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cfree68f

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Posts posted by cfree68f

    my new desktop...

    in Work In Progress / Sweatbox

    Posted

    Thanks for the programs guys.. They'll come in real handy!!!

     

    and heres some More Ambient Occlusion (and some Compositing) goodness!.. Man you've got to love that hair in GI.

     

    [attachmentid=15419]

     

    [attachmentid=15420]

     

    C

     

    and a wire for the spline nuts....

     

    [attachmentid=15421]

     

     

    If it were'nt for all the cool new features in 13.. I'd be done rigging and texturing this guy by now.

     

    C

    my new desktop...

    in Work In Progress / Sweatbox

    Posted

    How do you place the wireframe over a final render like that? It's a very cool look.

     

    Its just a little tricky, but here goes. First... Turn off all of your lights in the choreography. If you have any ambience turned up on groups in your model.. you'll want to turn that down to (or maybe not ;-).

     

    Turn off the video safe area on your camera and set the camera background to black.

     

    Then Select the model you want to render in the Chor (for some reason I can't get a wireframe to render if I don't have the model selected).

     

    With the model selected, render the image out with shaded wireframe turned on and Multipass set to 16. Thats it. You'll get an all black image with a white wireframe. Then I just composite that in photoshop.

     

    how do you obtain that GI effect?

     

    Its in version 13. Again its a little tricky.. Yves has an excellent tutorial on the subject, but I do a few things different.

     

    The first thing I do is create a group of the whole model and set all of its surface properties to the default. That keeps my colored groups from showing up and its an easy way to turn stuff off. If you want your colors back.. just move the all group to the top of the group list and the colors will come back (or delete it, but why do that when you might want it back later).

     

    Then in the Chor settings you can turn on all the settings you'll need for global ambience, per Yves tutorial. I don't use the Ambient shader in the render settings, since my group colors are set already and I find the ambient shader harder to control.

     

    You're using a Ambiant Occlusion technique that I wanted to document in a short tutorial. That is: placing occluders to mask ambiant occlusion and thus control the light and shadow directions. In your case I can see that you placed an occluder to the right which produces a darker shading on the right of your character. I thought I'd take this opportunity to mention this technique.

     

    Bingo ;-) You caught me. Its an excellent way to create lighting variation on the model, but a little hard to control. I find the overall GI without occluders is too light and even. This way you get nice shadows. I discovered it playing around with turning the floor's casting occlusion on and off.

     

    This image (which is actually cropped) was rendered out at 3200x2400 and took 2 hours or so to render at 16 passes and the ambient sampling up at 30. I also set the Ambient Occlusion amount in the Chor settings up to 150 which caused and interesting linear striation on the model (I kinda liked it, but I can see where others might not)

     

    NeatImage could easily take out the noise, but I liked it.

     

    How do you get the desktop to accept one image for dual monitors?

     

    Its a setting on the Nvidia drivers. I have one giant desktop that is 2560x1024. Then I just set my desktop to an image that size.

     

    C

    Whimsical smoke?

    in TWO Effects

    Posted

    1. The sprites themselves would have to be multi-frame animations.

     

    Oddly.. they are. but its not showing for some reason. Basically its the spiral drawing and spiraling. I'll have to test it more. I agree with the rest as well. Its just a few minutes of playing that I put into it to see how it would go.

     

    For it to really work.. We'd have to get the particle engine fixed (per my previous post) but NO ONE who could actually make those fixes seems to have had any input into that post so I doubt it will happen :angry:

     

    cest la vi.. the particles will have to be what they are.

     

    C

    Sully

    in Work In Progress / Sweatbox

    Posted

    I couldnt play the video.. didnt have the codec and said the quicktime server didnt either ???

     

    but to answer your question about the Ambient Occlusion. Yes I've seen it in almost every render I've done with it. I'm not sure what causes it either.. seems to be related to hooks maybe ?

