I found a nice lighting explanation picture

rayfire random thought

"why don`t I use baked to texture vray screenspace light cache as rayfire voronoi fracture map?"

Odyssey

its a "fake" teaser project I`ve been working on in spring, half a year or so. Its an animatic using simple models, without textures, basic animation and lighting etc.

Something Big is comming

Since first half of march I`m working on something really unique. More details soon.

Sunday painting

Sunday afternoon, I`m painting some stuff, dumping it here. Second picture shows detail/texture I managed to achieve that isnt visible in preview resolution.
Funny thing is that someone once said that my paintings show perfectly my temper and soul.

February News

Some news on stuff happened to me in past weeks.
December was a month of regaining some balance. There were several changes into my life, affecting daily routines, ways of work, shifts and so on... I also got pretty sick.
During my january holiday, (yes, right after new years eve, I`ve taken some more free time!) I`ve done an massive 40s animation-archviz project in a very little time of which I`m uploading an `art` version some time soon. Commercial one had to have those awfull overconstrasted, overbright oversaturated colors, blue sky... yakh.
Here`s a preview picture.

I`m watching lots of movies these times. Starting with pixar, moving along with fincher filmography and other classics, to end with with awesome ones like Drive.

Yesterday I`ve overclocked my CPU. From 3.2 to 3.8ghz. From tests I`ve run it seems a pretty stable, solid and most important of all secure OC. That means I`ve brought solid 18% of additional raw render power to my desktop (like I`ve bought a laptop and plugged to renderfarm). I also bought an external HD for a double-backup. Kinda cool.
I`m planning to get some more RAM memory for even more comfortable work... and a new LCD display. 27-30 inches, 2560 horizontal resolution... although I`m not sure on what to choose. DELL u2711 has good specs, looks nice and has even nicer price ...but Apple Cinema Display is a wise choice too. I defintely need to do some research in this field before jumping out with a bold choice.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everybody!
I wanted to share some projects I`ve been working on in last 3 months at Platige Image.





Hope You liked, I`ve learned tons of stuff working with talented people, also, I`ve learned to work smarter which improved my speed and quality of my works.

website of the day:
http://www.stashmedia.tv

December summary and some news

It`s been a year since I created this blog. Lots of stuff happened, some things changed my way of viewing cg and vfx. In past months I`ve posted with different frequency, covering different topics. Didn`t go much technical but this will change soon. Blog will cover even more topics, from compositing in After Effects and Nuke (Yes, I`m finaly learning it!), through grading and general cgi/vfx approach to more technical-software related themes.
Sticking to one software and getting to know it fully isn`t always the best choice. It depends a lot on your job tasks and ofc on your aproach to growth as an artist and as a specialist. In my case I tend to `soak` with all knowledge I come in contact with... Lately it`s been ...from RED cameras related info, through advanced ways of simulating complex effects, game art, faking renderpasses to tricky ultimate boosting animation with powerfull plugins.

Website of the Day:
www.fxguide.com

Tip of the Day:
quote "When You`re against deadline there`s nothing like cheating"

grading

I`ve been keeping a small grading class few days ago.
Actually nothing to be proud of, just the basics.

Reel extended

I started work at platige image.
http://www.platige.com/

While rendering my diploma animation I did draw some missing frames, it`s sort of environment conceptart/frame sketch.

Motiongraphics thing

I was working on whisp for my diploma project scene when things started to turn out weird... I followed this path and result is somehow surprising. Scene is really tricky, setup is fully automatic. Rendertime, including post production is under 6 hours.

Back on track

After refreshing pause I`m working on next scenes. Good news is that this scenes render fast. Anyway, here`s a still frame, work in progess.

motiongraphics day two

Another day, another test. Sometimes a master study is all You need to feel better.

motiongraphics experiment

Let`s call it a motiongraphics experiment.
I am almost certain that before I screw this thing up in post production the video looked almost nice. What the hell.

