FXWars! TORNADO chriswaner, F2, FREEFORM

#21

I tripple that request for a tutorial and also agree about the trouble lol! :eek:

#22

Hey Everyone,

There are a couple of decent tutorials online. This is one of the best:

http://www.digitalartform.com/archives/2004/11/camera_projecti_1.html

But if there’s interest, I’d be happy to write one using the techniques I employ…some are common, some are a bit different–I think the technical basics are already covered in other tutorials; some of the things that I do have been discussed in previouse posts on this thread–build multiple maps based on parallax ovelap, paint out and build 3d geometry, use multiple projection cams for greater control.

I think the angle that might be helpful is to talk about the approach. How do you choose when to make a new projection? How do you know when to texture map and when to project? How do you choose camera positions for projections? Techniques for image modeling so that the projections work well in motion. That sort of thing.

On a general note: I’m seeing some great work coming out of this challenge. I think there’s a general state of uneasiness because most everyone participating has skills, and no one is completely letting the cat out of the bag, so to speak, when it comes to the actual tornado. The 3d skills are plenty among many participants, but the tornado will be made in compositing, late in the game.

Rest easy though, my tornado is still very early in developement, but be afraid, very afraid…bwahahahaha. Kidding.

Later,

Chris

#23

Hey Everyone,

So this week I worked on the car (SUV), the headlights on the car, and the mist coming off of the back of the car, road, etc. as the car speeds down the highway. The compositing isn’t complete on it yet, but I’ll stitch up the pieces when I finally get a tornado in there.

Here’s the movie…

So for the upcoming week: I need to do tree and grass replacement. That pretty much says it all. I need to determine a final procedure to doing photorealistic blowing trees and grass. I’ll keep you posted.

As promised:

The following is an image that demonstrates what’s happening in my scene with regard to camera projection.

At the bottom is the projection camera that in this shot remains stable. It is projecting an image on the ditch geometry. The image sticks like a texture to the geometry. Then I move/animate the render came (pictured just above the projection cam). I match modeled the highway and texure mapped it for a little more control when the car is driving over it. As you can see the setup is very simple. But that’s good; get the most out of as little as possible.

Hope that helps a bit.

Have fun, everyone.

Chris

#24

Been a couple of weeks since the last update. Most of that time has been spent getting the proper combination of techniques for the tornado. I’ll be showing that stuff next week. This week, I’m just updating everyone on the progres of the tree replacement which is just about complete, though some compositing is still required. Below find an image and a link to the movie as it stands. The trees in the still background image have been replaced with trees blowing in the breeze; also some preliminary grass blowing in the distance as well.

Here’s the link to the movie as it stands…link.

As promised:

The technique I ended up using was pretty straight forward. First I created simple blowing trees using paint effects in Maya. When I got a motion that was nice I made a dope sheet of the key movements. Then I duplicated the input graph for the tree multiple times and arranged them so that they looked like branches and limbs of a larger tree. Then I rigged them with a spline IK and animated the it with the info from the dope sheet. Lighting, rendering, done.

Hope that helps. Check out the movie, and you’ll see it in motion.

I’m excited to show tornado stuff next week. Stay tuned.

Best,

Chris

#25

Impressive work with the trees:)

#26

Hello Chris, just wanted to tell you that I´m really impressed with the tree animation rig you have done, I would love to know how did you do it, I´m having lots of problems with mines… my trees are basic paint effects with turbulance fields on them but they don´t look very reallistic.

I love to get a good tip from you. :slight_smile:

here is the link to my video and images:
VIDEO:
http://johnpgiancarlo.cgsociety.org/gallery/661796/

IMAGE:

Thanks and Congrats …
John Paul Giancarlo

#27

Thanks, I do appreciate that.

