FXWars! TORNADO tris3d, F4 ,FREEFORM

[Tris3d]

I was in the park with family last weekend and an air ambulance helicopter landed very close to us! Very cool! So, I decided to base my idea around the same helicopter trying to take off before the tornado arrives. It will get caught in the strong winds and get flung around and eventually crash into the floor with parts shooting towards the camera! Thats what I'm hoping for anyway ;)

I haven't actually modelled anything in 3ds max for 3 years so I'm very out of practice! I was semi tempted to use a free helicopter model off the net or from one of the 3d world mags but came to the conclusion its always nicer when its all your own work ( no matter how poor the model is! ) So this is about 9 hours work! I used poly model technique using extruding edges for the first time. I found it very frustrating to get perfectly smooth edges with this method so if anyone has any tips I would be very grateful!

P.s Hopefully this wont be too close to the camera in the final shot so you wont see all the flaws!! :argh:

http://i323.photobucket.com/albums/nn456/tris3d/1.jpg

[Tris3d]

Finished with texturing! :surprised Just need to add some basic control panels etc.

http://i323.photobucket.com/albums/nn456/tris3d/2.jpg

[snicket]

Looking really nice!

[Tris3d]

Thanks!

I was just wondering if anyone could help with a problem I have. I was going to film the background footage today using a Sony HD camcorder but in previous experience it doesn't produce any recognised file format that I can import into 3ds max / after effects. How would I go about converting the file or should I just try and get hold of a friends DV camera. Many thanks in advance.

Edit: I've just researched on the net and found out that the mts file format seems to be a nightmare. Apparently After effects cs3 accepts it so I might have to think about upgrading!

[snicket]

You might want to try "Any Video Converter" you can find it over at download.com
It is really nice! And free....

[Tris3d]

Cool thanks, I'll give it a go! downloading now!

[Tris3d]

wow, thanks mate! Just saved me a lot of money!

[snicket]

Sure thing. I use that all the time, it works wonders!

[Tris3d]

I've been having so much fun working on this project that I haven't been updating!

Here are a couple of tests I've created along the way.

1. This was about my 5th test render for the tornado

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7UmmV8CZ48 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7UmmV8CZ48)

2. 7th test render. Feel that I'm getting somewhere now... lots to do still! Going to hand animate bigger items such as tree trunks etc, also need to animate the funnel once I have the footage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDr-3VUczL0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDr-3VUczL0)

3. First particle test of the helicopter getting caught in the tornado. In the final one it will split in two shortly after and I'll animate the pieces rotating around.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-86BxQWiYY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-86BxQWiYY)

Cheers.

[snicket]

Wow!
That tornado look amazing. That blows mine right out of the water..... Good job.

[nickmarshallvfx]

That tornado is looking really good! Nice work mate, look forward to seeing how it progresses!

Nick

[Tris3d]

Thanks a lot for the comments!!

Just a still render of the tornado! I've added more low poly objects to be flung around instead of the shape objects i currently had,... after adding them it seems you can barely see the difference anyway haha! Ah well.


http://i323.photobucket.com/albums/nn456/tris3d/3.jpg

[snicket]

Hey,
What did you texture the main tornado with? Like what texture was applied to the particles.
Looking really good!

[Tris3d]

I created the funnel using geometry and then added lots of facing particles on the surface with a simple smoke like texture. I then applied the same particles over the top again with a slightly lighter colour to add a bit of depth. I then hid the geometry.

[Tris3d]

Another test render! Just a first look at the background camera match footage. No animation, masks, matte painting or helicopter yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO93e7P8yE4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO93e7P8yE4)

p.s Sorry about the quality, just had a look and its not very good. Must purchase some webspace soon :rolleyes:

[spiffers]

I love the look of the tornado! :bowdown:
But I have some critics regarding the helicopter. It should probably be "taken" by the tornado before it disintegrates. A helicopter would also be very unstable quite some time before the tornado takes it because of turbulence IMHO.

[Tris3d]

Yeah agreed, that was just a test anim to see what the helicopter looked like falling apart! It will def lose control before this point but I'll still have bits pulling off it moments before it being taken.... like a split second and then the whole thing being engulfed into the tornado.

