ABANDONED -- animation uploaded --

First topic message reminder :

Hi guys, Here is my first post for this year 2009. some quality loss due to image compression. Done in 3 weeks of spare time. Ill upload the animation soon. textures are procedural and some are unwrapped painted. Used couple of displacements on the scene.Done in 3dmax, vray and PS on final touches.Just check the high resolution images for a more uncompressed quality. Hope you guys will like it







Here are the links of the higher resolution images:
http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/760/kubosign1600kn8.jpg
http://img150.imageshack.us/my.php?image=shantiwide1600nt1.jpg
http://img150.imageshack.us/my.php?image=kunoday1600nh4.jpg

here is the short animation of this project
done in 3d max vray and AE

abandoned short animation

[url]http://www.vimeo.com/4010545

I now have 2 idols in here! Great work bro!

ryancoy wrote:thanks for the comments

@ vertex wrangler

*thanks for pointing out some things on the scene. Apart from time that i spent on this (roughly less than a month and roughly less than 2 weeks on spare time just to test some effects) i know i had lot to consider since vfx is a whole new world for me. First, the camera was rigged manually in 3dmax since i dont have any available video cam corder to do such camera tracking i know there are couple of important points that needed to be fixed. It was actually multiple helpers with different attributes one of them was having a noise movement and others were manually keyframed then linked back to the original cam.So along the process i know its not that perfect, but still had to give the process a try.

I can't see the cam rig so I don't know how to answer but the way I'd do it is to create a null helper below the camera and link the target here as well.

Whenever I use procedural controllers I add them via a list controller - that way I can still control them by hand (using whatever transform controller I use, bezier, etc)

Hope this helps.

v_wrangler wrote:I know you aren't asking for comments but here's something to consider just in case you are thinking of doing part 2.


1. The tip of the asteroid (the bright white) is too concentrated, try to shorten it a bit or allow it to fade a long the trail

2. Add more length to the rear smoke trail and let the density fade out.

3. You might want to add a bright attenuated light on the tip of the asteroid - burning hot objects tend to produce illumination around its immediate surroundings.

3. Since its is hot and burning - you might want to add heat waves - you can do this by using a simple particle point render as a displacement map in after effects.

4. rather than use a 4 point filter (cross filter) a bright anamorphic flare might make this look much better.

5. fume details quite large - this makes the scene look like miniature.

6. Last scene, If the wind blows the bits to the left - then I'd expect the fire to lean on the same direction. Add bits of orangey self illuminated particle dots to simulate the firey bits you'd see when burning wood or combustibles.

got to go,

@the vertex wrangler: Oh my..what are those technical jargon(4 point filter,anamorphic flare, particle point render)?..i need to know those..hihihi...thanks for sharing your insight, not only am i amazed with the work, now it gives me ideas, that i can use someday, if ever i get the chance to try these vfx things.

@sir ryancoy: Great job...nothing much to comment, since I literally have no idea how you do these stuff. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Hello Arkiemund - apologies I sometimes get carried away! :-)

Anamorphic lens flare

The four point (star) filter ryan used when the asteroid was about to hit the ground

The particle point render is not really a cg jargon - I am referring to a simple particle render in grayscale - it is a rendering of an animated particle. The color or shape isn't really that important. The only thing necessary is that there should be visible movement like it is being dispersed from the asteriod. something like this
(nevermind the colors above!)

This is commonly used to create 2D displacements in post (AF) to drive the pixels of the target layers (rendering) a few pixels to the right or left. The resulting distortion will be similar to the exhaust or heat waves you see from hot sources like burners, rockets etc. I know the subject is an asteroid - but the idea is something similar to this

While this can be achieved in one pass in 3d (using refractive particles) , it is easier to control in post. Hence my suggestions.

@the vertex wrangler....

Wow! wow! wow!...
Get me a notebook, kidding aside...these are so very informative...I'll be going back to this post every often, and try to research on all those terms you mentioned sir.

But first, I got to learn the basics...

Thanks a ton sir...

@sir ryancoy: care to share your workflow on the animation of this project? that will surely help us, specially new ones like me...

Galing nman ng discussion ng thread na to!! I am just observing and I am really learning a lot... just go on mga sir..

@ vertex wrangler.

* i used helpers and yes linked it back to my original cam as what ive stated on my last reply. And yes you are right about the star or 4 point flare i used. its via trapcode starglow.
* and yes i used noise controller to the helpers via the list of controllers under motion tab.
* i manually keyframed one of the helper which will give another motion thats non destructive to the noise helper. And yes bezier
gives a smooth transition key and fully customizable (xy curve) rather than the smooth preset itself.
*and yes you are right about the displacement in after effects which i actually encountered on one of tutorial on particles and AE long time ago and just havent incorporated here.

Thanks again for your comments vertex. Very much appreciated.

@arkiedmund.

I will find time to make a simple process of the whole animation which much of it was really compositing and rendering separate elements and tweaking colors and levels and curves to make the whole composite convincing.

thanks again for visiting this thread

Ryancoy

Looking forward to the tuts ryan!

Amazing Ryan! your path reminds me of my buddy Joe, he started in Design Viz many years ago, got into VFX...and now he's directing the remake of Tron! Keep it up!

this is quite impressive sir ryan. somehow it reminds me of fallout 3 the pc game.

as for my comments. the asteroid explosion, smoke trails and the burning fire effect could use some more polishing. As what sir V said, I also didn't notice any of the surrounding objects get illuminated when the asteroid came close to impact. I would've also expected a larger camera shake upon impact.

about the camera, i think a multiplier curve on the noise position controller list would be easier to animate. this is the same technique that tyson ibele uses on almost all his animations. here is the tutorial thread from his forum. Camera Shake

looking forward to your tutorials also sir. I know I can learn a lot from your workflow.

wow... gleng mo sir

To be honest I always take a safe approach whenever I'd do shakes or anything thats by-product of impact or explosions. Safe I mean doing it in post. Not that doing　it in 3d is bad but it leaves a margin of error specially if you are working for a director who can't make up his mind. There goes the wiggler in AF.

The procedure mentioned by rockgem is fine remember that there's always a million ways to do the same thing in max. My way would be to fine tune it via the noise controllers itself using the ramps to control when they should start or fade out. Also, using the dopesheet you can always control the length of the effect by sliding the animation ranges.

If you need to lessen the percentage of the effect compared to the other controllers in the list, you can always dial in a lower value from the default 100 multiplier.

The multiplier curve is of course fine to use - I am just a lazy guy I don't want my tracks piling up and messy.