VFS Visual Effects Reel- Kristin Sedore

[ksedore]

http://www.vfs.com/~3d44kristin/images/winter.jpg
http://www.vfs.com/~3d44kristin/images/fall.jpg
http://www.vfs.com/~3d44kristin/images/summer.jpg
http://www.vfs.com/~3d44kristin/images/spring.jpg

[hypercube]

Caught my eye browsing by and thought I'd pop in to say- very nice! Really like the idea and seasonal transitions, and occasional speed ramps on the truck. Great job on the paintings too.

Only crit I'd say is it would have been nice to see time lapse style effects on the clouds, or at least some shifts with everything else changing..I guess that might be cliche, maybe that was a specific choice.

Anyway, good stuff and good luck :thumbsup:

[Phb]

:drool:

i want to go to a 3d school too :cry:

[Sin-D]

Cool! nice job on that one though you kind of have to see it from the last one to the first one, nice texturing :thumbsup:

[Subscream]

nice job ... both modelling, texturing and lighting. You managed to keep consistent manner throughout the series. I especially like the autumn one ..

If I should give som kind of critic it would be that you maybe should have changed the cloud texture in the diffrent pics .. because no cloud is the other alike ..

other than that ... congrats to a job well done

[ksedore]

Hey, thanks for all the comments! That's awesome.

hypercube: About the clouds. They do move a little. It's more evident if you scrub really fast! :) Right from the beginning I wanted the changes to be pretty subtle. I debated moving the clouds fast like a regular time lapse shot, but it didn't fit with the subtle feel I was going for. The timing was one of the big concept issues I had becuase the truck ages 50 years, the seasons go back one year, and the stuff on the truck is happening at real time, but backwards!!! It was a tough one to figure out. I appreciate the comment.

Phb: I loved VFS. It was a lot of money. And we all sacraficed a year of our lives, but it was totally worth it! I learned so much, and I met the most awesome people.

Sin-D: you'd like it better going from new to old? An instructor of mine said the same thing! The reason for it going backwards was because when I see an abandoned vehicle on the side of the road, I always wonder when someone just decided to leave it to rust, how it got there, etc. So I wanted to show the old one and then think back to what it was like when it was new.

Subscream: :hmm: hmmm...I never thought of that. I guess I just thought if I changed the colour of the sky, that would be enough. But that's a good idea. And it wouldn't be too tough to do...I think. :)

Thanks again everyone!

Kristin

[KolbyJukes]

:buttrock:

Awesome work Kristin.

I've got no critiques, I'm very impressed.

-Kol.

[Pionier]

just super :buttrock:

[Jesse-Irvin]

Awesome work. I knew from your term 4 presentations that you were gonna have a great reel. Congrats!

[miqtidar]

Amazing work

I love it

[Heber]

kristin , that was beautiful , your an awesome vfx artist , the amount of detail you went into is fantastic ,and the breakdowns were great as well , so many cool things happening at once it deserves more than 1 watch to see them all , i can see you have worked really hard and i hope it pays off for you , this should be on front page btw ,excellent work , :)

[mgard]

it's great to see your work in here kristin..
i love your idea and you did great job too..
i knew it's gona be really good.......

great works

:thumbsup:

[eq7]

Great job kristin, I always knew your reel would turn out awesome! Best of luck in the future! =)

[BeCOOL_MiN]

Awesome reel~


Kristin You worked really hard~ that makes you strong visual effect artist I think..

you reel has special feeling~ ha ha


nice job~:thumbsup:

[Gal]

really nice composition work, i like the environment change.. though i would ADD stronger effects of wind and much faster moving/changing clouds if that's possible..i think it would really help. the backwards time is kind of confusing, the focus is on the environment more than the car when i look at it.. i dont know what to suggest there, how does it look when you do it clockwise and not back in time?
also the hole in the windshield pops from broken to full, if u can animate the texture/model from a hole to whole like breaking glass i think it would be a great help.

that's just nit picking, everything else looks great.. i really enjoy your environment, lighting and composition.

princess bride is a classic, one of the best.. good sound track :)

[kevinw]

Brilliant!!! :drool:

[tobiasth]

this is very very very good! :beer: :thumbsup:

[Reserved24hrs]

:thumbsup: I relly enjoy your work. :buttrock:

keep in touch:p

[Heber]

im gonna email leo , this should be front page imo :)



**EDIT**there it goes now , well deserved front page btw :) , i know vfs server will die any second now., so im working on a mirror for ya at the moment (a stable one at that)

[Sciatica]

Yes, a mirror would be nice :)
I can't think of the last time my cable internet got a download rate of less than 40 Kbs, but Im getting about 4 right now :eek: That site must be getting compleatly pounded..

