Just a few screenshots of my process working on the skateboard images that I posted few days ago.
Just a couple of quick renders riding my skateboard :)
Sometimes Mari seems to have small issues with the texture bleeding.
I just realized that sometimes the bleeding doesn't happen at all. If you find yourself with this problem, the best solution is probably to force Mari to do the texture bleeding.
Only 2 steps are needed.
I will be posting different assets in this website that I think can be useful for other VFX artists, students and amateurs.
I'm starting with one of my favourite light-rigs for look development and model checking.
Look Development Light-rig 0001 for Arnold
2014
2015
2016
Quick sketches for the construction of a fingerboard skatepark.
Let's go for a ride!
Processing Lidar scans to be used in production is a very tedious task, specially when working on big environments, generating huge point clouds with millions of polygons. That’s so complicated to move in any 3D viewport.
To clean those point clouds the best tools usually are the ones that the 3D scans manufacturers ship with their products. But sometimes they are quite complex and not artist friendly.
And also most of the time we receive the Lidar from on-set workers and we don’t have access to those tools, so we have to use mainstream software to deal with this task.
If we are talking about very complex Lidar, we will have to spend a good time to clean it. But if we are dealing with simple Lidar of small environments, props or characters, we can clean them quite easily using MeshLab or Zbrush.
Another alternative to MeshLab is Zbrush. But the problem with Zbrush is the memory limitation. Lidar are a very big point clouds and Zbrush doesn’t manage the memory very well.
But you can combine MeshLab and Zbrush to process your Lidar’s.
The first trailer for Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings has been released.
I’ve been involved on this project for quite a while.
Not too long ago, we needed to create a lightrig to lit a very reflective character, something like a robot made of chrome. This robot is placed in a real environment with a lot of practical lights, and this lights are changing all the time.
The robot will be created in 3D and we need to integrate it in the real environment, and as I said, all the lights will be changing intensity and temperature, some of then flickering all the time and very quickly.
And we are talking about a long sequence without cuts, that means we can’t cheat as much as we’d like.
In this situation we can’t use standard equirectangular HDRIs. They won’t be good enough to lit the character as the lighting changes will not be covered by a single panoramic image.
Spheron
The best solution for this case is probably the Spheron. If you can afford it or rent it on time, this is your tool. You can get awesome HDRI animations to solve this problem.
But we couldn’t get it on time, so this is not an option for us.
Then we thought about shooting HDRI as usual, one equirectangular panorama for each lighting condition. It worked for some shots but in others when the lights are changing very fast and blinking, we needed to capture live action videos. Tricks animating the transition between different HDRIs wouldn’t be good enough.
So the next step it would be to capture HDRI videos with different exposures to create our equirectangular maps.
The regular method
The fastes solution would be to use our regular rigs (Canon 5D Mark III and Nikon D800) mounted in a custom base to support 3 cameras with 3 fisheye lenses. They will have to be overlapped by around 33%.
With this rig we should be able to capture the whole environment while recording with a steady cam, just walking around the set.
But obviously those cameras can’t record true HDR. They always record h264 or another compression video. And of course we can’t bracket videos with those cameras.
Red Epic
To solve the .RAW video and the multi brackting we end up using Red Epic cameras. But using 3 cameras plus 3 lenses is quite expensive for on set survey work, and also quite heavy rig to walk all around a big set.
Finally we used only one Red Epic with a 18mm lens mounted in an steady cam, and in the other side of the arm we placed a big akromatic chrome ball. With this ball we can get around 200-240 degrees, even more than using a fisheye lens.
Obviously we will get some distorsion on the sides of the panorama, but honestly, have you ever seen a perfect equirectangular panorama for 3D lighting being used in a post house?
With the Epic we shot .RAW video a 5 brackets, rocedording the akromatic ball all the time and just walking around the set. The final resolution was 4k.
We imported the footage in Nuke and convert it using a simple spherical transform node to create true HDR equirectangular panoramas. Finally we combined all the exposures.
With this simple setup we worked really fast and efficient. Precision was accurate in reflections and lighting and the render time was ridiculous.
Can’t show any of this footage now but I’ll do it soon.
GoPro
We had a few days to make tests while the set was being built. Some parts of the set were quite inaccessible for a tall person like me.