     

    C

    chor management (help Al!!!)

    in TWO: General Discussion

    Posted

    The real advantage of having one chor per camera/ one lighting rig per camera is to be able to light each angle precisely the way you want it. After all that is what happens in Hollywood. They don't light the whole room and just go and shoot all their angles. They re-light every time an angle changes (otherwise we'd know just how ugly the actors really are).

     

    Anyway.. you could just have a light rig per camera, but that would get unwieldy with many angles in a scene.

    I'm not saying I am for having multiple Choreagraphies, but I am definately for having different lighting for each camera angle.

     

    My TWO-cents ... I'm guessing this is Why Bob wanted one Chor for each camera.

     

    C

    Pyro spriticles

    in Classic Threads

    Posted

    If you bring-up the TIMELINE panel, and set it to channels mode, It will allow you to show % when setting color properties for the sprite[set color to "Over Life"]. Similar to how you set hair properties along the length %. If that isn't working, It may need to go to A:M reports.

    Similarly, I avoid the "popping" issue withe the sprite appearing and dissappearing by setting transparency keyframes over life. 100% at birth--fade up to 0% transparency at 5-10% of life and fade them out the same way.

     

    Yeah I tried that but the percentages didnt show up in Version 11.. I'll try it it 12 and 13 and report it if its not working right.

     

    I am fading it as you say in the beginning and end as well as scaling it up and down.

     

    Thanks,

     

    C

    Pyro spriticles

    in Classic Threads

    Posted

    So Im guessing Im asking ,how far can one push it with the way spriticles are now? how worried should one be about render times?

     

    We can still push allot, but it means a few things. It will take allot of "tricks" to fix these things, and the end result might not be as good as we'd like.

     

    Render times can be worked around. We could separate the renders into a particle Pass and composite the particles back into the scene in post (Something we might do anyway in some shots), but those introduce other issues that we'd have to work around.

     

    All of the things mentioned above have more to do with the quality and speed of Producing an effect versus, Its "this way or no way". With a few more things to pin the above fire into a scene and some lighting to make it believable.. it could be very realistic in short cuts or perhaps even longer scenes. I think with a few tweaks to the engine though... It can be brought to a level acceptable for "Cinematic" effects.

     

    The thing I liked about Shrek, is that the characters seemed more animated, because they where stylistic, which allowed for more expressive animation, but the effects and scenery where very realistic which made the characters more believable.

     

    This discussion is completely open to dissenting opinions, and I'd like to air it all out here in order to come to a consensus... So fire away ;-)

     

    C

     

    C

    Pyro spriticles

    in Classic Threads

    Posted

    Ok.. I've been playing at trying to make some more realistic fire with the particle systems. After a few days of studying, I got some ideas and came up with this.

     

    http://www.colins-loft.net/free/examples/s...tCompressed.mov

     

    sorry for the large file size, but I wanted to discuss the details, so I had to compress a little less than I might normally.

     

    So after creating this and studying the effect.. I find several things that could be improved in the sprite particle system. Heres the list. I'm not demanding these of course.. just suggestions to blow the top off of the effects.

    1. It would be nice to be able to randomly start at different spots in the animation.. on animated particles. This would go a long way toward getting rid of some of the repetition in the effects. You can see a definite pattern in the fire above. This is do in part to the animated sprite always being on the same frame.
       
    2. It would be nice to be able to have a sprite be able to be randomly flipped at its birth so that you could get more variation in shape without having to create two emitters.
       
    3. It would be nice if you could control the color of a sprite over its life by using a gradient, similar to the random color gradient, but allowing the sprite to begin its color at the left of the gradient and smoothly transition toward the end of the gradient over its life. This is similar to many other particle systems out there and would allow for more fine control I think.
       
      A side note on this one.. it should be able to control the particle color over time as it is now.. but I can't seem to get it to work. Any suggestions?
       
    4. It would be nice if there where a few more options for the rendering of the particles. ie... Only on the last pass of a Multipass render, allow for particle variation or "Jitter" in a multipass render, etc. I know those two are mutually exclusive, but what I'm saying is that "better" effects could be achieved if we had this
      sort of fine control.
       
