Company Names.

Over the summer i’ve been thinking of company names for the Final Year, weither I go freelance or be part of a team. I’ve thought of many names but I was always stuck on the second part of the name. I couldn’t decide what to call it. I had in mind to use “Compositor” or “Composits”. After a talk with Mike, he subjected that I use “Post Production” rather than “Compositor”. Solely because a Compositor only does one thing, where as Post Production does it all. So I decided on the “Post Production” as the second title.

The main name I was going back and forth with different names, I could not figure it out. But i decided on the name “Phoenix”.

The reason the name “Phoenix” is because in Post Production, you take something and make it in to something beautiful. The shot gets a new lease of life. It gets Reborn from the ashes so to speak. So from now on its

Phoenix Post Production

Spidy Animations

Following the release of The Amazing Spiderman release in cinema. The videos in the links show the time and effort taken when creating the Lizard and Spiderman

http://www.fxguide.com/featured/spider-man-the-detailed-vfx-of-spiders-and-lizards/

Tracking Test.

Testing a simple tracking shot with 2 different assets. One a train Ben made, the other is a simple nparticle system.

Changing the Plan Slightly.

Changing the plan a little bit to make it better. Instead of a ball of liquid metal. I decided to make the metal flow in to my scene. Next up is to draw up some simple storyboards to I can get on with it. Not long left. Thankfully I asked Lauren if I could use her footage..

 

nCloth Ball Test

Another Test in Maya using nCloth. This time I got some awesome results. Because it was a ball, it was filled with Air. so when the it was collided with another object, it burst like a balloon.

nCloth Tear Walkthrough.

I made a quick walkthrough on how I made the tear in the cloth. Quick and simple with no talking.. Enjoy

 

Untearable nCloth

Testing out nCloth I didnt put a tearable surface in. This was just a test to see how the nCloth would react without tearing. Some good results.

Tearing nCloth

Testing with nCloth in Maya. I started off by using a cube to tear the cloth. This looks really good and this is how I will tear my liquid metal. With just a few simple steps I teared the cloth. Its quick and simple and fast to render.

Testing nCloth

I decided to see how I would get a ball of particles to look like it’s liquid metal. I looked at nCloth as a way to control the particles in such a way that I could release them all at once. so far so good, ive made it so the ncloth reacts with the particles and makes it grow. the next step is to make the particles look like metal. I also will have to make the cloth tear when i want it to releasing the particles.

 

So far so good Video :-

Weird nPartical Problem Again

After following a tutorial step by step about pouring water using nParticals. I encored a problem, for some reason my particles emitting to much which courses the “water” to over flow from the glass. I dont know what has happened weither I missed a step but im going to go back and tweak some of the setting to make it work. So far im liking the nParticles, its a really powerful tool.

The tutorial I used was this :- http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/duncan/pouring_water_with_nparticles

 

This was my results :-

nPartical Problem

Ive been using NParticals in Maya for a few days now to make liquid metal “water”. Ive come to a problem that has happened to me before, but I assumed it was because of the playblast. When rendering and playing the nParticals. The particals after a certain time disappear. It could be one of two things. Either the computer can not handle so many polygons in one scene (which is highly unlikely) or the second option which I think is, is that the death rate is so low it doesnt have time to finish the animation.

Nuke Sadness

Bad news hit me today when I can no longer use Nuke as part of my final brief. I had a 6 month license that ran out a while ago. I am unable to re use it. The foundry has offered a price for the Full License but unfortunately I am unable to afford i it. So for now I will be using Maya, MatchMover and After Effects. It will still allow me to get the final outcome but gutted that I will not be using Nuke.

Playing with Fluids

So for my brief I decided to use different types of fluids in Maya. I had some real trouble with this, mostly because it was my first time using it. Theres a lot of different setting that are used to create the flowing water effects. If you do get some of the settings wrong, it doesn’t turn out right and looks weird.

This was my first try, I got the gravity wrong on it so the water flowed upwards.

 

 

After fixing this mistake it looked liked this.

 

 

After I fixed the Gravity I wanted to make the container bigger so the water would flow from a different hight. Unfortunatlly when doing this it stretches the fluids. To fix this I had to start over and make the container box again.

