1k0's Visual effets

Website in version 3

2012-01-23T02:55:00.000-08:00

This time my on-line portfolio looks like a real website, I will add new pages as soon as I get free time. Have fun!

Versus II - Greetings

2011-12-31T14:08:00.000-08:00

Versus II 2012 Greeting card from 1k0 on Vimeo.

What storks really do in Winter

2011-11-14T10:19:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody,
Here is a short I made in 6 days for a contest organised by my childhood home area.

Shot with my GH1, Canon FD 50mm F.1.4 and Lumix pancake 20mm F.1.7, green screen pieces.
Environment were generated using 3ds max and everything was composited in After Effects.

What really pushed me in the contest is the 1st prize, a Canon EOS 5D, so if you are a facebook user don't hesitate to vote for me on that page you'll need to like the page to access the videos ^^

I could make a making of if I win the 1st prize, that would really motivates me to writte one ;)

Versus II - WIP

2011-11-03T17:35:00.000-07:00

Recently I had to model an AT-RT for a Versus II sequence, I thought it was the right time to push me making that with new Zbrush 4 functions. Mostly dynamesh, mesh insert/subtract operation, but I failed at the last front piece and made it in 3dsmax (faster)
You will see this biped textured and animated in the movie.

Right before the decimation process.

Zetman - WIP

2011-10-30T17:35:00.000-07:00

With the speed of a snail I'm fighting Mental Ray bugs, I recently put "rope" on my Santa Claus wish list. I thought my normal bump problem was solved by going through Xnormal to create it from my displacement map but now I got that "seam-from-the-hell" problem in the lips area ...

Instead of looking for a solution, because I love wasting time on problems like this, I just removed the normal bump map from the shader, the classic bump map makes a good job.

What have been done recently on the model: new detailed bump map, glossy map, reflection map, overall map all painted on the head in Zbrush, put in the SSS shader.

With all the time consuming problems I had, I finally came to that look for my Zetman, it will need some minor tweaks but it's looking good so far for the shot he will appear (+the wet/water map shader on the model will make him looks like he is on a horse).

I'm back on the close shots of the city, no more organic modeling or weird artefacts, only hard surface texturing, VFX tests, shooting references for a few days :D

I should really hurry up that "small" project as I heard Zetman will be adapted in anime next year! (We're all waiting to see how they're going to adapt the 4th book^^)

When the Mask Falls - Video clip

2011-10-20T06:24:00.000-07:00

At last it's here!

When the Mask Falls par Daryuss

Stay tuned for the coming makin of!
Thank guys for the fun during these 2 days of shooting :)

Moonday

2011-10-03T07:09:00.000-07:00

Dear followers, the 2nd version of my online CG portfolio is launched since a few weeks, feel free to take a look. Don't worry, I'll keep the technical geek stuff on that blog :)

Zetman - WIP

2011-10-02T12:18:00.000-07:00

A big pro work done, time to go back on the Zet project :)

I started to miss all the displacement and polypainting problems on my Zetman model. I detached the head to get more control for the animation process and increase general maps resolutions. If you are still running Max 2011 like me and made all the SP and hotfix upgrade, you may notice the Mental Ray SSS shader became dirty in your render, the only way to fix that is to swith from BSP2 to BSP1 (...) I hope you don't have a huge geometry scene with SSS material override to render ;)

I hope this bug is fixed in Max 2012

Polypainted head, need some brush strokes in Photoshop on horns part.

Where is the city? I'm still working on it but after I watched Magnus making of, I decided to change the overall texture workflow to speed up the process, specially for that last wide shot.

< A new normal bump bug?

Versus II - WIP

2011-09-13T19:48:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since we count the remaining VFX shots, isn't it?

52 VFX shot left!
23 on a big action sequence and 17 on another big but quiet sequence, the rest for tiny sequences nearly completed. Stay tuned for more news soon.