      The example above took 10 hours to render on a "normal" render without multipass. Not to bad considering, but imagine the render times with a full scene and multiple particle effects. With the ability to just render particles in the last pass and not be forced to anti-alias them when they don't really need it, the render times could go down dramatically with no loss in quality. The sprites themselves are antialiased and render fine without needing a second pass at AA most of the time.
       
    5. There seems to be some sort of cyclic pattern to the birth of particles. You can see this in the left to right emission and death of the sprites in the fire above. I couldn't find a way to control this or "tone" it down. It would be nice to be able to randomize it more, though this "effect" has its uses as well, so I'm not asking to lose it... just to have another option for the emitting pattern.
       
    6. Now I'm getting picky... It would be nice to have more options for layering particles, beside Add and normal. I can imagine some interesting effects that could result from Overlay, Multiply, Invert, etc. On top of this.. Something that would greatly improve Fire simulations is the ability to subtract One sprite from another, ie ... sprite layering order. This would allow for more variation and a more organic shape to multi-sprite systems.

    I think that the additions mentioned above would allow for a system that could do just about any type of pyroclastic or particle effect. Does anybody else have other notions for improving the sprite emitters or particles in general.

     

    So I know this is the "stability edition".. and believe me I'm all for that, but its also the TWO edition, and these improvements would make the particle systems, exponentially better, and therefore the effects in TWO.

     

    comments? Suggestions?

     

    C

    Naked Demons from HELL!!!

    in Work In Progress / Sweatbox

    Posted

    fixed the hair on the legs to not show through to the skin.

     

    [attachmentid=15138]

     

     

    I would like to know how can you do, that hair is short at the begin of chest, as in the middle of chest?

     

    Sharky.. its pretty easy.. heres a tutorial I wrote a while back on the subject.

     

    http://www.colins-loft.net/hairbrush.html

     

    How about making his lower leg just above the hoof

    have move of a "wrist" or "heel" type bone.

     

    I may look into that, but since the leg is so covered with hair.. not sure if its needed. Thanks for the input though.

     

    C

    I'm in :)

    in TWO Effects

    Posted

    Alright Aaver,

     

    I'll give you some input if thats cool.

     

    The Tornado/wirlwind effect is a good start, but perhaps we'll want levels of violence to it. I think the concept is good, but I'd like to see layers of wirling. ie.. a layer on the inside spinning the fastest.. another just outside spinning less fast and another more transparent layer spinning less around that... Then another layer with debris getting wiped around the funnel. At the base perhaps some dust and stuff getting kicked up off the ground.

     

    Oh yeah and a cow swirling around in it ;-P.. just kidding about the cow.

     

    The Loon inflating should be easy enough, I think. You might explore distortion cages and a pose slider. Perhaps separating the arms, legs, body and head.. as points of inflation.. could make for some cool popping action to the inflation, like a performed balloon. I like where its all going so far.

     

    The water bucket.. is spot on, excellent. My only nitpick is that maybe the surface of the water could be more choppy and less symmetrical.. Something that should be easy enough with the new displacement.

     

    Excellent stuff. I'll play around with these as well and see what pops out. Don't worry.. I won't duplicate your effort. I'm thinking that twister might come in handy for some other things.. and I know the bucket will.

     

    Thanks for the contributions.. and I hope you can help out more if you have the time ;-)

     

    C

    Naked Demons from HELL!!!

    in Work In Progress / Sweatbox

    Posted

    Ooh, shiny! I assume you'll be shifting the color of his skin from red to brown as the hair gets denser?

     

    Dammit I'm gonna find that camera you're spying on me with ;-)

     

    Yep thats exactly what I'm gonna do.. and i'm gonna try some tricks to fake the hair shadows and such. Stuff taks way to long to render with shadows (animation wise... not to bad for an image though)

     

    Lookin good! I wonder what a small black pupil would do for him?
    .. yeah I have that as well.. but I have the an aditional Cornea group (ie.. contact) that is opaque.. just to make the eyes pop for now. I'm still thinking about what the face will look like in the end.

