Well I gave my input into this challenge and so I might as well enter it! Besides it sounds fun. I don’t have a storyboard or my own footage yet but I decided to have a test run (a VERY dodgy one) on the supplied footage:
http://www.jozvex.com/CGTalk/FXWars/FXWars07_DisintegrationTest_Jozvex.mov
Yes, it’s ridiculous. But, it kinda proved to me that my overall method could work.
Haha I know, he’s spontaneously burning to a crisp due to invisible fire from a… Snargleflondus demon?
HAHAHAHA… greatest super-power I’ve EVER seen. 
“Dont mess with me! I’ll burn myself and collapse!”
Looks like a good start… glad to finally see someone enter!
Well this test footage proves that this concept can work with the footage provided.
So this gives me an idea now for team entries.
Anyway, looking forward to more updates.
-R
Ok, so I’m going to try for the full Blade disintegration effect. I need to hire Blade Trinity for clearer reference (I assume it would have the best effects of the three?) but it seems like the basic ingredients are:
The person
A skeleton
Fire
Embers
Ash
and maybe smoke
Here’s another little test I made today:
http://www.jozvex.com/CGTalk/FXWars/FXWars07_DisintegrationTest2_Jozvex.mov
Still dodgy and the scale of the fire is way off . Oh, my tools will be Maya Unlimited 8, Fusion 5, Photoshop and if I get really confident Syntheyes (for tracking a camera move).
Not bad at all! It also answered the question I had about how to use that stock footage… you just paint in/make up the background you don’t have in cases like that, I guess? It looked like in some of the Mars Attacks type footage that the scene practically froze as the guy disintegrated… perhaps that’s the best they could do at that point.
I might give the whole thing a try… I guess it couldn’t hurt… hmmm…
Yeah, I just quickly cloned myself a clean plate Photoshop, though having an actual clean plate would be nicer which is why I’ll still film my own footage if I can.
You should give the challenge a go! The worst that’ll happen is you’ll become the laughing stock of CGTalk and never work in this field again… and that never stopped me before!
Oh, okay – sweet! I thought someone would come burn my house down or something. 
Eh, I guess I’ll give it a shot. 
no no… we’ll dress up funny and burn teapots on the front lawn…not too close to the house, so there’s no worries!
Well I got myself Blade Trinity and even though the movie is… quite… sub-fantastic, the vampire deaths and other effects are so very good!! I’m a bit scared though now. I’ll have to try really hard if I want to come close, which I do. As much as I love my dearest Buffy, the effects in Blade Trinity are way cooler (well, it is a feature I suppose). And an Aussie plays Dracula which is quite hilarious on some levels.
Are we allowed to post any kind of DVD still captures? Like a collage of disintegrating death (…undeath)?
Yes this is a great start. I usually don’t follow FXWARS but I would love to see this one where it’s leading.
Keep it up.
Thanks for the support everyone!!
Ok the reference footage is clearly a huge help. My particles were too small, my fire was way too big, and it just needs to be more fast and furious and KAPOW!
I’m rendering out a completely different test now. Using a CG character rather than the footage. I’ll post the results later.
A slight improvement, no?
http://www.jozvex.com/CGTalk/FXWars/Jozvex_FXWars_BladeEffect.mov
(7mb eep)
I can’t believe I did all that today! Maybe I’m undead…
Maya/Motionbuilder/Fusion
EDIT: But in all seriousness, it has some issues. The fire appears in chunks rather than spreading and it vanishes too fast. There’s no ash and my embers are a bit huge and overpowering.
I especially like the embers that fly towards the camera. Did you use Maya fluids to do the fire and ember effects?
Very nice start you have there. Makes me want to join the challenge myself.
Would be a killer to have some real life photage like the one in you clip. Anyone living in Norway and own a camera feel like filming me ? 
Thanks! Yes I here’s what I did:
Used Motionbuilder to put some mocap together and stick it on that character.
Imported the guy into Maya where I improved the mesh a bit and added some animated shaders. I used the Geometry Cache feature which really helped playback and later calculations.
Created the fire with Fluid Effects and cached it
Created the embers using Blobby particles. I use blobby so that I can use standard shaders and render them in MR.
Animated the camera and rendered 4 passes with Mental Ray. Character pass, fire, embers and a depth pass that I didn’t end up using :rolleyes:
Tweaked and composited in Fusion!
just did some tests on disintegration for the current project i work on so that´s out of competition