CG Clouds research

2011-09-11T13:13:00.000-07:00

I love clouds, and make them on computer is a real challenge.
There is many ways to make that in environment generating softwares as Vue, Terragen 2, etc.
In that post I will focus on ways to make it directly in 3ds Max.

1/FumeFX:
I made some simulation tests, and I keep making some on my free time :) The idea is to use only 1 frame of a sim to get static clouds and find the right parameters. The problem: renders are too long.

2/ Using the Damian Nenow technic but instead of scattered planes randomly rotated, I use baked Pflow planes looking at camera and... we have a problem here for moving camera scenes. As planes rotate to look at the camera they intersect each other:

In this test it looks good, but it's only because the camera motion sucks:

The solution? Use spheres with huge falloff, but we lose all the nice alpha maps details we can have with planes:

It pops at the end because I made the render in 2 parts and the 2nd part is with "force 2 sides" checked in the render tab ^^
It looks too diffuse.

The planes orientated to the camera method can be used for stills or simple camera motion:

3/ Dust Devil from Blur Studio looks like the good solution for light, fog, myst render. It doesn't catch the light the way afterburn or FumeFX would do but it looks promising and it's free! (+ render time are faster than the 2 others methods)

Zetman - WIP

2011-08-29T00:56:00.000-07:00

The city starts to live!
I need to :
- Place some more custom building, texture them and flow the background with a large amount of them,
- Change big neons image to be less noticable,
- Build the 2 streets we will see,
- Texture and light the first line of custom bluidings,
- Add FumeFX or photoshoped clouds,
-Add rain,
- Stop spoiling about that shot ^^

Zetman - WIP

2011-08-22T01:28:00.000-07:00

Script, crash, texturing, script, crash, brainstorming... little 3D modeling, brainstorming... procedural texture, works:

Textures looks over stretched, that's my old workflow.

The half hand/half procedural way to light up randomly windows. I keep it for custom building placed manually.

Ghost town tests, old textures workflow. (Yes I love to put wrong values in the glare shader for my tests.)

THE procedural solution :D

See you next week for that WIP

The 3D Ninja

2011-08-18T22:50:00.000-07:00

CG Light saber

2011-08-17T10:02:00.000-07:00

A model made from photo references to help a friend who will help me:

More info about the project at http://www.rvsb.raelliott.com/

Zetman - WIP

2011-08-15T18:42:00.000-07:00

I'm actually on an architectural job, perfect timing as I started to work on Zetman environment ^^
I learn a lot of GI and final gather tips I'm happy to use on the Zet project.

2 sets are modeled, the 3rd take more time to be achieved as it's a big city shot, that's why I try to model original houses and buildings from the manga and I'll use the wonderful Ghost town script to generate the rest of the city in seconds, including custom buildings, windows etc.

2nd and 3rd set:

Ghost town tests:

This last shot will be really fun to work on, I'm still thinking about what camera moves would be better for that one, maybe a big cheating one done in post if I don't want to kill the computer.

Zetman - WIP

2011-07-17T11:47:00.000-07:00

I can see the end of the 1st tunnel for this model!

After playing with Z-app link I discovered the joy of polypainting in Zbrush, I really appreciate how it works and it's much more easy to use custom alphas, you can get some nice in the gnomon workshop free tutorial section.

What is missing on Zetman: little touch of make-up, custom Arc&Design reflection map and water drop map I still have to figure out how to proceed. When all this will be done next week end I'll take a break from organic models and start to model the environment.

1 rectangle photometric light, no FG:

As you'll notice, some tweakings have to be made here and there but I'm happy with the look I can get from my render passes.

Zetman - WIP

2011-07-11T15:28:00.000-07:00

Texturing still in progress :)
I tried SSS skin + from Zap, I love it but I prefer to have more control in compositing if mistakes are made in the rendered animation, it's the reason I'll compute a separate reflection pass on my model, the one you can see in these test renders are a bit too shiny, no matter the character will be under the rain ^^

Zbrush rough color turntable:

Zetman - WIP

2011-07-03T16:19:00.000-07:00

Final model mesh turntable:

It's slowly going into the texturing process :)
(ugly) SSS research:

Wearing his cavity map suit:

Colors, at last!