[j00st81]

mirror would be very nice :)

[koity]

:thumbsup: Just have to love it.
Thanks for posting it here.
I learned a lot from your reel:wavey:

[FUG1T1VE]

These VFS reels are simply amazing. One after another. Did you have any previous experience in 3d or traditional art before attending?
At my point in time it might not be a bad to idea to sign up at vfs.
The way you took it is interesting, it will leave the person going over hundreds of reels wondering why you would do such a thing, I think it stands out and you have accomplished just that:thumbsup:

[Mananetwork]

The funny thing was when I first started watching it, I thougth my eyes were playing tricks on me because i swear the snow was wasn't falling, but rising :S

Great Visual FX demo reel!

[Heber]

Originally posted by Mananetwork
The funny thing was when I first started watching it, I thougth my eyes were playing tricks on me because i swear the snow was wasn't falling, but rising :S

Great Visual FX demo reel!

haha, no kiddin huh? its suppose to be , its showing time turning back

[Oogst]

Wow, this one is incredibkle impressive! It is very seldom that I see someone who does not use CG to create something spectacular, but just to create a striking ambience. It really touched me.

[stephen2002]

Those stills are very nice. I would love to see the animation and am willing to provide a mirror. Unfortunatly it is going to take forever to download :(

The animation is really well done. I love time manipulation stuff like this.

Mirrors:

Try these first:
Medium (http://solarflare2.no-ip.com:24842/mirror/DemoCPU_medium.wmv)
Large (http://solarflare2.no-ip.com:24842/mirror/DemoCPU_large.wmv)
Full (http://solarflare2.no-ip.com:24842/mirror/DemoCPU_full.wmv)

If those are going to slow try these:
Medium (http://userpages.umbc.edu/~stu2/relay.php?file=mirror/DemoCPU_medium.wmv)
Large (http://userpages.umbc.edu/~stu2/relay.php?file=mirror/DemoCPU_large.wmv)
Full (http://userpages.umbc.edu/~stu2/relay.php?file=mirror/DemoCPU_full.wmv)

[???]

very sentimental... i almost cried

[RuneV]

The page wont load :sad:

[CADster]

looks great :thumbsup:

it looks like you based your scene off the oldtrucks site image

http://www.oldtrucks.com/title3.jpg

not that thats a bad thing ... they just look a lot alike.

[t3k-fox]

that was awsome it looks so real the only crits i have is that wouldnt the car becoume covered in snow when it was winter

[opus13]

404 page not found

[Kevin]

Nice work!.... the only crit I have is that the parts of the car in shadow are a little too dark in places. Because of the high ambient levels of light in the scene, you'd have more bounced light in these areas. The main places being under the hood, and at the back of the car...... although it still looks v.nice regardless!

[Lukavi]

Thats a really amazing pice of work you have there Kristin. I really like the ambiance and attention to detail you put in. I do have one question, are the trees sliding from left to right? It appears they are ever so slightly, I thought it was a cool effect, it was making my eyes go crazy because I was trying to focus on the truck but I kept thinking the trees where moving. Good work! :)

[mattmos]

VFS servers aren't the greatest are they ;)

Very nice work, the subtlety in the transitions is beautiful. I missed a little more movement in the grass and clouds, but it probably would have unbalanced what you do have.

If you want a mirror to the large version, here it is:

Large (http://www.mattmos.com/anims/DemoCPU_full.wmv)

[ksedore]

Wow! I'm overwhelemed and humbled at the response to my reel. That's awesome! Thanks for all the comments and the plugs. Front page. Wow. Too cool. Anyway...

Classmates: You guys rock! Thanks for the support.

rayfusion: Thanks for the plug. I'm glad you liked it. I hope employers want to watch it more than once, too!

Gal: thank you. The problem with adding more wind is then the trees and leaves would need to move as well. Since it's a photo, that would be difficult. I tried having the clouds faster, but it was distracting. Perhaps, I could find a happy medium. The deal with it going backwards is that I'm always been curious about abandoned objects on the side of the road or in a field. So this was my way of looking at the object and then thinking back to when it was new. As for the windshield, I did a shatter effect in After Effects, but once I put the refraction on the windshield you can't see it at all. Also, because it's only 4 frames. I'll play around with it though. Thanks. PS: I love the Princess Bride too! I was so excited when I got the rights to the music!

FUG1T1VE: Thanks. I had a bit of 3D experience. I worked at a post production place for 4 years. I was mostly doing logos, map, a few show opens, etc. My lighting strategy at the time though seems to have been if I can see all the objects, then it's done!