In the early days of set constructing we didn’t have the full rig with us but we wanted to make quick test, capture footage and send it back to the studio, so lighting artists could make some Nuke templates to process all the information later on while shooting with the Epic.
We did a few tests with the GoPro hero 3 Black Edition.
This little camera is great, light and versatile. Of course we can’t shot .RAW but at least it has a flat colour profile and can shot 4k resolution. You can also control the white balance and the exposure. Good enough for our tests.
We used an akromatic chrome ball mounted on an akromatic base, and on the other side we mounted the GoPro using a Joby support.
We shot using the same methodology that we developed for the Epic. Everything worked like a charm getting nice panormas for previs and testing purposes.
It also was fun to shot with quite unusual rig, and it helped us to get used to the set and to create all the Nuke templates.
We also did some render tests with the final panoramas and the results were not bad at all. Obviously these panoramas are not true HDR but for some indie projects or low budget projects this would be an option.
Footage captured using a GoPro and akromatic kit
In this case I’m in the center of the ball and this issue doesn’t help to get the best image. The key here is to use a steady cam to reduce this problem.
Nuke
Nuke work is very simple here, just use a spherical transform node to convert the footage to equirectangular panoramas.
Final results using GoPro + akromatic kit
Few images of the kit
I’ll be presenting a new texturing course for my friends of TD-U! Check it out!
All the information here.
I don’t know how I came to this setting in my Nikon D800 but it’s just great and can save your life if you can’t use a remote shutter.
The thing is that a few days ago the connector where I plug my shutter release fell apart. And you know that shooting brackets or multiple exposures is almost impossible without a remote trigger. If you press the sutter button without a release trigger you will get vibration or movement between brackets, and this will end up with ghosting problems.
With my remote trigger connection broken I only had the chance to take my camera body to the Nikon repair centre, but my previous experiences are to bad and I knew I would loose my camera for a month. The other option it would be to buy the great CamRanger but I couldn’t find it in London and couldn’t wait to be delivered.
On the other hand, I found on internet that a lot of Nikon D800 users have the same problem with this connection so maybe this is a problem related with the construction of the camera.
The good thing is that I found a way to bracket without using a remote shutter, just pushing the shutter button once, at the beginning of the multiple exposures. You need to activate one hidden option in your D800.
Just below the self time opcion there is another setting called number of shots. This is the key setting, if you put a 2 there the camera will shot all the brackets pressing the shutter release just once.
If you have activated the delay shutter option, you will get perfect exposures without any kind of vibration or movement.
Finally you can set the interval between shots, 0.5s is more than enough because you won’t be moving the camera/tripod between exposures.
And that’s all that you need to capture multiple brackets with your Nikon D800 without a remote shutter.
This saved my life while shooting for akromatic.com the other day :)
Check the new panorama that I shot for akromatic, this week is completely free!!
More info here.
It looks like we have a new video introducing the creatures that we made at MPC and you will enjoy watching Maleficent :)
UDIM workflow has been around for the last 10 years or so. It became more popular when Mari came out and these days it’s being used by everyone in the vfx industry.
In this blog you can find different ways to setup UDIMs in different software and render engines.
With Modo 801 has never been so easy, fast and great!
With just one click you are ready to go!
These days we use a lot of 3D scans in VFX productions.
They are very useful, the got a lot of detail and we can use them for different purposes. 3D scans are great.
But obviously, a 3D scan needs to be processed in so many ways, depending on the use you are looking for. It can be used for modelling reference, for displacement extraction, for colour and surface properties references, etc.
One of the most common uses, is as base for modelling tasks.
If so, you would need to retopologize the scan to convert it in a proper 3D model, ready to be mapped, textured and so on.
In Maya 2014 we have a few tools that are great and easy to use.
I’ve been using them for quite a while now while processing my 3D scans, so let me explain to you which tools I do use and how I use them.
Check this “behind the scenes of Godzilla” with all the Gareth Edward’s crew and where you can see a few sets designed by Owen Paterson.
This is it. The new and definitive trailer for Godzilla.
In theatres May 16, 2014
More than two years of work in two different VFX facilites, but I had a lot of fun :)
Another quick entry with my tips&tricks for Modo.
This time I’m going to write about setting up Mudbox’s vector displacements in Modo.
Just finishing this simple scene and having a lot of fun playing with Legos.