Basics are here, the huge work starts now with detail texturing helped by Z-App link and Photoshop, I felt in love with projection texturing since I watch this video.

Zetman - WIP

2011-06-26T15:02:00.000-07:00

Zbrush to 3ds max: one step forward, two steps back ^^
I take a lot of time trying to get the best results from a new workflow, have to avoid issues, for example the project all step in Zbrush:
In this Zetman model, parts of the body like horns geometry is close to each other, it results in some spiky artefacts... We all know that issue, but I tried to find ways to correct those messy parts of the re-projected mesh.

First method: flip your model faces in Zbrush, then you can see from the inside where the spike artefacts come from, smooth them and and then flip again the faces, it works pretty well but... It destroys your UV coordinates, another fails for me as I made a complex unwrapping in 3ds Max before this step.

Second method: Hide your geometry with the lasso tool to be able to see the inside and smooth spike artefacts, it takes more time than the flip faces method but my UV are safe :)

I now have another problem, the way my model UVs are made (2 parts) I see a seam in the displacement and bump map, I shouldn't really care as this part of the model will be black/dark skinned, but I don't like that, I'll try to find a way to fix that.
Talking about problems, normal maps in Mental Ray SSS produce weird shadowed square artefacts, I already had this problem and still don't know how to fix it.

I'm back on the idea of using 1 material and no sub-object multi material because the magic method I used to get SSS work with multi material didn't like eating too many high quality maps (4096) and told 3ds Max to go the fuck to sleep, I'll explain the method anyway in a next post.

You' can see my pains in the following preview images:

SSS

Arch&Design

SSS

Zetman WIP

2011-06-12T19:09:00.000-07:00

The Zet is ready for texturing! To try something new, texturing will be done in a 3D paint software.
Unwrapping process was tedious, and I still don't understand why it was so painful with this (simple) mesh.
Finally I decided to work the body on 6 UV parts.
Anyway I had Zbrush to export a proper displacement map after random fails. Here are test renders:

Zetman - WIP

2011-05-24T02:47:00.000-07:00

I wasn't able to work a lot on Zetman this week end, only a few hours for the basic sculpt on the lower body part. Refinements will come next week end. I take the time to learn how new brushes and new functions from Zbrush 4 work.

Zetman - WIP

2011-05-15T15:46:00.000-07:00

Upper body part sculpt almost done!
I try to make a blend between real anatomic/muscle position and the original hybrid design body, not so easy task but I like the result. I shouldn't take so much time working on the back of the character as it will not appear in the final illustration (VFX/animator brain speaking here ^^ ) but I have to think about my future as a 3D modeler :)

Zetman - WIP

2011-05-08T18:53:00.000-07:00

And then 18 hours after, entire body modeling complete!
Next step: improve the model by moving some vertices to give the character a good shape, the key to have fun in the sculpt process :)

Zet project launched !

2011-05-01T15:45:00.000-07:00

The 4th attempt was good! Now my model looks closer to the original Zetman design from Masakazu Katsura.
Head modeling process done, before playing with it in Zbrush I have to model the complete body in 3ds max, I feel more comfortable with vertex per vertex move modeling method when working from 2D references, this way I exactly get what I want and from this basic model I can freely sculpts details.

Versus II status

2011-05-01T15:07:00.000-07:00

Yes, the movie is still being made!
Recently a lot of animations have been done to populate sequences with a large amount of clone troopers, and now iPisoft DMC is in the party, mocap process is way faster and enjoyable than with Movimento :)
For now we are rendering looots of clone troopers and working on the 2nd version of the website.

Danse Kabyle - Winner!

