The new phone books are here! The new phone books are here!

Ok, I know that most of you whippersnappers aren't going to get the reference (or know what a phonebook is - it was how we found people before facebook.) Oh well, it's our blog, sue us.

The Kia commercial I worked on for Method Studios is online. I did camera tracking and matchmoved the hamsters on several shots. Enjoy!

Also, be on the lookout for the Verizon Droid commercial I worked on (it's the one with the hot chick fighting robots - I know, right??!!) We saw a teaser for it when we saw Attack the Block (go see it if you love aliens, sci-fi, or fun.)

That's it for now.

Cheers!

Daniel

Yes we know that the post is in all caps and the text is grey. Blogspot has been a little buggy today. Sorry.

New Reels!

I know, it's been a while but we've been really busy lately so there are going to be a bunch of updates soon!

I have been doing a lot of tests for an upcoming film project and working with SynthEyes a lot and testing integration of cg characters into live action footage. I also took some time to put a Camera Tracking reel together (which I have been meaning to do for a while now.) Make sure to watch it in HD and full screen!

Also, Please check out the brand new Maya Generalist reel that I (finally) put together.

More to come about the short soon so check back often. Or better yet, add the RSS feed to your email client.

Cheers!

Daniel

The completed piece...

Happy New Year!! (I know, I’m almost a month late – when I started writing this it WOULD have been New Years Day)

This is part five of a series of blog posts where I documented my process of taking a scene from the default materials stage to a finished textured and lit piece. If you missed the rest you can find them here:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
A diversion...

I know, I said that I would post this the Tuesday after my final was due. What can I say? I’m sorry.

The job that we have been working on took over so we could get it to the clients by the first of the year – today to be exact (remember, I started writing this at the first of the year). We made the deadline and are awaiting feedback on any final tweaks. More on this project soon.

So, here it is, the completed piece. Below it I will also put a “making of” video that shows many of the steps in the process and some of the layers that were composited to make the finished piece. (watch it in HD)

There you have it. Weeks worth of work for 13 seconds of animation (months of work if you count the modeling and animating as well).

For the nerds, geeks, curious and family (obligated) all of the “Making Of” stuff is below. It’s full of tech stuff, data, illustrations and examples. You’ve been warned…


To recap: I started with a scene that was grey with only the default material assigned to everything; I assigned materials that gave each object its color, texture, reflectivity, among many other attributes and then I added lights to create an environment and set a tone. Then came render time...

Rendering – an art unto itself. Of the many ways that you can render a scene it all boils down to, really, two ways – the lazy way and the hard way.
To render a scene the lazy way you make sure the scene looks the way you want it, you set a range of frames to render and you start the render. If you have a complicated scene this can take a looooooong time. In my case, to render out one frame with this method (without motion blur or depth of field) took 4 minutes – multiply that by 376 frames and you see that this scene would have taken 25 hours to render. Not as long as the hard way but I only get the scene in one layer – if I want to change or fix anything, I have to start all over again.

To render a scene the hard way you divide the scene up into separate passes – a pass can be anything from a single object that you want on its own layer, all of the reflections for the scene, a character that you want to isolate, the background, shadows… – basically anything you want control over can be rendered out as a separate layer.

Once you have the separate passes (layers) you have to composite them. Which means that you take all of the separate elements and put them together into one seamless piece. This way you can adjust each layer individually – a little darker here, blur that a little bit there, ad a little contrast to that layer…Also, as I said before if you need to change one element you can do that without having to render the entire scene all over again.

Here is a screenshot of the layers it took to put this together:

(as always - click the image to see it bigger)



On the left is the layers palette and on the right is my other monitor with the video image.

In upcoming posts I’ll get into more detail about each stage in the process individually. It’s taken me way too long to post this one so I’ll wrap it up here and let you enjoy the rest of your day.

The nerdy details:
3 computers took a combined total of 76 hours and 1 minute to render all of the separate layers over a period of 4 days.
There was a total of 37 render passes
47 Layers in After Effects
131 hand painted photoshop texture files (see below for an example)
39 lights in the scene
6085 frames rendered
Average render time per frame - .74 minutes
Longest render - environment occlusion pass– 11 frames in 3hr 43min = 20min/frame
Average amount of sleep – 3 hours/night.