Reel

First reel. In future I`m planning to release an extended version, enriched by breakdowns and hopefully some new projects.

Some sculpting

Well, again, it`s been quite a while. Currently I`m working on some statues. Stone covered in moss, deep, malicious, ruby eyes... You get the idea.

Tip of the Day:
Quicktime animation codec does support alpha channel.

Website of the Day:
http://www.allegorithmic.com/

Environment collab

I teamed up with Kosma, my schoolmate to test few things. Visit his blog, I`ve added it to todays website of the day.
Kosma did the actual environment concept, splited it into layers and I moved it into 3d, added animation and post effects. Oh well, colors are probably exagerated, I have a tendency for it.



Tip of the Day:
sharpen your projects, if antialiasing is fine it brings additional detail

Website of the Day:
http://arthcore.blogspot.com/

water works pt2

Not much new stuff on today, just some test videos I did.
Anyway I started working on terrain, having high hopes for this one.



Tip of the day:
Brute force sometimes works better than finesse :)

Website of the day:
 www.ipisoft.com

water works

Time to move on said someone, this time I`m experimenting with animated water.
Rocks were made/textured in less than 30 minutes, what I took most time were caustics, so to say invisible in this resolution (I scaled up clip from 360p to 720p to preserve subpixel detail, most of it). Water is made with animated noise based displacement. Water pattern requires few fixes but for a 100% still camera does not look bad to me.
As usual, I exagerated with optics distortion, dof, chromatic aberration and overall image destructive processes.



Tip of the Day:
Learn difference between different aa filters, some for instance, do sharpen image at comparable to 32bit precision (vs usual 8bit ps/ae sharpen)

Website of the Day:
www.procedural.com

Today, just the video. Isn`t final unfortunetely, I still have to rework the camera, that`s one. Two foreground is messy, requires more attention, and what is behind the beetle... well that too.
The way it looks now, is poorely composed (but still, is 14 renderlayers mixed into respectively 35 layers with 35 effects packed into 8 compositions).
As for now, assuming that I won`t find a way to render it faster (currently is via brute force GI with vray dof), it`ll take about 50 minutes per frame in 720p. Why so much? I have to launch 8 consecutive renders to get this thing working. More on this, in making of/breakdown, when I finally finish this scene.



Tip of the day:
Before launching your animation render make sure there are no unnecessary objects, that you`re using best GI setup for your scene, and that textures resolution isn`t exagerated.

Website of the day:
http://www.rebusfarm.com/

Animatic in works

It happend that I`m reworking my animatic. Doing it now is far better than doing it later. I must focus on bringing additional expression into key scenes, improving sequence timing and check the storytelling. No images on today unfortunately.

Tip of the day:
Press shift+ctrl+alt EARLY while photoshop is loading to reset its preferences.

Website of the day.
www.wacom.com

Technical: Tron Chromatic Aberration

I recently watched Tron and what impressed me most were distortion flares and chromatic aberration.
Watching film trailer You can realize it`s no regular aberration. And at first glance there`s no easy way of achieving this in layer based compositing software like AE, node based thing like nuke is necessary. Looks like it may involve object normals and different phase of motion vectors for each color channel.

I guess it would look best if it was possible to renderout a single frame for different color channels in microframe timephase based on fading of vignette like gradient, but I`m not sure.

Tip of the day:
Expressions are very important. Learn to use them, improve quality of your work.

Website of the day:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatic_aberration

Fixes part III

Welcome back. I`m currently working on complex foreground, I`ve added many of features I mentioned but even now I`m nowhere near finish line of this groundbraking scene. Well, to tell the truth, in past days I`ve been fine tuning every single aspect of the scene, starting with dynamics, new camera animation, new animated light setup and many subtle changes.

I`ve found ways of achieving some of the effects I desired at a reasonable price. Well, rendertime doubled and now it`s about 15 minutes per frame, but it`s still like ok considering I`m not making dof/motionblur in post.