2011-04-21T15:44:00.000-07:00

Competition ended and I'm happy to tell you I won 1 of the 5 licenses from iPisoft with the Danse Kabyle Teaser. This will greatly help for the progress of Versus II animation process.
To celebrate the new I just purchased a kinect :)

Danse Kabyle - Making of - Environment

2011-04-09T06:26:00.000-07:00

I'd like to share with you some of the methods I used to create the environment you can see in the teaser.

Mountains:

Rocks were created in the viewport using a plan, displacement modifier and some deformable modifiers like "Skew". You can have a lot of fun by mixing all these modifiers. Composite material was used to displace the plan geometry on Y axys, it's a mix of noise, smoke, use of masks to get the desired shape.
The diffuse map is from a Groundwiz material coming with the free version you can download on their website. Some options are blocked in this version but what is proposed was enough for me (for the moment :)
You have more controls for the layers instead of what you have in the Landscape lume material and the bump effect is nicely done.
Mountains in the background are generated the same way, using custom height map I created using Terragen 2, I exported my terrain as a .ter file and used TerraConv to extract height information to a Tiff file. I also use these height maps as custom brushes to sculpt my flying rocks in Zbrush.
Displacement (the one created in the render) was only applied to some of the flying rocks in the first 2 shots of the teaser.

Nature:

Trees were generated with Onyx tree then converted to Mr Proxy and scattered with Multiscatter on the ground geometry.
World Machine 2 trial version helped me to create some close up terrains, it's a really good terrain generator and what you see in the viewport is what your got in the export/render :)

Grass was the fun part. One problem occurs: when you use geometry way vs textured plans with cutout map, you need to increase the antialiasing sample value. That was impossible for me at the moment I rendered my grass pass because the contest ended the day after.
Anyway creating poly blades and scatter them in patch of grass will be the way to go for rendering remaining shots.
Multiscatter allow you to use maps/textures to rotate, scale, etc your instances, to achieve whatever look you want.
Grass material is a simple arc&design with gradient and glossy reflection, "highlight and final gather only" option checked. No need for translucency material here.

I choosed to model bark instead of using displacement map in the render, first because I like to play and find new way to create complex things and secondly because it would have take the hell of time to render ^^

The process is easy, drawing splines on a texture reference, extrude the geometry apply the texture to the bark parts then, scatter them following object's normals. Once the scatter looks good, collapse instances in a single mesh and turn it in a Mr Proxy, then play with modifiers such as bend, twist, whatever you like. (Tessellate or turbosmooth only if you're running max 2012 ;)

To avoid Mental ray fatal error message like "who do you think you are?! I won't render that amount of geometry", (Mr Proxy + Final gather map writing) x Backburner² was the solution :)

Sky:

Easiest part, only need to wake up early to catch the sun rising.
GH1+Peleng 8mm... Without tripod and panoramic head (houuuu, I know).
As these environments appear only in the character reflections I didn't need to make a nice shooting.

CG 360° environment were created from 3dsmax to be applied on the character scenes as environment reflection, this way I had 2 scenes to work with
so I could focus on each steps: Animation/VFX and Landscape.
Clouds, you don't see a lot in the teaser, are created using the Jonas Ussing method.

That's all for now :)

Danse Kabyle - Teaser

2011-04-06T08:59:00.000-07:00

Completed just on time!
Detailed Making Of will come this week end, for now enjoy this quick one:

Danse Kabyle - Preview

2011-03-25T20:55:00.000-07:00

I finally found an little idea for a mocap contest ending on april 7th. Don't expect a wonderful piece of art with the few days I only got, SD frame size, no 50i, no Real 3D (Sorry Nick), I need to render things fast and cheap but looking good ^^

The first teaser pict:

All the landscape/environment techniques using only 3ds Max will be explained as soon as the project will be achieved. (Talking about that I'm looking for a "friendly" sound designer).

More details about the mocap process, BVH to Biped to CAT will come soon.