Mananetwork: Ha ha! That's hilarious! Figuring out how to handle the wackiness of my timing and the backwards thing was by far the hardest part of the reel. I thought the snow going up was a good clue at the beginning telling people you're not going to see what you expect to see.

Oogst: The part I love of VFX is the subtle effects that help tell a story. I'm not really into the let's-do-a-big-explosion='cause-we-can type stuff. Watch the special effects feature on the Beautiful Mind DVD and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. I get so excited when I see that.

stephen2002: THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE MIRRORS!!! Have you seen my reel yet?

CADster: I don't know how I missed it, but I've never seen that site before! I checked it out now and you need a password to get in, so I know I didn't. Actually, my uncle restored the truck I used. It's a 53 Mercury M-100. It was great because he gave me a photo album of the transformation. I had tons of photos. My dad went to visit him and he'd take pics and e-mail them to me! It was awesome! I'll post a pic below.

t3k-fox: Yeah, you're right. At first I had less snow so it worked okay, but when I added more snow....well, yeah, I should put snow on the truck! :)

Kevin: Yeah, you're right. The shadows are too dark at the back. I could bring up the levels a bit under the hood, but I didn't model anything under there!

Lukavi: Yes, the trees are sliding. Since the camera is moving, the trees need to move (since they are at different depths.) Good eye! You can see in my breakdown how I split up the backplate and put them at different depths.

Thanks again everyone!

Kristin :cool:

http://www.vfs.com/~3d44kristin/images/53TruckNew04small.jpg

[ksedore]

Sorry, guys. I don't know why I can't get that image to show up.

*EDIT: Thanks turx for helping me with the link. It's working now!*

mattmos: Thanks for the mirror. As far as the clouds and grass goes, I tried it on the clouds and it was distracting. And if I put more wind in then I would also have to move the trees and leaves which would be a little difficult. Thanks. :)

Kristin

[SCIFI-3D-zoo]

Unless I missed it... I didn't catch any technical info about how the image was made.. the basics like software used... how each element or layer was made. Is it all 3D or some 2D backgrounds, etc? It's sharp. Congratulations and good luck finding a job.

[Error404]

looks like a 1953? nice choice :beer:

[Ric535]

took a while to download but worth it - well done - ive watched it through twice and noticed extra little details i didnt see the first time - am going to watch it again now - Congratulations on a fine piece!

[marque-pierre]

Damn! You rock! Love the textures.

[Ranc0r]

holy crap. i just invited my dad and my stepmom to come see that and they liked it allot!
good work! you can always tell when its a good reel when it entertains people who dont know anything about cg.


:applause: :applause:


look there clapping for you!

[ksedore]

SCIFI_3D_zoo: I set up the breakdowns in the order that I created the reel. First I started with the modeling of the truck and fence. Then did the colour maps and animated the rust. I did that with a lot of layers in Photoshop and then dissolved them together in After Effects to create a texture sequence. Then I did the animation. And then I tried it another way, an another way, and another way until I got what you see. That modeling and animation was all done in Maya. My husband and I went for a drive one Sunday afternoon and found the field that I used as the backplate. In the breakdowns it shows the original photo. Then I finished the texturing with all the different layers (lighting layers, specular, reflection, windows, chrome, tires, etc.) I split thing up a lot so I could have more control in compositing. With changing through the different seasons, one setting wasn't going to work. I knew there would be a lot of compositing work. The grass was Maya Paint Effects. Snow was partly painted on the backplate and partly geometry. Maya particles for the falling (or reverse falling) snow. I did everything forward and then flipped the animation in the end. Yeah, and the compositing was all in After Effects. That's about it I guess. Oh the backplate I split up into different sections in Photoshop. I put nulls in Maya where I wanted the trees, then exported that and the camera into After Effects. I wasn't happy with the render I was getting from Maya, so I thought why not do it in After Effects where I can use the original photo. I guess that's about it. If you have any other questions about how I did something feel free to ask. I have no secrets! :)

Error404: Did you see I mentioned that in oe of my posts? Or do you just know your trucks? :) Yes, that's exactly what it is; a 1953 Mercury M-100!

Ric_535: Sorry it takes a while to load. Glad you waited it out though!

marque_pierre: Thanks. The textures were a lot of work, but it was such a large part of my project, it was worth the time and energy.

Ranc0r: Thank you. I'm glad all of you liked it!

Thanks again everyone!

Kristin

[.tenic.]

look great... really nice transition on the background. it reminds me that old nvidia demo reel.

[Error404]

ksedore: Yes, I love the truck/cars of the old! I was born WAY to late! And actually, I modeled a 53 (ford F100) myself, thats really how I knew :)

[Bygzam]

event though i saw your reel everyday, it still looks amazing!

kristin!

the best!

:bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown:

[KolbyJukes]

Kristin,

hey, I told you you'd get front page. Congrats.

:thumbsup:

Any job offers yet? ;)

-Kol.

[DoLeeP]

:thumbsup:

[ToastMan]

That was soooooo beautiful!!!
The music fitted so well and added so much to the atmosphere.
Its like each time I see a post that starts with the initials: VFS, I know that I'm in for some quality stuff...
Congrats on a *very* nice job!!

[turx]

Hi Kristin,

The correck link to your reference car image is below:

http://www.vfs.com/~3d44kristin/images/53TruckNew04small.jpg

I'm just downloading the reel. So i have no comment on it yet.


Good luck finding a job ASAP!

[stiffmeister]

you did a great job. i'm also working in maya now :cry:

but one thing, maybe the saturation of the image is a little bit too high. the real life have no such this fully color image ...

but :thumbsup: !!!!

[sswift]

I recognize that music! That's from the movie "The Princess Bride". :-)

How is it that you get permission to use music like that? I noticed you put the creators in the credits at the end. I'm surprised they'd license an original song like that which is so recognizeable and so associated with that one specific movie. It's one of the few movie tunes I'd recognize immediately.

I like the art in this. The matte paintings are very nice. So did you actually use 3D models that you placed in various locations to create the painting? You show some quads rotating around with trees on them, but you said the trees were part of the painting which is why you couldn't animate them. I was wondering why you would put them on quads rather than just position and scale them in Photoshop if it's just a painting. The paintings are very nice though. Nice colors and convincing looking. I like how you can see the leaves on the ground in the fall one nice and sharp with good color.

The only things I have a problem with are that the aging is in reverse, and the truck ages too quickly.

The reverse aging is disconcerting. In addition, the song is a sad song which would seem better suited to forward aging where the poor truck is left sitting there to rust away to nothing.

As for the aging too quickly... for one, the aging apparently takes place over a single year since the seasons only change once. But while it might be neat to see time passing more realistically, you would have to change seasons 20 times to get that much wear and tear, and that speed would not go well with the music. I try to imagine the scenes in the Time Machine where time is moving quickly, and it wouldn't work well at all with this song.

For another, the aging takes place too quickly. The animation is over before it has begun, with the majoirty of the animation being the making of and the credits.

So I think what I would do would do would be to actually make each season last longer. I'm not sure you could make the aging look right if you could see it taking place during each season, because what causes the hood to pop openm or the rim to fall off? I suppose you would have to then add children playing around the vehicle or something to show the damage occuring. Fading between seasons hides the actual damage occuring. So rather than slowing down the aging so you could see it perhaps it would be best to just make each season last twice as long so you can get a good look at the vehicle in each scene and see the changes to it. That and making it play forwards instead.

[Solesurvivor]

okay, that was a magnificent concept , and i loved the way you've realised it , with the subtle shifts in the background. This is one of the best demo reels i've seen in a very long long time.

[jussing]

MIRROR

Full (25 MB) (http://www.duck.dk/bin/DemoCPU_full.wmv)

Ciao,
- Jonas

[3dRaven]

Realy nice reel. The soft music fits perfectly :thumbsup:

[ksedore]

Error404: Cars for me are pretty much just transportation, but a few family members enjoy restoring old vehicles. Through this project though I would say I've grown a deeper appreciation for them. (Don't tell my dad though!)

Bygzam: :hmm: hmmm, I guess I should know who you are, but I don't...

KWAK: thanks again for all your help getting my reel posted. No offers yet. :shrug: I guess I'll actually have to send out a tape or two! :)

ToastMan: thanks. I'm glad you liked it. I really like that song too, even after hearing it over, and over, and over again!

turx: Thanks for the help with the link. Did you download it yet?

stiffmeister: if you can believe it I did have an adjustment layer in my comp to bring down the saturation! I had a habit of creating the background really bright. I was aware of it though, so I figured I'd just accept it and change it at the end. I guess not enough, hey? How are you liking Maya? I love it!

Solesurvivor: :blush: Thanks.

jussing: thanks again for the mirrors. I really appreciate that.


Thanks everyone!

Kristin

[stiffmeister]

hey ksedore:

i'm still working since october last year in maya. this was the beginning of my 3d carreer :rolleyes:

i like maya because of it's endless customiz-workflow :applause:

at the following link you can find some testrenderings ->

http://sushi-house.net/trash/

most of them are the older versions. i have to be finished in two month and than will post it here ....

cu than

[turx]

yeah i downloaded it.
and i want to say..

it's just awesome! :thumbsup:
you've created all 4 seasons perfectly.

and the animated distortion effects are made me watch it again and again!

you have skills!!
i believe you'll find a good position in a good company as soon as possible.



happy renderings :D

[Flud's Keeper]

Kristin,

I just love this piece. Not only is the technical execution exquisite, but the level of artistic quality is very high aswell.