Tip of the day:
Sometime to achieve superior quality what You need is a few day brake.

Website of the day:
http://pawlack.blogspot.com/

Beetle, back again

So here it is. Took me long time to findout a proper timing for walk cycle.
I need add few more plants, re-lit and improve render quality. Also rework few materials, add dof, godrays, flare, atmo and particles, fix few glitches related to walk cycle, change one texture, change camera movement. So many fixes for one stupid scene... I hope it`s the last time this year I`m modeling, unwraping, texturing, rigging and animating for a 5-seconds-long-in-focus-sequence.

Reminder: beetle is a foreground element, this sequence lacks of kickass background.

Tip of the day:
Before recording a studio footage make a list of things that could go wrong

Website of the day:
ict.debevec.org/~debevec

news

a bunch of news: few days ago I managed to finish a one-sit project, more on it later.
I finally composed a test shot I did to test some displacement with motionblur. Here`s the vid:



Tip of the day:
Customize your software

Website of the day:
http://www.cbscores.com/

(rendering scores seem to be very accurate)

small retrospective

A small retrospective is what I thought might be good to do at this point.

A glimpse behind and I can honestly say that my diploma project is moving way slower than it should. What needs to be done now are core scenes, mattes and other big elements. Focus on what`s important, leave behind things that can be done right before giving final touches. Mid april checkpoint approaches at disturbing speed.

Other than that, a retrospective is a best occasion for showing images not worth being shown in a solo update.

Website of the day:
www.xnormal.net

Tip of the day:
Cache your simulations. Bake your GI. Automate as much as you can.

Windblown WIP

In past days yes, I did work on beetle shot, but I`ll come to it in future updates. Reason I`m posting today is next scene which is quite a challenge for me. Girl with windblown hair. Currently it is only foreground and it`s like 70% done. I still have to pay some attention to textures, post and hair simulation/rendering. Image also lacks few post effects. Animation will come when I`ll be pleased with hair animation and dynamics.
1-2-3-Here it goes:

Tip of the day:
Pay attention to bit depth, for tweaks work with highest supported.

Website of the day:
http://www.3dtotal.com/ (tutorial section)

I remade the rig, this one`s better but still not final. Animation was made in like 5min. I`m also adding detail to the scene.
That`s all, I`m back to work. Hope You like it.

Tip of the day:
Make sure your hardware is up to date, that you have all software updates and latest drivers.

Website of the day:
http://www.sxc.hu/

Bug update

Here`s updated beetle I`ve shown some time ago. Today I remade it`s UVs, reworked texture, fixed rig and hierarchy, created dark mossy root. Currently I`m working on how animate this thing. Now... I better go sleep.

Tip of the day:
Always double check everything. Costs less time and stress than fixing things once the damage is done.

Website of the day
www.cgpersia.com

animatic

Last week I`ve been lazy, and I must admit, for one reason or another didn`t do anything worth mentioning. Tried few simple plugins, testes this and that, watched few making ofs, read forums.

Anyway, few minutes ago I uploaded a piece of animatic I did for my diploma project like a month or so ago. Sketches and animation are rough, the goal was to show the mood and learn about storytelling without dialogs. The color tint/contrast is brutal, `cause I didn`t want people to focus on detail lacking in significance.



Tip of the day:
Learn from experts.

Website of the day:
www.stashmedia.tv

Welcome back. Today`s question is: am I really moving forward? Anyhow?
To answer it to yourself, watch latest video of my AE composite.



Yesterday I bought a new 6 core cpu and a new motherboard. Since installing this stuff requires reinstaling OS I`ll use this opportunity to finally format my C drive and move from my beloved and trusted XP64 to unknown future labbeled Win7 64. This because in past months I found some difficulties in setting a network render, due to my laptop and home PC OS diversities. Faster previews, faster renders. Apparently I might speedup also blog updates.. All I have to do right now is backup all the data, like documents, works, music, bookmarks, brushes, presets, installation files. All I might need. Change mobo and cpu, install everything... and that`d be it.