Light suit - Making of

2011-02-24T04:43:00.000-08:00

A friend wants to include my digital clone in one of his project, I said "yes only if I can make my model" :)
No crazy photorealistic textures here, I only worked 4 days on this model, I hope it will be well animated Nick ;)

Dr. Chanbelee - Final image + mini making of

2011-02-07T00:20:00.000-08:00

I' m not really happy with the result but it was a good practice,
I learned a lot about HairFarm and I have a lot more to learn :)

I started my model in 3dsmax, using a plane and extruded edges to get the shape I wanted with the help of image references from the manga. The head doesn't get the best topology in the world, I still have to learn and practice this part.

Then I exported my 2 principal meshes to add details in Zbrush.

Back in Max I created splines cage for hair and used Hair farm to generate them.
I used realistic hair material and a 2 lights rig, standard lights at the same position as photometric area lights I used to render the beauty pass in Mental Ray.

As said earlier, I prefered keep my old render of Hair&fur for the sweater, eyebrows and eyelashes, brushing fur is way more confortable in Hair&fur.

Maps used for the head SSS shader.

Hopefully I was able to achieve Zdepth with hair on the old shool way :)
Once all passes have been computed I went to After Effects to mix all these images and compose them.
Background is made of different cloud pictures I took this summer and custom brushes paint in photoshop.

This project took too much time to be done, ( working on it on week-ends only ) I had so many problems with hair&fur renders. Without Hairfarm I think my MR prime hair render would still be going on, I stopped it at 43%, 125 hours after render started... I hope you'll enjoy this image :)

Dr. Chanbelee - WIP 06

2011-02-06T10:56:00.000-08:00

Light setup have been remade, all render passes are done, next step will be compositing in a few hours :)
Eyebrows, eyelashes and fur on the sweater have been done with hair&fur.

Dr. Chanbelee - WIP 05

2011-02-02T18:51:00.000-08:00

A little post to show 2 preliminary Hair farm modeling/rendering test.

I'll certainly use this plugin to model and render my hairs now.

Dr. Chanbelee - WIP 04

2011-01-29T22:04:00.000-08:00

Diffuse pass rendered, actually my computer is rendering the normal pass for post processed specular and other effects.

I had to start over the hair modeling because I wasn't happy with the first result but even now I'm not really satisfied with what Hair&fur let me build. I reach the limits of this modifier, as you can see in the top left corner of the picture, unable to put more than 30 segment/hair, I understand this limit for hair dynamic animation (...) but for still image I think we have to find a sneaky way to resolve that problem for long hairs (mine will be photoshop ^^ ).
Anyway the recomb from splines function helped me a lot, better than brush lock by lock as I made for the Alice illustration.

I wanted to render hair with MrPrime mode for reasons of fast rendering time. I tested buffer mode a lot and discovered it was way faster at some points but very unstable (on my machine),

The + :
¤ Fast render,
¤ Compositing mode in the effect panel, you're able to render only hair shadows on your geometry, only hairs or no hair at all (?),
¤ you can turn down your photometric lights shadow samples to 2 when rendering hair only, it will speed up the preprocessing time.

The - :
¤ Frequent crashes, even when you push up (to the moon) the cache value,
¤ No tip fade function (vs Mr Prime)
¤ Hair passes will kill your rendering times, depending on the look you want to give to your hair/fur.

NOT understanding at all why the buffer mode crashed my max scene I turned back to the MrPrime mode, it gives a more natural look for my hairs, with the help of Puppet tool shaders :)

That's how my desktop looked like:

All renders should be completed tomorrow (resolution 4961/3508), compositing should be done in ~ 2hours.
I hope you'll like the final image!

Dr. Chanbelee - WIP 03

2011-01-23T12:14:00.000-08:00

Hairs tweaked, new hairs added, fur added, coat shader/map done, SSS shader/maps done, need to play with weights now :)
Light setups improved, still playing with it.
Here is where I am so far:

Hairs rendering test time rise the time I had to wait when I worked on Alice, even with pHair shader :-/

3D World magazine - Publication - Alice

2011-01-22T06:58:00.000-08:00

Dr. Chanbelee - WIP 02

2011-01-21T22:23:00.000-08:00

Bye bye Nosferatu hair style :)

A good sleep and I'll tweak these hairs, eylashes and eyebrows, work on texture and light setup.