Pretty soon we will be posting some of the recent work that has been keeping us so busy lately – So keep checking in!

Cheers!
Daniel

Stay tuned...

I spent all day yesterday setting up my render passes and rendered my first frame at 8:09 last night. I have two computers rendering around the clock and tomorrow I am borrowing my dad's macBook add to my little "render farm."

OK, it's not really a render farm but I'll explain it all soon. I'll also explain all of my passes - and what a pass is for those of you that don't know what I am talking about - after the piece is up (and I've caught up on my sleep).

Sorry I don't have any images to show right now. It will all pay off if you can hold out a little longer. The project is due on Monday night so I will put it up before that - unless I am rendering up to the last minute and don't have time...

On second thought, I'll post the project on Tuesday morning afternoon evening after I wake up.

Well, if you must have something to look at, here is my final from my first semester in the program.

Stay tuned! (Why do people still say that?)

Cheers!

Daniel

Process part 4...

It's 1:15 in the morning so I'm keping this one short. Part four...process...basic materials...finished piece...

Part One, Part Two, Part Three...

Started:

After Texturing:

This is my first lighting pass:

It still needs some finessing and I need to put the character in and light him as well.

More to come. Stay tuned.

Cheers!

Daniel

Oh! It's officially my birthday now.

Process Part 3...

This is the third part of a series where I'm going through my process of taking a scene from the basic materials to the finished piece. Click here to start at part one. Part two is below this post or you can click here.

Once again, here's where we started:

(click on images to make them bigger)

In part one I researched real-world examples of what we were trying to create. In part two, I began the process of assigning materials to all of the objects in the environment and, in turn, assigned various textures to different attributes of those materials to control their color, reflectivity, texture, etc...

Now, I assigned materials and textures to my character's skin, hair, eyes, teeth, fingernails, and clothes.

Here's where I am now:

I still have to "dirty up" the environment to match the feel of the character but, for now, I have to get to lighting the scene. I have to turn the entire piece by the 14th of December and lighting & rendering will take a while. If I can get it lit with time to spare, I will go back and start to age the environment, starting with the pieces that will make the biggest impact. I also have to populate the shelves with plates, cans, condiments and stuff if there's time.

There won't be.

I'll do it after the semester is over to get it ready for my reel.

More later. Stay tuned in...

Cheers!

Daniel

The process continues...

This is a continuation of an earlier post where I started going through my process of taking a scene in Maya from the basic materials to a fully finished piece.

To refresh your memory here is the scene we started with:

(as always, click on an image to see it bigger)

I did a ton research and found a lot of reference images that I liked and began the process of applying materials and textures to all of the objects in my scene.

Here is where I am now:

As you can see, there is still a long way to go before the texturing is done. Everything looks a little too clean and new. I have to add some dirt and scratches to everything and "bend and dent" the metal appliances a little. It needs a "lived in" feel.

I started to work on that with the copper stew pot and the rest of the pots. They have separate textures applied to modify their color, bump, specular color and reflected color. Here is a close up of the pot with just a straight material applied to it:

The next step, in addition to "dirtying" everything up, is to texture the character - his clothes, skin and hair.

Then I have to light the scene and render it out. So far, a single frame takes 90 seconds to render. The scene is 375 frames long. 375 frames x 1.5 minutes per frame = 562 minutes = 9.375 hours. That will increase once I add the animated character, camera moves, light refraction off of the metal...

It's due on the 12th of December. Ugh.

I gotta get back to work. More later.

Cheers!

Daniel

In the beginning...

I thought that for a few posts I would share my process of taking a scene in Maya from the default materials stage all the way through to a finished piece.

I should start by saying that I am still learning this process so some many most all most of the things I do could be done better and faster. I'm learning and this is part of the process for me. I find that when I teach someone how to do something, I understand and retain more of it.

Please note that this is not a tutorial, just a little peek into a process that I will try to keep brief, informative and interesting.

Here is the scene I am starting with.