Congratulations on the reel, on getting frontpage, and on scholarship!! I'm sure you will enjoy much success in the future!

keep up the outstanding work!! :thumbsup:

Bart

[ksedore]

Hey everyone,

I did a fix for the snow on the ground. It was really easy too! I wanted to roughen the edges of the snow. I was browsing through the After Effects Filters and guess what I find? A plugin called Roughen Edges! Check it out.

Kristin

Fix for the snow on the ground (http://www.vfs.com/~3d44kristin/video/)

Sorry, when I put in the file name in the link I get an error message. So just click on snow.mov file.

[ksedore]

Sorry guys, that last file was pretty big. I ran it through Cleaner and now it's 1MB instead of 18MB!!!

Kristin

SMALL fix for snow on ground (http://www.vfs.com/~3d44kristin/video/)

Again, I don't know why when I put the file name in the link I get an error message. So just click on snow.wmv.

[3d43lea]

Hi Kristin!

Your reel is beautiful!
I'm happy we got to know each other! awww, remember our all girl coverstations we would have when I was in term 5 and u guys were in term 4? It was you, me, Amanda, Kate, and Chad heheh.
I really like your work! Good luck! Hope we get to work together in the future!

Girl Power! :p

LotsaLuvLea

[birEn]

hey kristin,
AWESOME!!! oh well.... knew it half way, looked pretty good back then... so kinda knew it was gonna be one of the good ones.
Good modelling ,texturing... nah.... good VFX!!!
keep up the good work!!!

[ksedore]

HELLO!!!

I'm taken some of your suggestions and improved my reel. I have fixed the snow on the ground so the edges aren't so smooth. I made the windshield actually break (in reverse of course!) instead of just popping from the broken one to the good one. And I've added dandelions in the field. They need some tweaking still. I'm going to stretch them out to the end of the shot. I also still have to make the clouds move faster. And I'm going to have a few leaves fall (upwards!) from a couple trees during autumn. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Enjoy!

Updated demo reel- May 26, 2004 (http://www.vfs.com/~3d44kristin/)

Lea: ahhh, the girl times...I'm going to miss those! I saw you poke your head by the Tree Fort the other day when Larry was there. Why didn't you come back?! :-(

birEn: thanks! I'm glad you like it! How'd your presentation go?

Kristin

[Heber]

hi , term 1 guy here ,
i simply love your demo, the mood , music , visuals , so good ! are you still in school updating this or at home? anyways the new update pushes the believebility even further, cant wait to see how much more you can do with this.

on 2nd watch i noticed that the glass breaks alittle too fast , would be nice for that effect to run a little slower ,

...btw anyone that is watching this for the first time , see it more than once , theres alot going on that i missed first time i watched it

[3d43lea]

Hi Kristin!

WOW! I really like all of the changes u have done to your reel during scholarship! The snow looks really good! Good job! You're amazing!

heheh ya, u saw me at the tree fort eh? That was kinda goofy eh? I wanted to say hi to all of you guys (jesse was upstairs too) but it was so early and everyone had class, and ... well, I got scared hehehe no worries! I'll visit during non office hours soon :p

Best wishes and keep in touch ok? I'll be at your grad :beer:

LotsaLuvLea

[JOSICH]

My congratulations :bowdown:

[koity]

Hey~ Kristin
I really love your demo reel! 3d39 here...
How you compressed your demo reel into
such small size without compromise the quality? :surprised

Again, congratulate for the great work. :applause:

[ksedore]

rayfusion: hello again. I'm at school. I'm in the Tree Fort. I've been working on the windshield for awhile. It's a tough one. I've tried so many different things...I don't know. Some say it's too fast, some too slow, and some say it's fine. :hmm:

3d43lea: hi girl! Thanks! Stop by again soon! We don't really have class. Larry just pops in whenever he can. It was just bad luck that day. I'm glad you're coming to our grad. Amanda and I are figuring out what to say. :eek:

JOSICH: Thanks! I'm glad you like it!

koity: Hey, a fellow VFSer! I would have been in Term 1 when you were graduating! Wow, time flies, hey? I used discreet Cleaner to compress my files. They have a free download on their web site, but it puts an ugly watermark on the lower right corner. It works AWESOME though! It's great for converting it to MPEG-2 for DVD as well.

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