Tip of the day:
for any project longer than a week, prepare a production pipeline.

Website of the day:
mediafire.com (to share/backup your data)

It`s been quite a while since I last shown up here. During incoming weeks I`ll be finally able to truely dedicate myself to my diploma project. Here`s a test scene I made.



Everytime I upload something youtube does kill the quality. One day I`ll learn the proper tech specs... to preserve how it looks on my screen.
Few technical notes: notice the waterfall, it`s made in AE. Grass will be animated.  Main character, walking long the road is still missing. That`s all for now.

Tip of the day:
Keep growing your tool palette. The vastier is the easier you`ll make the right choice.

Website of the day:
www.creativecow.net

Bluebox

Today I`ve recorded footage I`ll be workin on during next weeks. My model did a pretty good job. I used a digital camera to get the video in 1080p. There were some technical problems, due to recording slightly of focus, spill effect, bokeh and motionblur, but the overall quality should be ok.
These days I`m finishing some of my school projects and in spare time I`m doodling in zbrush, so I can say that the things are facing forward... and moving slowly.
More updates soon.

Tip of the day:
Often less is definetly more.


Website of the day:
www.mattepainting.org



special thanks go to my model, Claire :)

Update

Oh well. I`m alive. And in exams period. To tell the truth I kinda dislike studying and making school stuff and... for the sake... giving final touches to the projects.
Anyway, as for blog stuff, I`m currently working on many different things that are not yet ready to be shown. The variety of topics goes from diploma-graphic-tablet-fastly-drawn-animatic to zbrush sculpts. I`m also working on some interns visuals I have to finish these days.
Here`s a small teaser image... And that`d be it for now.

Looks like next update will be pretty juicy, stay focused ;)

Tip of the day:
Learn to use your software `help`.

Afterall it was meant to be useful.

Website of the day:
www.flickr.com

DOF and color correction

Played with DOF and color correction. Working with tones is far from easy. Avoid color banding, use dithering
when possible and ofc look for high bit depth... Thinking of what I might start giving application specific clues or linking tutorials, from time to time. Stay tuned!

Tip of the day:
Pay attention to your workplace. Comfortable seat, apropriate/clean desk and proper lighting are a must.

Website of the day:
www.deviantart.com (messy but You can find some really nice stuff)

Pawlack`s model

Pawlack sent me with GPL his latest model.
Currently he does not have MAX installed on his computer so... I came with this fast render. You actually can`t see this here but the thing has real potential.

Model: Pawlack
Light&render: just me


Tip of the day:
If something takes lots of your time there`s a chance there`s software that can do this job for You. 
(if You own a mac, the chance is significantly smaller:)

Website of the day:
www.videocopilot.net

Keying tests

As usual, few fast tests. Wanted to test out some things related to keying. I`ll have to pay lots of attention to light diffusion and direction in the studio when recording my footage. Well, it`ll be a challenge to keep all the things under control. Oh, and, almost forgot, I`m planning to add some extra content, visible only to my blog subscribers :)

Tip of the day:
Buy poor software and You`ll buy a problem

Website of the day:
www.turbosquid.com

Fiery chicken-blob mix

Christmas is time of family reunion, traditional food and classy beverages... I think I`m getting lazy.

Here`s a one-day-project. Started like anything-for-an-advanced-aftereffects-post and ended in dynamics, realtime recording, procedural dynamic light emission, expressions. Grew to few hours of 3d work, several hour render and a couple hour postprocessing.
Just before lunching final render at 6 am I thought it might be nice to animate chickenblob burning excess of kinetic energy when it`s stops moving. Unfortunately was already tired when this idea came to my mind... Well, maybe next time.
In terms of utility of this excercise, I tested camera movement/targeting related things, timeremapping, some invasive color correction.
I`m perfectly aware of many other effects to be implemented (procedural twitches, dof, flares, bokeh, fog, ss, cross just to name few) but with a single render pass and lack of time this is how far the tests go.
Noise, resolution, TR flicker are time related issues (I`d render it to noiseless fullHD at 80frames per second if I had proper hardware).

