tomassalles
03-18-2007, 04:52 AM
EQUILIBRIO
(balance)
by TOMAS SALLES
SELECTED FOR SIGGRAPH's ELETRONIC THEATER
ANIMATION FESTIVAL
San Diego 2007
This is my NYU thesis for the Master of Science in Digital Imaging and Design program (at CADA). My aim was to manipulate a live action footage (shot with a rented 35mm camera) and using the software learned in the CADA/NYU program to achieve the desired visual effect (below).
http://features.cgsociety.org/gallerycrits/138903/138903_1174196269_medium.jpg
Description
A Male character confined in a dark gym exercises to develop his upper body muscles, and as he grows to enormous proportions his body stability changes.
(http://www.tomassalles.com)Download (http://www.tomassalles.com)
(http://esub.siggraph.org/uploads/177A6M-DGZP1Z/Movie_0734.mov)
Challenges
The need of a 3D virtual torso without the use of a virtual muscle and bone system demanded an imaginative solution. An artistic approach using Pose Space Deformations (PSD) required a thorough effort on every step of the short's creation. 82 polygonal sculptures and highly detailed displacement and texture maps were created in Zbrush to be used in Michael B. Comet's PoseDeformer plug-in for Maya. A rigged torso with PSD corrections was then animated to match the actor's movement on match-moved Maya Live cameras. On top of that, the muscles growths were animated with blendshapes and influenced by a Maya Hair simulation on the rig to create a jiggling effect. The use of Mental Ray's subsurface scattering shaders was essential to pull off a convincing skin look.
http://features.cgsociety.org/gallerycrits/138903/138903_1174196715_large.jpg
Hardware and software used:
AMD Athlon 64X2 Dual Core Processor 4800+ 2.41GHz, 2,00 GB of Ram - For the HD version renders I used the incredible renderfarm from 'The mill NY' (Thanks guys!)
Autodesk Maya unlimited 7.0 , Michael B. Comet's Pose Deformer, Pixologic Zbrush 2.0, Adobe Premier 2, Adobe Photshop 7.0 , Adobe Illustrator CS2, Adobe After Effects 7.0
running time = 1.07min shot in 35mm transferred to HDCAM-SR
The thesis subject matter.
How can a limit to growth and expansion be determined? Are limits bad to human potential? ‘Equilibrio’(balance) implies that future generations are challenged to find the balance between growth and sustainability to avoid an unexpected fall.
This dark and humorous piece is a metaphorical comment on today’s destructive culture of excesses that encourages us to be more impulsive to grow, to consume, to profit, consequently, pollute, destroy, and waste. It also exposes the border between the Ideal physique and the grotesque while signaling to the relationships between the media (e.g. the TV commercial format) and the increasing preoccupation with the image and aesthetics experienced in this contemporary phase of modernity pushing everyone to the limit.
Tomas Salles
(balance)
by TOMAS SALLES
SELECTED FOR SIGGRAPH's ELETRONIC THEATER
ANIMATION FESTIVAL
San Diego 2007
This is my NYU thesis for the Master of Science in Digital Imaging and Design program (at CADA). My aim was to manipulate a live action footage (shot with a rented 35mm camera) and using the software learned in the CADA/NYU program to achieve the desired visual effect (below).
http://features.cgsociety.org/gallerycrits/138903/138903_1174196269_medium.jpg
Description
A Male character confined in a dark gym exercises to develop his upper body muscles, and as he grows to enormous proportions his body stability changes.
(http://www.tomassalles.com)Download (http://www.tomassalles.com)
(http://esub.siggraph.org/uploads/177A6M-DGZP1Z/Movie_0734.mov)
Challenges
The need of a 3D virtual torso without the use of a virtual muscle and bone system demanded an imaginative solution. An artistic approach using Pose Space Deformations (PSD) required a thorough effort on every step of the short's creation. 82 polygonal sculptures and highly detailed displacement and texture maps were created in Zbrush to be used in Michael B. Comet's PoseDeformer plug-in for Maya. A rigged torso with PSD corrections was then animated to match the actor's movement on match-moved Maya Live cameras. On top of that, the muscles growths were animated with blendshapes and influenced by a Maya Hair simulation on the rig to create a jiggling effect. The use of Mental Ray's subsurface scattering shaders was essential to pull off a convincing skin look.
http://features.cgsociety.org/gallerycrits/138903/138903_1174196715_large.jpg
Hardware and software used:
AMD Athlon 64X2 Dual Core Processor 4800+ 2.41GHz, 2,00 GB of Ram - For the HD version renders I used the incredible renderfarm from 'The mill NY' (Thanks guys!)
Autodesk Maya unlimited 7.0 , Michael B. Comet's Pose Deformer, Pixologic Zbrush 2.0, Adobe Premier 2, Adobe Photshop 7.0 , Adobe Illustrator CS2, Adobe After Effects 7.0
running time = 1.07min shot in 35mm transferred to HDCAM-SR
The thesis subject matter.
How can a limit to growth and expansion be determined? Are limits bad to human potential? ‘Equilibrio’(balance) implies that future generations are challenged to find the balance between growth and sustainability to avoid an unexpected fall.
This dark and humorous piece is a metaphorical comment on today’s destructive culture of excesses that encourages us to be more impulsive to grow, to consume, to profit, consequently, pollute, destroy, and waste. It also exposes the border between the Ideal physique and the grotesque while signaling to the relationships between the media (e.g. the TV commercial format) and the increasing preoccupation with the image and aesthetics experienced in this contemporary phase of modernity pushing everyone to the limit.
Tomas Salles