Visual Effects Reel

[houmanm]

that is very nice mister Knight i would love to see the finish project i cant belive that nobody has post and crits yet becuse this is one complex project.
good luck.:drool: :thumbsup: :drool:

[IDownupI]

one thing
It looks like 10 people fit in there MAKE IT BIGGGGGGER

But the model is good

[Maxsmackage]

background and tower are awesome, but the tower looks kinda stuck into it, it doesn't seem to fit the background, the tower would look even better on some barren rocks with a wave splash o too :D Looks great tho

[KnightVFX]

Thanks for the input. I am currently working on some ways of helping the tower's integration. And I hope the scale will make a bit more sense once I place the rest of the soldiers. Expect an update with animation later tonight!

[DevonH]

Right on man! VFS rocks! Can't wait to see the full reel when you finish. I'll be at the grad (pending work load)

DevonH
3D40

[pablov]

really god job, Adam, keep roching , man:buttrock:

[Pixel_Pisher_]

Hey Adam,
It doesn't look very realistic right now, mostly because if this tower is supposed to be so big, then why do the trees come 1/2 way up the tower, and your image is too crisp for the rest of the picture, you need some sort of a blur to it or something like that. And what's with that yellow thing at the top of the tower, it makes it look like a lighthouse. ANYWAYS the modeling doesn look to bad however.

[KnightVFX]

Thanks for the input. I finally got around to getting a quick test together of the camera move with the soldiers placed. There are lost of things to fix still...but let me know what you think!

http://www.vfs.com/~adamk/Untitled2.avi

[crockett]

looks really good except for the soldiers walking backwards :) how long has the sceen taken you so far?

[KnightVFX]

Ya, I actually just finished replacing the soldiers walking backwards. All together the shot has taken almost 6 months. That has included all previs, testing, modeling, texturing, weighting and animating the soldiers, modeling and texturing the tower, modeling, animating and running cloth simulations on the ships (which will be composited next) and doing a digital water replacement. I just have a bit of compositing left, and should have a final shot sometime this week.

[brianellebracht]

very interesting. I especially like how people seem to disappear and reappear. lol. Looks nice though, how did you do the grass in front? Is that Painteffects? Thanks,
Brian

[KnightVFX]

Thanks. I considered using paint effects for the grass...but soon realized that paint effects is pretty much useless for anything photorealistic. So I ended up painting the grass in photoshop and compositing it in. Some of the grass I also placed onto a grid in Maya and animated it to give a slight movement. Another update will be coming soon!

[mohh]

That looks great! Did you know that most of the flags at ground were blowing towards the left and that the ones at the top of the lighthouse are blowing the other way?

[Eman597]

I LOVE VFX, sorry im just a big fan of vfx, its nice to see a reel on that instead of just animation once in a while

[KnightVFX]

I'm one step ahead of you. In fact, I just finished fixing the flags at the top, and added a few more flags that had somehow dissapeared from my composite. Just working on the ship right now, and should have an updated animation soon. Thanks for the crits!
http://www.vfs.com/~adamk/shiptest1.jpg

[Beckett]

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: Nice Work. Can't wait to see the finished product!:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[KnightVFX]

After 8 hours of rendering the composite, there is still one group of soldiers that pop in, I am going to replace the soldiers at the base of the tower, and the fire is playing kind of choppy. Other than that though...I'm almost there (I think.) Let me know what you think! I'm always open to feedback.

click here for avi (divx) (http://www.vfs.com/~adamk/test4.avi)

[graphxdziner]

I like what you have made with this;

+ The people are a bit more organic with random movements rather than groups of the same actions.
+ Panning works well to give an overall impression of the size and openess of the scene
+ Birds are a nice touch


? Why is everyone coming from the right
? Why are the boats not submerged a bit in the water (mask?)
? if the wind blows the flags, why not the grass
? Why are the birds always the same size given any distance?(first bird same as the last birds)
? Why do men seems to 'appear' as the camera pans to about the middle of the beach
?why do the guys at the bottom have to walk away from the entrance - you would think they should stick around it. (Almost like nobody wants to protect the fire)

-Slight atmospheric perspective might do some good. At least a bit of motion blur on some of the people.
-Could be interesting to pan from a close detail of a uniform to get a greater sense of depth and detail of your models.
-start movement of the furthest right persons a bit earlier instead of when the camera centers on them - even if they are the lazy ones who just like to talk.
-flicker during the beginning of pan from bottom up
-I kind of want to see some walk where there are footprints to show some sort of impression or interaction with the environment.



blah blah blah, just a few comments but I am not the one to do anything about it. Maybe it helps - probably not.

[graphxdziner]

maybe you should start over from scratch?

hehehe.... ok you can shoot me later.