 

 

I finally fixed it and added a higher container box. I put a box around it, just to sell the effects. But I had the box floor to high and the water went threw it.

 

 

The next two videos are also failed attempts of the fluids. The box was to high again and the gravity was off so it caused the fluids to act a weird way.

 

 

And finally, I added a collision box to a cube to make the fluids flows in to an object. Again selling the effect.

 

 

Next up is to use nParticals. This is native to Maya and allows for easier manipulation of fluids and easier to render.

 

 

 

Matrix Reloaded Truck Crash Scene.

Starting at 700 days before the release of Matrix Reloaded is the truck scene. From storyboard to real life nothing changes. The amount of detail that the storyboard artist gave the VFX artist is unbelievable. The whole scene was CGI nothing was real. They used 3D matt painters for the background and 3D programs for the rest. They also incorporated Motion Capture for the Faces and body movements. The reason i looked at this was because of the flames and fluid simulation used. It looks amazing, so much detail that goes in to it, from the petrol pouring on the floor to the rivits popping out of the cab. Really amazing work. It shows you how much can be done , if you spend time on it. Would really like to be at that point some point.

 

Dynamic Fluid in Maya. (Maya Goodness)

Researching in to Maya’s Fluid Dynamics, I looked at AutoDesk’s YouTube. In this they show off the different Dynamics that are built in to Maya. Some amazing effects. I think that I could really get in to this. The tank filled with water is amazing. If i could track and comp the tank in to a live situation it would be amazing.

MatchMover Why you no work.

After spending ages tracking the points for a test. It didnt work. when trying to add the coordinate system to tell the camera where it is in the scene I get this.

I have no idea how to fix it so im on to Maya to play with Fluid dynamics until I email Matt.

The coords seem fine in the Z and X axis but theres no y to tell it where it is. I cant solve it because it stops at 66.7%

RealFlow Engine

RealFlow is a liquid simulator that allows you to create fluids on the computer. Its an amazing tool, Just like the Dynamics in Maya. Its a very complex engine. I don’t really understand how it is done but it does look really good. It is most known for its work in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo opening titles. Looks very sexy, something that im hoping to do in the near future.

Portal Live Action Short

finally get to start off the final brief of the year with something that is very close to my heart. Something that I have loved for ages. Portal and Portal 2 have been my favourite games of all time, and now they have a Short about it. Made in 2011 it shows the main character Chell escape from her cell at Apature Science Center and solve the puzzles until she is found my GlaDoS. This is an amazing short and along with it, it shows a breakdown of some of the effects used. Ive just started learning Nuke so this is perfect to reference.

I love it

Original Video

 

Breakdown

 

Twilight VFX :S

Breaking Dawn, the leastest in the Twilight Saga. Made in 2011 and directed by Bill Condon it is almost the end for the soon to be vampire couple. in this saga bella finally gets what she has always wanted and sleeps with Edward. Only to find out the next day that she is pregnant with a demon vampire child. So its a battle to save both her and her babys life. Most of the footage that I found were set replacements and environment changes. simple stuff that anyone could do, Since that the camera is moving in the shot there is some tracking that is done.

Alice in Wonderland VFX breakdown

After Watching Alice in Wonderland I decided to do some research in how it was created. Turns out that almost all of it was done on the Greenscreen. As everyone know Greenscreen is used to key the background out from the foreground. Most if not all of the Visuals in Alice in Wonderland where created by SPI and CafeFX to name a few. This is really cool stuff, not only for the perfect keying but the way the environment is layed out. I think most of it is done in a 3d program such as Maya or Cinema 4D then usually the Effects are added in with Nuke which has a basic 3D program

Here is the VFX breakdown for the Film

 

http://veevr.com/videos/4TY2tHtL

MPC Visual Breakdown XMen First Class

Looking at Visual effect Breakdowns I came across the Breakdown for X-Men First Class. From The MPC company that did Clash of The Titans and Wrath of The Titans. The Breakdown allows you to look at how its been built and composits. I need to start doing Visual Breakdowns for my Blog. Really enjoy watching them.