John: I’d say that your execution of the trees is not much different than mine in terms of the technique. The only significant difference is that I used multiple paint effects trees to create one larger tree. The motion, scale, etc. was never quite right for me with individual paint effects trees. When I combined multiples into one tree, the result was much better. Another trick, as I mentioned in my post, was to pay close attention to the timings of the turbulance on the paint effects trees and then use those timings to animate the IK spline–to which all the paint effects trees were bound. This provided a more realistic motion because everything attached to the tree–leaves, branches and the spline IK trunk, all seemed to be impacted by the same wind.

Hope that helps.

Take care,

Chris

#28

Hi Chris

Awesome work mate, keep it up! The paint effects trees worked out really well, congrats! Im planning a shot using Paint effects trees, nothing with as much movement as you have here, but its good to see that the Paint Effects trees can give such good results. Its something i still have to learn from the ground up, so would you mind me picking your brains occasionally on that?

Anyway, awesome work, look forward to seeing updates and cant wait for the finished shot!

Nick

#29

concerning paintFX trees: are you guys rendering in software then or converting to polys and rendering in MR?

#30

Hey Nick,

Yes, Paint Effects are really something, and, yes, lots of attributes to keep straight. Feel free to send questions any time. I really appreciate the kind words.

For this I’m converting the Paint Effects stuff to polygons, not specifically for mental ray but just for control over the object history–ability to move, parent, group, apply further dynamics, rig, etc. However, rendering with mental ray is an added bonus and is what I did here.

Best,

Chris

#31

So just to recap, your main branches are made up of seperate paint effects trees using the builti in paint effect turbulence. You then used a spline ik for the root trunk and used the baked out paint effect turbulence to drive it?

Nice.

I’m doing a tornado shot at home (not entered) and just used spline ik for every branch - I like your way better though - having less than 50 joints in the scene is much more maintainable.

#32

Hey Wixman,

That’s it. I’d like to see your tornado animation when you’re done.

Very nice reel, by the way.

Best,

Chris

#33

Oh ok i’ll start a thread…

#34

Hey Everyone,

So this week I’m going to be showing some of the tornado stuff I’ve been working on. Things are coming together finally, though my schedule has made it difficult. Below find an image and a link to the movie. There are still some things I’m trying to get right, but this will give you an idea of where I’m going.

The movie is here…

The movie is full res: 1280 x 544 and is about 5.5 mb.

For the final week of the competition:

Lots of compositing, fixing little things, color correcting, sound, etc. My next update will be the final. I just want to say best of luck to everyone. I’ve really enjoyed and continue to enjoy looking at everyone’s work and progress.

Take care,

Chris

#35

Looking nice mate, specifically the last test… wispy stuff is tricky work. You using fumefx? I dread to think of the effort gone in if it’s maya fluids.

#36

Nice…This is looking really good, hope you have the time to complete what you are working on. I don’t know how to do this stuff, I tried animating a vortex in max the other day and it made me appreciate how cool the stuff you people are doing is.

#37

Holy Moly!!! :bowdown:

God damn, those tests look tasty! I would love to hear how you went about this, if not now then when the contest is over, coz that looks seriously beautiful!

I cannot wait to see your final result, im thinking its going to be something pretty spectacular…

No pressure… :wink:

Nick

#38

Thanks for the comments guys. I appreciate it.

When everything is said and done, if there’s some interest, I’ll do a breakdown of the elements that went into the tornado and an explanation of what I did.

Later,

Chris

#39

chirs man!

thats incredible. im kinda screwed with render times, and well, just having no time to do aynthing, im sure you know how it goes lol. I’m rushing through some fume and AB now… but yours is looking amazing. good job man. Mines currently looking like a miniture, but yours has some seriouse size to it.

good luck mate

jono

#40

Jono,

You hit the whole thing right there…I’m now +95% done, and I’m now convinced that speed might be the single most important factor in making a tornado believable. Slightly too fast and it shrinks to the size of a refrigerator.

Judging by the quality of your work thus far, I’m sure that you’ll bust out with a great entry (no pressure…lol).

Thanks for the comments and best of luck,

Chris