Day23: Light up the sky

04-10-11

Test renders:

Had a review session with James, He was saying I could try adding more bones so that the bend would be smoother.

He also mentioned that motion blur, in his production experiences usually are rendered with the software package. Not saying that people doesn't add motion blur in post but rendering in the 3D package is common especially for mantra.

He also suggested that we should revise our schedule. It's good to see where we are at now and compare to what we wanna achieve. It's always better to have an end product vs one good solution.

Day22: Cool-ops

03-10-11

Today did RnD on HDRI workflow
Unfortunately all test renders are gone except this.

Did a little research on wedge node in the output context.
wedge allows multiple renders with vary settings on the specified parameter.

Weekends05: Pico Festival?

02-10-11

reserved

Day21: The light is my strength

30-09-11

Some reference images for the looks that I'm going for...

tbu...
Cool Link:
http://forums.odforce.net/index.php?/topic/10065-krakatoa-shader/
http://forums.odforce.net/index.php?/topic/11307-some-particles-tests/page__hl__%20%20krakatoa__fromsearch__1

Day20: Yes Milord?

29-09-11

Follow up after I got the animation test done.
This time round to test my shader.
Just to check if the shader would break or not during animation.

Details on the shader is loss while doing far shots.

Close up looks fine tho...

Tested the technique out

There is twisting problems and shoelace was too short.

After increasing the length of the shoelace, I got inter penetration problem, geometry twisting problem, the shape loses details hence unable to form the shape properly.

Cool Link
http://vimeo.com/14955603
http://www.gcstar.org/index.en.php
http://houdb.t-vm.fr/?collec=0&model=list&filter=none&sort=idASC&p=2
http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1050&Itemid=216

Day19: Work work...

28-09-11

Did a lighting tutorial.

• The usage of shadow mask, similar to light linking technique.
• A really good expression to note is * ^node_name, this expression will exclude only the node that is specified.
• For the sun light, using a distant light is good and usage of shadows depends on the scene. Usually the depth map will work fine unless you want softer shadows.
• For sky light, either area light or environment light.
• Tweaking depth map. Increase resolution, shadow quality, pixel samples and tweak bias if you have to. A very small bias will help fix light leaks for interior lighting.
• Fake bounce light with multiple spotlights. Low cone angle with a high cone delta.

After countless attempts at James approach, finally somehow I got it to work with my shoelace.

The problem I see now is the animation's speed, it have this auto slow down when it's moving on the curve. Kinda nice but it's unintentional.

During the curve part the geometry sort of give away the polygon sharp edge look. Probably adding more bones would fix it.

Day18: DreamWorks Animation tour

27-09-11

Today we went over to DreamWorks Animation studio
http://www.dreamworksanimation.com/

It's a huge place, lot's of people.
They even have their own Doctor and Nurses, so when you're sick you don't need to take a day off to see the doctor. Employees are even allow to bring their sick children there.

Their goal is to make their employees feel at home, the place is really awesome and equipped with loads of things like motion capture studio, audio studio etc

They feed their employees lunch as well. They have this cool place which is like a eat all you want place. But they do have operating hours tho.

Anyway back to project.

Today had a little review session with Ari, showed him my progress. I talked about the shoelace shader, the animation, the problems etc.

Worked on my pre-viz
No videos yet but coming soon.
For now just a few stills.

Might change to adding more shoelaces...

Cool Link:
http://forums.odforce.net/index.php?/topic/10928-hair-system/