Special thanks go to:
Kosma
Pawlack


Tip of the day:
Watch good tutorials.

Website of the day:
www.game-artist.net

Houston we have a problem

After having modelled few plants I wanted test them so I`ve thrown everything into one rapid messy composition.
Actually no textures were applied which does not justify how BAD this thing looks right now.
I planned adding more variety, doubling, tripling the number of plants, flowers, ivy, trees... Adding colorful, bioluminescent texture maps... But on how this thing is turning out I might just scrap it all.
Any ideas, suggestions?

Tip of the day:
Start small.

Website of the day:
Cgtextures.com

Beetle WIP

In first place WIP stays for work in progress.
The body is almost finished while legs are still in works, just layed down few polies to set a render.
The beetle will be visible in my diploma for just few seconds, half of which out of focus. Need a tablet to give the model and texture a final touch. Also, it requires a specular map and a rig.

This very special bug is dedicated to Olga, girl that makes me laugh and not only laugh :)

Tip of the day:
When something looks really bad just... nuke it out instead of looking for extreme fixes.

Website of the day:
www.zbrushcentral.com

SSS alien blob

This one`s loosely related to my diploma.
Well, to tell the truth I was working on some weird looking vegetation when I figured out it`d be good to practice with SSS. Might sound weird but it`s not fluid dynamics, it`s just a metaball.
Uh and sorry for color banding, I`m still testing the looseless postprocessing workflow.

That`d be it... An idea that came into my mind: I`ll start linking interresting websites to take a look at. During past years I accumulated quite few links I`d like to share. Stay tuned!

Tip of the day:
When it comes to CG write down your ideas and things to do. This helps finding proper order of making them. Save time.

Website of the day:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/

Testing ivy

Fast glimpse on what I`m working atm. Renders unexpectedly fast.
Might turn out nice when I`ll play with this proto few hours more.

Tip of the day:
Verbalise your needs. Once you know what they are, just google.

One of last small updates. Next ones coming will be more robust. I can almost sense them :)

I`m testing few things:
-new place-object-on-surface algorithm, with relatively high imput values
-new terrain generator even though these are my first steps in it
-new procedural texturing shader. Current version is based mainly on occlusion, slope, facing direction and least but not last complex naki/poxo/sema/luka...noise pattern.

-and ofc more grass.



Disclaimer: this image supposed to look better after postprocessing.


Tip of the day:
When in need, look for specialized software.

Procedural moss, AE post

Second update, way earlier than I expected.

Here`s ...proceduraly generated moss growing over stones. I`m far from being happy with the results but following this line of thought would make this blog pointless. So here it is.

As You can notice the moss is growing only on the occluded areas. The way it blends with stone is still in works... Well, I need to find right noise pattern, then scrap the current one `cause it`s ugly.
I might also add slope and direction factor to improve the shader.

As for post processing, yeah, I`m slowly moving from PS to aftereffects post. Makes everything automatic and allows to work on video footage way better than batch does.

Tip of the day:
Subtle is the key. When it comes to post ofc.

Vray - 2sided material - vegetation+fog+dof tests

Well, here`s first update.
I do realize that trees do look megafake, did modelled them quite rapidly and only for replicate/performance tests. To see how my software/hardware works with high polycounts.
Given scenes aren`t very complex, they vary from 300k to 2kk polies.

few words

Very often there`s a day when I`m making tens and tens of test renders. Sometimes I do save them... but in most cases those pics get lost. Last month I did 1000+ images of which only something like 50 got saved.
This made me think that it might be a good idea to open a journal, a place where I could post and store all this random stuff I`m doing during my spare time.
Anyway, most of my incoming updates will be dedicated to my diploma project.