Dr. Chanbelee - WIP 01

2011-01-16T15:03:00.000-08:00

The new portrait I'm working on, based on Maskazu Katsura's character, Dr. Chanbelee:

Hairs will be the fun part, for next week end :)

Happy New Year

2010-12-31T07:51:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T10:49:00.000-08:00

Tenshi - WIP 03

2010-11-26T20:16:00.000-08:00

Retopologising complete,
Unwrapping complete,
Displacement map done in Zbrush,

Test renders:

Tenshi - WIP 02

2010-11-02T19:35:00.000-07:00

Retopology done :)
Some parts need some changes to get nice edge loops, that will be done before next steps:
- props modeling and unwrapping.

Tenshi - Retopology from 1k0 on Vimeo.

Tenshi - WIP

2010-10-31T20:09:00.000-07:00

Here is my new original character. He will be in the "ex-Hmmm movie" (70% is shot) unfortunately I didn't get enough time to complete this movie at the challenge end date, that's an habit :-P

Retopologising is at 80%

Tenshi Turntables from 1k0 on Vimeo.

Tenshi Sculpt Speed from 1k0 on Vimeo.

Mini project - Nico Robin

2010-10-31T11:51:00.000-07:00

Recently I started to work on this One Piece character to learn smooth, round shapes body VS hard surfaces models I used to create in Zbrush and 3dsmax, I hope it will be as sexy as the original one :)

Zbrush body and face done, next steps:
- retopology,
- unwrapping,
- clothes modeling,
- hairs generation,
- texturing,
- rigging/skinning,
- lighting/rendering,
- compositing,
- sleeping.

I'll try to put a video each time a step will be done. Unfortunately the Zbrush body sculpt video capture failed.

Alice - CG Arena

2010-09-27T07:30:00.000-07:00

"Pourquoi un corbeau ressemble à un bureau" publié dans le site CG Arena :)

Zbrush training - 01

2010-09-19T11:08:00.000-07:00

This time I decided to render one of my exercise model, the first looking good :)

Zbrush exercise result from 1k0 on Vimeo.

"Pourquoi un corbeau ressemble à un bureau" - Making of 2

2010-09-18T02:02:00.000-07:00

2 quick video captures about hair&fur :

Making of Fur - Why does a Raven look like a writing desk from 1k0 on Vimeo.

Making of Hair - Why does a Raven look like a writing desk from 1k0 on Vimeo.

Zbrush custom alphas

2010-09-17T14:05:00.000-07:00

Some research with terragen - terra convert - photoshop -Zbrush for a new project :)

Montagne Alphas from 1k0 on Vimeo.

3D Displacement - Part 2

2010-09-08T00:12:00.000-07:00

Some in use examples:

This time 3D displacement was applied to a really small piece, 10cm diam cylinder, I had to use really low edge lenght values in the render panel (approx. 0.02)
Made for a friend in answer to his snow globe about my land ;)

3D Displacement

2010-09-05T16:30:00.000-07:00

Les tests:

C'est quoi qu'est-ce?
Tout simplement un displacement standard avec une option en plus qui permet de lui donner une direction en se référant à une map contenant des informations de couleur RVB correspondant aux coordonnées UVW. Tout ceci est expliqué dans l'aide de 3dsmax 2010.

Pour ces tests, un simple plan d'environ 500m² légèrement déformé avec un modificateur displace (j'ai utilisé une noise fractal), dans l'éditeur de matériaux je lui ai appliqué un materiel Arch&Design avec dans le slot displacement (du menu "mental ray connection) un 3D displacement avec une map composite dans laquelle j'ai fourré des dégradé, des smokes, des noises etc. Et pour la direction j'ai utilisé un gradiant ramp avec du rouge, noir, bleu etc.
Pour le diffuse, un landscape lume.