[KnightVFX]

Thank you for the good feedback. That's actually some of the better input that I've gotten. I'm working on making some changes right now to it.

graphxdziner- could you please clarify what you mean when you ask "Why is everyone coming from the right?" Do you mean the direction they are walking?

Anyway...thanks for your advice. I'll make some changes and post another update soon!

only 9 days left to finish this thing!!! :bounce:

[Pixel_Pisher_]

:xtreme:First of all I want to say that it looks a hell of a lot better that what it did on the first still. the divx movie made a big difference. there are still a couple of things that need to be fixed, most have already been pointed out already. However, behind the grass i don't know if you wanted this or not but there are still two guys who are walking backwards. All of the other things that i saw have already been pointed out so there is no sense in me repeating my self. Keep up the good work:xtreme:

[SpaceFork]

You're project's comin along great, the only minor crits I have have already been mentioned. Keep it up!

[graphxdziner]

ooh, well, you pan from right to left, right?

I just mean that everyone is on the right side of that castle. I understand that it shows movement of all the characters very well (nice work on that), but there is not one person on the left of the castle. I wonder if maybe to imply that there are just a crap load of people at least one needs to be walking out of the frame(on left side) when you center on the castle itself (and pan up).

you know what I mean... let me illustrate;

_[{}]__...._......_....._.........,,,,,,,,++++,,,,,,,++

maybe make it more like;

.._[{}]__...._......_....._.........,,,,,,,,++++,,,,,,,++


.. = people
_ = ground
[{}] = castle
,, = waves
++ = boat


Hell , just scrap the 3d and make it all ASCII! .... yeah, that comment earns me another shot in the knee.

[KnightVFX]

** & $% @ ! OP # ( \| RE `` XX 3 @ <>


`` = some
** = thank
$% = for
@ = the
OP = I'll
# = go
|\ = and
RE = place
XX = soldiers
3 = to
<> = left
& = you
( = ahead
! = advice

:drool:

[krebber]

hmmmm...seems to pan a bit fast. Did you do it in After Effects? You could check out Combustion.

[krebber]

sorry, my speakers aren't working properly. What kind of music is on your reel?

[KnightVFX]

Well, I've made a lot of improvements. I just have a couple minor tweeks to make and it's done. All that's left is breakdowns and putting it all together. Let me know what you think!!

Click here for the .avi (divx) (http://www.vfs.com/~adamk/finalshotA.avi)

[graphxdziner]

good work, much better. I still think you should start over and do something with hand puppets...... hahahahhahaha


no really, hand puppets...



contrast issues work better, nice arrangement and the rocks work as well. I like the boats possition in the background that is almost unnoticable. all round this is a great improvement.

[KnightVFX]

Here's a quicktime version for you guys who can't view the .avi.

click here for qucktime version (http://www.vfs.com/~adamk/test.mov)

[aazimkhan]

hmmm...looks good...
before i C&C....Is that final?

[KnightVFX]

Well, it's kind of final. All that I have time to go back and fix at this point is the pop in the flags on the tower. This is my final project at VFS, and my last day is Wednesday. So I'm just getting the breakdowns and final presentation together now. But I'm still open to any input. I can always go back later.

[aazimkhan]

btw. I was in class 3d 31 :)

Actually i did vfx stuff like that too...using still images and adding camera pan using combustion etc etc.

for your reel...some C&Cs...

first thing is the camera pan its all linear...U have composited all yer elements over a large image...so u have a option of animating a realisitic camera pan...i mean add a little shake and variation in its speed...to make it realisitic...that also helps you hide stuff...like animation, grass movement. since your movent is so linear ..we can see everything in the background so still...

specially in the last part where we see the flag behind the grass...
the camera moves so linear that the scene looks dead - if u have a little variatiaon and shake...ppl wont notice the grass being still...and i think overall it will look better.

also maybe u can tweak that cloth animation a little more....

the compositing looks good...and the animation on those chracters thats nice. the grass layers over the chracters...thats good...thats some good photoshop cutout work! I understand ow much work u have put in those characters, wieghing, rig, animation.

Overall its a good peice. see if u can fix the camera movement that should bring a big change.
I know u have rendered all out...and its a real pain doing it again.

:thumbsup:

i tried some vfx work using still images too...
check it out at www.aazim.odhn.com/http://www.aazim.odhn.com/vfx.htm
try downloadin the vfx demo.

Good Luck.

[KnightVFX]

Thanks for the input aazimkhan. I do plan on putting a bit of a shake on the camera for the final render. Right now just focusing on getting my breakdowns and all that finished for this wednesday. I'll have a new version with the breakdowns up soon! Any other input?

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