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The CGI and VFX thread!
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  • gregogrego
    @max

    Nice tracking and rendering. I am going to have to try voodoo
  • bwhitzbwhitz
    Yea there is some great stuff here! Loved the Chorebot short! Awesome lighting work... The CGI blend was very convincing!

    @Rerbreg

    Nice model! Do the feathers take long to render? And are you using dynamics for them in animation?
  • RerbregRerbreg
    No, not a long time, yep, there are dynamics, in feathers
  • otcxotcx
    @grego

    Your post just answered why this kind of testing is necessary. In post point of view. There is lot of things that
    are werry important in footage. My self have found that gh2 footage just works for example in rotoscoping much better than canon do. And that is thanks to hack.
  • PsycoPsyco
    Not exactly related to GH1..2..3, but so much fun to watch is the Youtube channel of Freddie Wong:
    http://www.youtube.com/user/freddiew

    He is doing a lot of nice SFX and "amateur" shooting. There are also a lot of "behind the scenes" videos. My favourites are:
    1)

    Boring...? No, watch 1:50 - best effects don't stick out and come when you don't expect them;-)

    2)

    George L. should watch that!

    3)

    Small effects just as eye candy.

    Back to topic:


    (I would give this guy a Hollywood budget.)
  • bwhitzbwhitz
    Oh man! Epic Meal Time is my favorite!!!

    Freddy is good to... he just needs a DP...

  • otcxotcx


    Just quick test. Drive without rails. Still pictures, 3D comp in Fusion. Test for upcomming project.

    Pass: GH2
  • bertbert
    This is a nice thread to find after hours of learning/trying/dealing with all the video tech stuff that's quitte new to me...I bought a gh2 today...exactly for what's shown here .. (untill now I have been doing a lot of product-viz in Modo (stills) but just started on my first trackings and its inspiring to see what can be done!
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

  • CRFilmsCRFilms

  • ClermondClermond

    @grego awsome! great job!

  • itimjimitimjim

    So, with Maya, 3DS Max and Cinema 4D having price entry points of around £3,500....apart from those using it professionally, how does a regular 'joe' go about learning and using for non-profit work? Or, are there alternatives? Or, just forget it! :-)

  • JiveJive

    @itimjim Blender ( http://www.blender.org/ ) is a great 3D app to get started with & it's free/open-source.

  • bwhitzbwhitz

    @itimjim

    http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?siteID=123112&id=17355061

    I did that this Maya... it's a pretty sweet deal they've got.

    And for Cinema 4D, my personal favorite, I still have my student license from in college. But I do want the new R13... so I may have to find a client to buy it for me or something...

  • bwhitzbwhitz

    First compositing test with an earlier model...

    -Cinema 4d -After Effects -The Foundry Camera Tracker

  • RerbregRerbreg

    Cool!

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

  • tedted

    bwhitz,

    That's a cool model. Nicely done. I've worked on a number of projects over the years, such as Independence Day, Dr. Dolittle, and a bunch of Star Trek work. One of the tricks we used to get CG to blend in with live action was to add a diffuse glow around the edges. Not just a soft blur, but actually creating a diffuse glow that would bleed into the CG, like natural light does around objects, particularly in daylight.

    C4D is a great package. We did most of our work at VisionArt in Houdini (and its predacesor, Prisms), but I've become a fan of C4D for a number of reasons, including it's ability to work well with very large models, much larger than Maya will handle. Once I started working with C4D I was pretty impressed, enough so that I hired a programmer in Germany to write a RenderMan interface for it, and then we sold it back to Maxon. They're a great company to work with. Nice folks.

    Anyway, try throwing a diffuse glow on there, as well as some motion-blur, and playin with the values until it starts to meld into the live action around it. You've definatley got a great eye for ship design!

    All the best,

    Ted Fay

  • nomadnomad

    This trick is called "Light Wrap" and there are quite a few tutorials on the web.

  • otcxotcx

    bwhitz@

    Nice. Maby a bit dust/smoke under spacecraft. And a bit motionblur, to blend craft better to background. Just keep on doing.

  • A_Boy_Named_SooA_Boy_Named_Soo

    @grego

    Great short. Loved it.

  • bwhitzbwhitz

    @ted

    Hey, thanks for the feedback! Those are some great tips! The natural light look is exactly the thing that's been bugging me about my models on live-action footage. I've been working the last few months trying to get a more natural look and that diffuse glow sounds like just the trick!

    ... and yea, motion blur... C4D's motion blur is just too slow to render, even when rendered with a few machines. Are their any third party applications that would work?

    @otcx Yea, it definitely needs some dust/debris. I knew it was going to need this before I even started. This test was mostly just see how well Camera Tracker data works with C4D and if it translated properly. Which it does... and very well. Now I can start planning some more complicated shots since I've got the basics down of how the programs are working with each other.

    Thanks again for the feedback!

  • MeierhansMeierhans

    Check out Reelsmart motion blur. If you feed it with a layer that contains the aircraft only it will render very nice blur without artefacts. In case you shot your background with short shutter for better tracking you can also use it on this layer. Values between 0.3 to 0.5 work nice.

  • bwhitzbwhitz

    @Meierhans

    Awesome... thanks!

  • pinger007pinger007

    I'm trying to perform 3d camera tracking with GH2 footage in Syntheyes. For the back plate settings, should I use the full GH2 sensor size of 17.3x13.0mm, or should it be something different since we're shooting 1920x1080?

    Would this number change if I'm shooting in ETC mode?

    Thanks.

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