I used this as reference....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiZz8jjHpbw

Although obviously the house is firmly rooted to the ground, I still like the idea of the tornado ripping the house/helicopter up just moments before finally devouring it!

Thanks for the comments :thumbsup:

[BusterHymen]

This is really starting to look cool, I can't wait to see some final renders.

[Tris3d]

Does anyone know of any free camera tracker programme out there? I've always used voodoo before but its really struggling with the motion of my camera! :( So desperate to start pulling some of the elements together but stuck at this point :banghead:

[Tris3d]

Thought i would just show another test render. Some debri from the tornado will fly towards a house and just clip the chimney. At the moment I'm still tackling camera matching the footage, as its all shaky and blurred I'm almost completely stuck and getting no results from it. :(


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-7y61dgmlA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-7y61dgmlA)

I haven't masked the background chimney out because this isn't the footage I'm using.

[floju]

congrats!! all your tests are really looking great so far! looking forward to some more of your stuff! : )

[snicket]

Wow! This is all looking very good.

[Dutchman]

Hey Tris3D, you got some seriously good stuff going on! It's really inspiring to see how much you've done yet! I'm curious about your 'real footage', as I suppose it has a moving camera in it? Would it be easier to shoot a more steady move, track and use that, and make it look unsteady in post? (Adding rough movements and motionblur in 2D, in the final stage)

As you said you were looking for a nice free tracking application (as Voodoo isn't that capable, what I agree at), you can use Icarus Tracker. It was developed on university till it was bought by the people that sold it later a "PFTrack" (from the Pixel Farm).

Icarus is not available online anymore on the Icarus website, as the PF would have competition from it, but you can find some download links and information in this thread (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=76&t=56175) from some years ago.

Have fun!

[Tris3d]

Hey there Dutchman! Thanks for your comments and the tips on camera matcher! I haven't worked on this for a little while but where I left off I did decide to use a still image and add motion later like you suggested. Unfortunately I made the critical error of creating my tornado against a white background and when added to the scene it looked completely different! I need to go back and alter it or possibly change the whole setup, hense the little break! :) I'll be sure to post progress as soon as possible.


Thanks again!

[BusterHymen]

Hey Tris3d, I do belive you can still find a "Not for Comercial Use" version of Icarus out there if needed.

Another thing you can try since your footage doesn't look it is too jittery it to try match the motion in your composing software, depending on what you are using you can get some decent results.

Also, if it is allowed, you can send me your footage and I will run it through boujou and send you the results. I believe some team effort in this competion is allowed and I would hate to see you drop out for this.

[JohnPGiancarlo]

Hello Tris3D nice work with the tornado debri :applause: I really like the way it looks, the turbulence field is brilliant, I wonder if you could give us a look to see how you did it, Here is my post on this challenge:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=139&t=658152
Video:
http://johnpgiancarlo.cgsociety.org/gallery/661796/
Please let me know what do you think, I would appreciate a lot if you could help me with my tornado debri. :D

http://features-temp.cgsociety.org/gallerycrits/295323/295323_1218144191_medium.jpg

Thank you
John Paul Giancarlo

[Tris3d]

Hey there! Sorry for the delay in replying. I've just got back from a holiday break. Thanks for the comments, it means a lot.

BusterHymen: Thank you so much for the offer of matching it for me, however where I left off I decided to go with a still image plane that I will animate motion too. Again thanks a lot for the support.

JohnPGiancarlo: Thanks for the comments. I've literally just got back from holiday so I'll try and catch up and take a look at everyone elses work first thing tomorrow. The debri in my tornado took some time fiddling with different elements but basically it is driven by two wind space warps a vortex space warp and gravity. For some of the wood pieces or general junk I added a age test so that when the tornado kicks it up off the ground after a certain amount of time in the air the gravity kicks in. It still needs a lot of work as last time i worked on it a lot of the could particles kept blocking some of the other details and so on so I might start from scratch. I'll try and post the particle view up for you sometime tomorrow. Just need to get on top of things at home first ;) Good luck.

[RobertoOrtiz]

Please Post your final piece here:
FXWARS TORNADO! Post you Final Entry ) (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=139&t=667786)


Good luck in the voting!

-R

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