Visual Effects 2 (VFX)

This is my last month in the accelerated program at Full Sail University, and barely a handful of months from graduation. one of the classes I took was my second Visual Effects Class.

This class went in-depth with techniques we were introduced to several months before in VEF1. There were 3 projects to be completed. This is a documentary of them all.

Fire in Maya 

First, we touched Maya fluids. I had only use of Maya particle system, but the fluids are a great tool in maya. I created a fireplace fire. For this, I needed some reference as to what my fire should look like. It was very important that my fire matches the reference. This way, you can create something more realistic.

I went to youtube to find suitable reference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH79BmeeM0o

Being most confident in Maya, navigating and finding what did what was not difficult. I had the most trouble knowing when to apply different things and how much.
Part of the requirements for the projects was having a research document that described the effect and the process. I found that doing this really kept me on top of things. I created my fire using maya fluids and here is a still of the container in maya:

Maya Fluids container for my fire effect. 

After creating the effect, I tweaked a lot of attributes to get it flowing as close to the reference as possible. This was the hardest part. To make it realistic, there were a lot of trials and errors. Here is the final render from this project:

Final Render

Being my first fluid effect, I think I did an okay job matching my reference. From the critiques I got from the instructor, I did not get the speed quite right, and personally, there was a lot more I could have done with the texture. 

Smoke in Houdini

I am fairly new to Houdini, but immediately I saw how powerful a program it is. 

I chose to create a smoke effect in Houdini for my second project. I found some reference on youtube as well for this effect. Here is a link:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H9hDaobWNc

I had to do more research in Houdini Pyro effects. there are not a lot of good tutorials out there concerning pyro, but the information I found about the basics were sufficient along with Houdini's help documents. Here is a screenshot of the effect simulating in Houdini. 

In this project, I learned how to use lights to enhance the effect, and camera creation/placement in Houdini. I also learned about using Houdini's rendering node, mantra. It is quite powerful, like the rest of the software and easy to use. However, I did not know how to set initial state, and I ran out of time. 

Otherwise, this effect was quite straightforward. Like with Maya fluids, the struggle was finding out how to use each attribute, and how much. 

Here is my final render: 

Research/Final Project

For the final project, we were allowed to create any effect we wanted, as long as it was an advance from what we had already learned, or done in an entirely new software. The learning process would be the major thing. 

I became perplexed over what effect to do that would show my growth. I watched various visual effects videos. I finally decided to simulate glass being shattered by glass. 

I first went to maya, but the workflow was not efficient. I decided to use Houdini. With it's voronoi fracture node and procedural workflow, it was much wiser to use it. 

First I did a test of the effect, which I presented as a research project in class. Here is the render for that:- 

Instead of a regular ball, I attached a pyro effect to the sphere, making it a sort of fire ball instead. 

the first issues i ran into was the way the effect shattered. I received a critique on this, and realized it occurred when i changed the scale of the original box object, instead of the size. 

While working on my final project, I worked smarter and got the desired effect. 

I learned many new things, including caching files, setting initial state, correctly duplicating scene nodes, rendering ambient occlusion, combining multiple dynamics to work well together, among many more. If anything, this project was mostly troubleshooting. I was pleased with my final result, as I learned how to rely on research and personal knowledge to figure out how everything would fall into place. 

Here is the final render:-

Basketball Simulation in Houdini (Research Project)

This month in Software Technology class, we were asked to do a research project on making a basketball go through a hoop. (All the models would be made by students as well as figuring out how to make the simulation work.)

I modeled the assets (the basketball rim and the basketball) in maya and imported them as OBJs into Houdini.

When thinking about how to carry this out the first thing that came to mind was to figure out what force would send the basketball through the hoop. The first thing that came to mind was to use some sort of lever system to drive the ball's take-off. so, google!

I found a few interesting tutorials, but I found more of what I needed when looking at Introductory videos to Houdini, most people were demoing the software with the demonstrations that I was looking for.

I settled with a catapult system, creating a plank, a RBD ground plane, a tube and a box object. With my modeled assets in the scene, I made the tube a Static Object, and every other thing was a Rigid Body so it could move.

My ball did not go through the hoop. The ball kept bouncing off the edge of the rim in a really odd, unrealistic fashion (without contact). It did not actually touch the rim and bounce off as it would in real life.

The only flags I could think of was that my projection was not properly set up. I messed a lot with with the weight and height of the box that drove the simulation, but I quickly came to terms with the fact that that was not the issue.


It turns out that the right way to look was in the AutoDop Network (shown below), as per the directions of the Instructor, and I was to change my rim's RBD solver type. A quick switch in the Bullet Data from Convex Hull to Concave got the ball and rim interacting properly.

My AutoDop Network

The Pantomime Project

The first project we worked on this month was The Pantomime. The objective was the animate Bugsy to undergo a change of emotion.

We were given a host of events that could happen and cause a change of emotion. This is what I chose:

You are impatiently waiting on the bus and are excited or relieved to see it arrive, only to have it whiz right by. You must walk 3 consecutive steps in scene.

I did some pre-pro on this, acting out the scene and trying out various ways to execute it. At first it was awkward to act it out but I found that I paid off a whole lot, especially when I started the blocking. My personal reference gave me what to do and left little to my imagination, which sped up my work process.



Now in this first pass of the blocking, I am missing a tremendous amount. (The ground plane, my possible props, etc) I was using this first lab to feel out the scene, actions and other things that I thought might be vital to the project.

In the second pass, I imported the rest of the scene and worked more on strengthening my poses. I adjusted the camera and began working on positioning the props properly.

The third and fourth passes show more progress with the actions I am giving Bugsy.

working in these passes, I am still in stepped mode because this gives me an opportunity to see what is missing in the main poses, anticipations, overlaps, etc.
I removed some unnecessary props and change the camera some more to get better silhouette and staging.
THIRD PASS:

FOURTH PASS:

The last video is what I turned in for the final.

I am not pleased with my final result, but I saw the progress I made. There is so much I could have done on the final to make it a stronger piece. I plan to fix these things in my own time and have it the way it should be.

This was a very fun project. I learned so much that I did not understand before, especially about the essence of timing and spacing, moving holds, blinks, overlap, contra-posture and strong poses.

It reinforced my knowledge of the Basic Walk in animation and made me learn to trust my instincts a little better.

I constantly need critiques and guidance, so I will get more and more as long as I animate.

Introduction

Hello, 

I'm Jesimiel Damina. This month of June, I'm going through my second Character Animation class. I'm going to be blogging about what I've done so far throughout the first half of the month through to the end.

I am very interested in animation, quite determined to do it, and I know that in order to be successful with it I've got to constantly be critiqued, practice an awful lot, and keep things simple!

This month the character we're working with is Bugsy, a model and rig provided by Full Sail University. Bugsy has the potential to be a very entertaining ant, and I plan to push all his potentials as I grow. 

I hope this inspires you!