     

    And I found that if you add a little thickness along the length of the hairs it fills in the gaps.

     

    I do that as well. but in this case its trickier since I'm using hair density and length maps. Having a fat base in sparse hair would look odd. So I'm gonna fix that with a fake fur texture under the places where the hair should be thick. (ie.. what Mike said above.)

     

    Whats your guys stand on Demons and nipples?..

    I mean are they born and do they breast feed? I had nipples on the maps.. and then I got way to caught up in

    that philosophical question.. so I took them off to get my mind off the subject.. bluck. :P

     

    C

    Naked Demons from HELL!!!

    in Work In Progress / Sweatbox

    Posted

    Finally some more progress.

     

    Added teeth and inner mouth. His teeth are based on a gorillas, specifically King Kong's ;-) I can't wait to throw the new face rig on him.

     

    Tweaked some stuff here and there and Added a torso down hair map. Oh and he's pretty much done as far as modelling goes except maybe for more bling. Now to completely texture and rig.

     

     

    [attachmentid=15064]

     

    C

    I'm in :)

    in TWO Effects

    Posted

    Thanks guys, yep I like what Bendy has done so far, but I want to push it. I mean really push it. I don't think anyone has really scraped the surface of what AM can accomplish in effects (with a little elbow grease and ingenuity). So when this is all said and done.. I want people to say... "man.. they wear that program out!"

     

    I'm also hoping we can push the development of effects features for AM to new heights.. if we push hard enough ;-)

     

    Besides.. its one of the funnest things to experiment with in AM.

     

    C

    I'm in :)

    in TWO Effects

    Posted

    Martin asked me to step in and guide the effects efforts and after some discussion, and guidance.. I accepted.

     

    I like where things have gone so far, but I'd like to shift the styles toward realism on the level of Shrek. I know thats a tall order, but I think we can come close with some hard work. I chose that movie because I see similarities in the styles, and I think the effects in Shrek work very well.

     

    I'll post examples of what I'm talking about over the next few days (for fire, water, and some particle effects). If you want to jump in or have already and take this as a slant or something.. please contact me and let me know. I'll also be recruiting some talent that I know is out there as well, but there are lots of effects and the more the merrier.

     

    If you have done some effects but haven't posted the projects for them yet, please do. I would like to take a look at everything to date.

     

    On top of that.. I'd like to get some people to just "Play" with what AM can do ( Nancy Gormenzano.. that means you and you to Tinkering Gnome ;-) . I want to see if we can come up with something so cool or radical that it screams to be included in the movie. This goes toward scenery, i.e grass or trees.. clouds, cool particles for magic... the works. So if you just want to invent... here is your chance to go crazy.

     

    Understand... I'm here to sort of hold the ship together.. not steer it completely. I want input and help and lots of it. I told Martin that I wanted to lean more toward guidance and less toward "hours and hours of effects creation" ;-) but I will do what it takes to get the job done, or until I get pissed off and run for cover ;-P I'm just kidding! ... really!

     

    Let me know if you can help, PLEASE!!!

     

    C

    Greetings

    in New Users

    Posted

    Hey Chris,

     

    Welcome to the funnest software in the world ;-)

     

    I noticed you are in Georgia. We have a local AM user group that meets once in a blue moon. Feel free to stop in at a meeting. We usually have Will Sutton and myself (usually? we've never missed one ;-) and a bunch of other AM users from the southeast.

     

    welcome, and if you ever have questions.. feel free to ask.

     

    C

    Somehow things are getting a bit blurry?

    in Work In Progress / Sweatbox

    Posted

    looks to me like it might actually be your shadows.. its obvious you are using zbuffer shadows and they are soft.. that might make the edges in shadow look soft if the color is close enough to the shadow color.

     

    the bottom isnt in shadow so it might be sharper?

     

    I'm not really seeing what you are, but I'm guessing that might be it. You might try turning on ratraced shadows with 4 rays per light or something like that and see if that helps.

     

    C

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