J'ai toujours était fan des montagne penchées que l'on peut créé sous Terragen 2, malheureusement le temps de calcul d'une telle image, même sans atmosphère prend énormément de temps dans Terragen 2, pour mes test, en 720p, avec un daylight, du FG reglé sur High et un sample min 4 max 16 j'arrive à environ 10 minutes par images ce qui est plutôt pas mal sur mon vieux PC :)

What the??

A standard displacement with the abitlity to apply it a direction to follow with a map gathering informations from an RGB image to push it on UVW coordinates.

All this is well explained in 3dsmax 2010 help file :)

For these test shots I use a 500m² plane, applied a light displacement modifier (with a fractal noise map).

Then in the material editor, Acrh&Design material, in the displacement slot (from mental ray connection rollout) : 3D displacement, displacement used is a composite material with gradients, smoke, noise etc. And the directional map is a gradient with red, black blue etc colors. Landscape Lume for diffuse.

I always loved shear mountains you can create in Terragen 2, unfortunately, rendering this kind of image inside Terragen take too much time (for animation), that's why I tried to create this kind of displacement inside max, on my old computer:
720p sample min 4 max 16, daylight system, FG on High = 10 minutes/image, quite good and quicker than Terragen 2 (for terrain only ;)

"Pourquoi un corbeau ressemble à un bureau" - Making of 1

2010-08-02T14:52:00.000-07:00

First making of about compositing process

MAKING OF - Why does a Raven look like a writing desk from 1k0 on Vimeo.

The challenge of Hmmm

2010-08-01T18:37:00.000-07:00

A little video directed to introduce a VFX challenge:

The Challenge of Hmmm Intro from 1k0 on Vimeo.

Shot on Lumix GH1 with 8mm Peleng, Zoom H4n.
Made with 3dsmax - FumeFX for title creation and After effects - Particular for magic jet.

MooN ShadowS

2010-07-22T09:52:00.000-07:00

Visuel créé pour le groupe Moon Shadows :

Concours 3DVF - Pourquoi un corbeau ressemble à un bureau

2010-07-08T15:20:00.000-07:00

Je dédie cette illustration à Yoru

Version HD

Concours 3DVF - Alice WIP

2010-06-12T22:09:00.000-07:00

Concours 3DVF - Alice WIP

2010-06-03T17:11:00.001-07:00

Versus II - WIP

2010-05-25T12:26:00.001-07:00

Concours 3DVF - Alice WIP

2010-05-21T04:28:00.001-07:00

Concours 3DVF - Alice WIP

2010-05-19T17:26:00.000-07:00

Un peu de temps, un peu d'avancement :)

Concours 3DVF - Alice WIP

2010-04-29T17:04:00.000-07:00

Travail, travail, chroma keying, rendus, crashes, haïr des clients, re-rendu... Et pendant ce temps on ne peut faire que des listes de brocanteurs à visiter prochainement et des croquis préparatifs:

Versus II - update

2010-04-23T10:02:00.001-07:00

107 VFX shots left :)

Concours 3DVF - Alice WIP

2010-04-22T10:56:00.000-07:00

J'abandonne l'idée de mettre des têtes réalistes à mes personnages.
Voici à quoi ils pourraient ressembler:

Concours 3DVF - Alice WIP

2010-04-15T15:38:00.001-07:00

Concours 3DVF - Alice WIP

2010-04-14T16:54:00.000-07:00

Concours 3DVF - Alice WIP

2010-04-12T08:32:00.001-07:00

Concours 3DVF - Alice au pays... de votre imaginaire

2010-04-11T06:58:00.000-07:00

Début de ma participation au dernier concours 3DVF que j'espère terminer si j'ai le temps :)

Illustrations de départ:

Preview 3D:

Design des tenues des persos:

Wip mod Chapelier:

La modélisation de base se passe sous Max, avec simulation cloth, avant de passer sous Zbrush pour rajouter des détails.