(you can click on any image to see it bigger)

It's already animated but now it needs to be textured. That is the process of assigning "materials" to each surface that dictate things like its color, whether it's shiny or dull, its transparency and reflectivity. We also tell the software where the bumps, grooves and scratches are.

I start by collecting reference images to see real-world examples of what I am trying to create. I had some images from a headshot session with my friend Donna Jo and I also did a google search for "professional kitchen." Here are a few that I liked:

I just thought the colors and the lighting in this one were beautiful.

I love the copper pots in this one.

A good reference for a working kitchen - scratches, grime, stains...

Jewell Rae Rules!

I like the wood and steel look of this one. It's going to be my main reference.

And, just for a little nod to the masters, I am going to steal the floor from Ratatouille.

Well that's where I am now. I have a lot of work to do so I better get started. Check back often as I will be updating this blog as I progress along.

To see more, part two continues here.

Cheers!

Daniel

A long time ago...

The video below has so many things that I love in it that my head is about to explode. Scroll down and watch it and when you get back I should have calmed down a bit.

Back already? You didn't watch the whole thing, did you? Whatever, your loss.

All right. I've calmed down enough to explain why that dated looking video is so exciting to me. Where to start? I guess I'll just make a list of the things I love.

1. Star wars
2. "Making of..." videos
3. Computer animation
4. Star Wars
5. Special Effects
6. Videos with super old computers in them
7. Star Wars
8. Examples of computer graphics dating back to 1976
9. Videos that show us what it was like "Back then"
10. Star Wars
11. Film history
12. The history of computer graphics
13. Star Wars
14. Hearing someone saying things like: "That technology didn't exist so we had to invent it."

The video below shows a Star Wars "Making of..." video that contains special effects using Computer graphics on old 1976 computers showing us how it was "Back then" that shows a bit of film history, the birth of computer graphics, Star Wars, I guy saying "unfortunately that reality didn't exist", Star Wars...computer...history...Star...making...Wars...1976...of...computer...uuuuurrrggnnnghhhhhgggg. drooling.

This is Brigitte. Unfortunately, I came home and found Daniel slumped over the keyboard. His head had exploded so, I'm going to have to complete this post for him. He didn't apparently finish the list of the things he loved so I'll finish it for him.

15. Star Wars

16. His wife

17. Good Barbecue

18. Star Wars

Well, that's it for today.

Cheers!

Brigitte

Learn from the best...

It's an exciting day for us here at tower 26 films!

Brigitte just finished her first draft of the new screenplay she has been working on. She has until December to refine it before she shows it to her writer's group.

Also, as some of you know, to add to our current filmmaking toolset and keep up with the constantly evolving industry, I have been taking classes in 3d animation (CG to put it another way). It started as a way to be able to hit somebody in the head with a tennis ball or pelt them with rocks and has grown into a fully animated short in the works as I write this.

This semester I have been learning how to texture, light, and render CG scenes. I have been able to springboard off of my still photography and cinematography background and am having a blast! I guess my excitement is showing in my work because my teacher recommended that I apply to Visual Effects Society's Training and Mentoring Program.

Well, I just received my invitation to participate.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Visual Effects Society here is how they describe themselves:

The Visual Effects Society (VES) is the entertainment industry's only organization representing the full breadth of visual effects practitioners including artists, technologists, model makers, educators, studio leaders, supervisors, PR/marketing specialists and producers in all areas of entertainment from film, television and commercials to music videos and games. Comprised of a diverse group of more than 1,600 members in 17 countries, the VES strives to enrich and educate its own members and members of the entertainment community at large through a multitude of domestic and international events, screenings and programs.

They have invited 60 students from 8 schools and I was lucky enough to get a spot.

This is just the beginning of the process but if I make it through all 3 phases, I will be paired up with someone in the industry that specializes in my area of focus and they will be available for guidance and give the push that is sometimes needed to take your work to the next level.

Here are some pieces I have done this semester (click on an image to see it bigger):

On the last set we were supposed to light a daytime scene and a nighttime scene. I was working on it around Halloween so I thought I'd have a little morbid fun with it.

Well, that's all for now. We should have some more up soon so keep checking back and let us know what you think about the blog and what you would like to see and hear about in the comments below.

Cheers!

Daniel