Just saying, but it seems I got my boat before you."
Enjoy it, father, enjoy it... because one day, I'll get a Battleship! By the way, have you seen the movie? I did, and I loved it. I'm pretty sure they used Realflow in it (see how I'm coming back to the subject? subtle and all...)
Anyway, for a few months I've tried to learn the software Realflow. My friend and former Professor Ben Bays gave me the opportunity to make a few VFX shots in his soon to come fake trailer Space Station Caveman. The trailer is just an excuse to throw a bunch of awesome VFX ideas in one minute. Plus he gets to play a caveman, which is pretty cool considering his awesome beard and hairs.
In some of the trailer shots, there is supposed to be water involved, and I was given those shots. I've never made anything with water before (the sea in the pirate project is just Maya ocean), so it was a good opportunities to learn about it. After a few tries with Maya, I realized it wouldn't work. I needed a software dedicated to water simulations. That's how I discovered Realflow. My first try with it was a liquid title splashing to the ground. I was pretty happy with the result, even if the render time sucked (everything with a watery shader takes forever to render...).
Then, following a tutorial, I covered a title with cream.
After that, I tried a more viscous version of the same effect. However, my substeps were not high enough, and unfortunately some particles are flying in the scene. But I like the viscous part.
It was time to come back to water, with the classic "water poured into a glass" video. Again, something went wrong, and the water doesn't fill as fast as it should. Probably an internal or external pressure issue.
And finally, the even more classic glass of wine falling to the ground. I've used DMM for breaking the glass, and I think it's slowed down the simulation. It took several days to simulate, mesh and render it, all that to realize that there was a problem with the liquid simulation, which was meshed into too tiny pieces. But I like the video anyway.
The next Realflow videos I'll be posting will be the ones from Space Station Caveman project. It should be a tower falling from the sky and splashing into the ocean, and a spaceship under water taking off. I really hope they will look cool enough, because I'm running into so many problems right now that I can't be sure of anything anymore.
Anyway, for a few months I've tried to learn the software Realflow. My friend and former Professor Ben Bays gave me the opportunity to make a few VFX shots in his soon to come fake trailer Space Station Caveman. The trailer is just an excuse to throw a bunch of awesome VFX ideas in one minute. Plus he gets to play a caveman, which is pretty cool considering his awesome beard and hairs.
In some of the trailer shots, there is supposed to be water involved, and I was given those shots. I've never made anything with water before (the sea in the pirate project is just Maya ocean), so it was a good opportunities to learn about it. After a few tries with Maya, I realized it wouldn't work. I needed a software dedicated to water simulations. That's how I discovered Realflow. My first try with it was a liquid title splashing to the ground. I was pretty happy with the result, even if the render time sucked (everything with a watery shader takes forever to render...).
Then, following a tutorial, I covered a title with cream.
After that, I tried a more viscous version of the same effect. However, my substeps were not high enough, and unfortunately some particles are flying in the scene. But I like the viscous part.
It was time to come back to water, with the classic "water poured into a glass" video. Again, something went wrong, and the water doesn't fill as fast as it should. Probably an internal or external pressure issue.
And finally, the even more classic glass of wine falling to the ground. I've used DMM for breaking the glass, and I think it's slowed down the simulation. It took several days to simulate, mesh and render it, all that to realize that there was a problem with the liquid simulation, which was meshed into too tiny pieces. But I like the video anyway.
The next Realflow videos I'll be posting will be the ones from Space Station Caveman project. It should be a tower falling from the sky and splashing into the ocean, and a spaceship under water taking off. I really hope they will look cool enough, because I'm running into so many problems right now that I can't be sure of anything anymore.
DMM, the plugin of happiness
Since I started to model stuff in Maya, there was always this little dream in the corner of my mind, this crazy hope that, one day, I'll be good enough to model awesome stuff, and the next minute shatter it all to pieces!
It took me a few months to get there, but today I can proudly say that I know how to destroy things in Maya.
My first try at it was with the DMM plugin of Maya created by Pixelux, in the Pirate project (see previous post), but the plugin limit didn't allowed me to make my destruction look as awesome as I wanted to. However, the render at 300fps of the mast breaking gave me a nice slow motion which created some coolness in the scene anyway.
Then, after watching a tutorial online, I learned how to destroy a piece of glass thanks to nCloth (by using some rigid settings). Unfortunately, lots of bugs into the scene prevented me to render a good final version. All I can present now is the second half of a bullet shattering a wall of glass.
After that, and after seeing lots of awesome videos made with the purchased version of DMM, I decided to save some money and buy it. And then, my life became as awesome as I expected. I was able to break things into tiny tiny pieces, and I loved it. My first video was just a test of how tiny those pieces could be, and as you can see... well, the result was tiny tiny.
However, pretty long render time (light and glass and tiny pieces aren't very good friends). Then I finally made the video that I wanted to make for months: a bullet hitting a glass. But with a slight change in the result.
I had a hard time making the bullet hit the glass in a correct way (strange, I know), so I decided to change the gravity and set it left to right, so technically, the bullet is "falling" on the glass. Really simplified things there. After that I tried to think about some of the best way to shatter a wooden crate, and came up with some interesting results. I played with the Glue setting of DMM, which worked perfectly.
I'm now thinking about destroying a title for my next project. Titles destroyed are always cool
My first try at it was with the DMM plugin of Maya created by Pixelux, in the Pirate project (see previous post), but the plugin limit didn't allowed me to make my destruction look as awesome as I wanted to. However, the render at 300fps of the mast breaking gave me a nice slow motion which created some coolness in the scene anyway.
Then, after watching a tutorial online, I learned how to destroy a piece of glass thanks to nCloth (by using some rigid settings). Unfortunately, lots of bugs into the scene prevented me to render a good final version. All I can present now is the second half of a bullet shattering a wall of glass.
After that, and after seeing lots of awesome videos made with the purchased version of DMM, I decided to save some money and buy it. And then, my life became as awesome as I expected. I was able to break things into tiny tiny pieces, and I loved it. My first video was just a test of how tiny those pieces could be, and as you can see... well, the result was tiny tiny.
However, pretty long render time (light and glass and tiny pieces aren't very good friends). Then I finally made the video that I wanted to make for months: a bullet hitting a glass. But with a slight change in the result.
I had a hard time making the bullet hit the glass in a correct way (strange, I know), so I decided to change the gravity and set it left to right, so technically, the bullet is "falling" on the glass. Really simplified things there. After that I tried to think about some of the best way to shatter a wooden crate, and came up with some interesting results. I played with the Glue setting of DMM, which worked perfectly.
I'm now thinking about destroying a title for my next project. Titles destroyed are always cool
12/8/11
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.
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