Death Falls Avengers Behind the Scenes

With Avengers becoming the most anticipated film of the year, I thought I would take a look at the Behind the Scenes footage and the Making of it. Some really interesting footage. Its nice to see raw footage before all the effects and colour corrections are added. This is just some scenes taken from the film. The whole behinds the scenes is 20 minutes long and for that time you do not get board at all. Even though the audio has been muted and a song has been over laid. I love seeing these types of videos as it shows the basics of a multi million dollar budget film like The Avengers. Something that doesnt get seen by such films as The Dark Knight Rises. In my opinion films should be kept top secret and no one knows anything about it. Love seeing it, cant wait for the film in 6 days.

Link to the Footage

http://www.deathfall.com/forums/content.php?8096-The-Avengers-Making-Of

Hiero

Hiero is a new software by The foundry that takes all the different elements of After Effects and Final Cut Pro and puts them in to one editing suite. I was lucky enough to be asked to join in on the beta for this amazing product. In the time that I have used it, I can say that it is worth its money. No longer do i have to render out and head over to a different program. It can all be done in one.

This is on my list of softwares to master before I finish University along side Nuke and Smoke

http://www.thefoundry.co.uk/products/hiero/

Holographic Tupac

16th April a video was released on Youtube showing Tupac singing live with Snoop Dog. Tupac, dead for 16 years now, came back from the dead as a hologram to entertain the people ar Coachella once again. The technology used to make it look like he was there was all mirrors and projectors to project him 90 degrees upright. Really cool how they did it. People are moaning about the lip sync is a big out but I didn’t notice whilst watching it.

Transformers?

Posted by chapman on our Facebook page. This is a Russian Short that tests out how an object would transform, just like in transformers. This is something that I really want to learn. It looks very hard but I know if i spent time it would come out looking half decent.

 

MineWays and Maya

MineWays is a 3d Render for Minecraft, that allows you to download you world in to Maya or any 3d Program that accepts .obj. The main purpose of this was to be used as a 3D printer program. This can be used to create a 3d Minecraft short. Some pertentioal that will defiantly pay off for Ben and I server.

 

Summer Project

I dont know whether we are keeping it a secret but Me, Loz and Andy are doing a summer project to keep us busy over the summer. We dont know what we are doing yet but we do know its going to be a mixture of CGI and real live. We are trying to make it industry and seamless. It should be fun to do this because we all know that Loz, Andy and i are hard workers and are good at what we do. So if we put our minds together we should be able to make something awesome. We have picked out some good shorts to use and I think that once we get the moodboards together and the storyboards together, we should have something good on our hands. Loz has planned to turn her living room in to a work and render farm over the summer. Cant Wait.

Some videos we are thinking of.

Ask and you Shall Receive

Companies are awesome. companies are really helpful with students that ask for things. Ive asked many different companies about software of products that I could use in different films. Ive asked The Foundry if i could have a license for Nuke. They where very very helpful with me and allowed me a license to use there product for free. The only think in return that I had to do was to send them anything I do in Nuke, a reasonable request. In the Second year more for the upcoming module I decided to contact several companies asking for film locations and equipment. So far Ive contacted Paintball UK, Delta Force and GoPro International. The first two for my props and location and the final one for the camera as I dont want to get expensive cameras ruined. Ive have heard back from two of the three companies and they are trying their hardest to send me some equipment over. As always in return I have promised to give them credit in the film and possibly do a behind the scenes. We shall see. This is a good thing that many people can do as it not only helps you shoot films but it also give you relationships between different companies, a good asset.

Final Project

So Ive submitted my Statment of Intent and im waiting for it to come back with ideas and tweaks. Its basically looking at an industry way of doing VFX. I want to walk away from After Effects and start looking at different VFX programs like Nuke and Smoke. More on the Nuke side as I think it is the more powerful tool. Using this and 3d programs such as Maya I will be making a 1 minute short showing the different aspect. I will also be looking at the different fluid dynamics in Maya as well as looking at Real Flow. This is going to be good project. I just have to make sure that i include paperwork. Im putting this in Creative Industry just because im taking about the module before its started and im looking into different companies

Sound Awesomeness

For the sound for my minute short I mostly used the Sound Design FX by Video Copilot. Some really good sounds in the pack. I used most of them but sourced the Camera Clicking sound. This not only sounded cool but it added a depth of sound that was missing from the final edit. All in all im really happy with the results.