A bientôt :)

Z brushing

2010-03-13T18:28:00.000-08:00

Il est temps de se mettre sérieusement à Zbrush!
Rien de tel qu'un EVA pour se faire la main sur ce logiciel, enfin, quelque chose qui ressemble à un EVA car j'apprends encore à utiliser le programme :)

Time to seriously get my hands on Zbrush! What better than an EVA to practice this software, well, something who looks like an EVA 'cause I'm still learning how to use Zbrush :)

Modeling from matchmoving 2

2010-02-28T12:47:00.000-08:00

Test render:

Facial mocap

2010-02-21T15:38:00.000-08:00

Voici quelques tests faits ces derniers mois, le tout est encore en travaux :)
Logiciels utilisés: 3ds max et Matchmover Pro pour la modélisation (Technique pour les fainéants :-P) Movimento pour la mocap facial depuis 3 camera, une mini DV, une Canon XM2 et un Lumix GH1. Les caméras DV produisaient beaucoup de grain ce qui a gêné le tracking de certains points, et j'ai eu du mal à récupérer un mouvement propre une fois dans Max. La technique est là, la prochaine fois sera la bonne :)

(Le dernier test a été fait sur une vieille vidéo test pour syntheyes, juste pour le fun)

Here are video tests made a few month ago, all is still in progress.
Software used: 3dsmax and Matchmover pro for modeling (the lazy guy technique:-P) Movimento for mocap from 3 camera, Mini dv - Canon XM2 - Lumix GH1. Only the GH1 gave good quality picture for this kind of process, others were too grainy, that's why I had a painfull post keyframe process, not achieved so good :) BUT the workflow is here, next time will be the good one :)

(the last test has been done on a old Syntheyes video test, just for fun)

Facial Mocap - Spline preview from 1k0 on Vimeo.

Facial Mocap - Mesh preview from 1k0 on Vimeo.

Facial mocap - Mesh integration test from 1k0 on Vimeo.
A l'origine je voulais rigger le visage avec des splines et un modificateur Physique, cette technique fonctionne merveilleusement bien jusqu'à ce qu'on applique un modificateur Splie IK Control aux splines... J'ai dû continuer avec un Skin, et je me suis aidé d'un script pour réaliser mes bones.

Initially I wanted to use Spline with Physique modifier, it works perfectly until you add a Spline IK Control to your splines... So I had to work with bones and Skin modifier with the help of a script.

Affaire à suivre :)

Modeling from matchmoving

2010-02-21T14:54:00.000-08:00

Pour ceux qui ne sont pas encore au courant, si vous disposez d'un logiciel de matchmoving vous possédez en bonus un scanner 3D ;)
For those who are not yet aware, if you have a matchmoving software, you have a 3D scanner in bonus ;)

Mise en pratique:
Un visage tracké en 3D depuis matchmover pro, les points de trackings sont ensuite importés dans 3dsmax via un maxscript.
Ces points sont convertis en sommets dans un poly editable à l'aide d'un script (de GJ) et ensuite il suffit de créer les faces à l'aide des sommets (plus rapide avec l'aide de polyboost ou des outils de retopologie de max 2010)

Exemple:
A human face tracked in 3D with MatchMover Pro, the tracking points are then imported into 3dsmax via MAXScript.
These points are converted to vertex in a editable poly with a script (from GJ) and then you just have to create faces using the vertex (faster with the help of polyboost or retopology tools from max 2010)

Au début j'ai voulu tester en modélisant ma bouche un soir, pendant un rendu j'ai fait tourner mon GH1 autour de ma bouche remplie de points, puis les soirs suivant j'ai continué en capturant le nez puis l'oeil etc... Cela aurait pu être fait en une fois, mais se filmer soi-même sans bouger les yeux c'est assez difficile, sans parler de capturer ses oreilles :-P

At first I wanted to try modeling my mouth one night while a rendering. I turned my GH1 around my mouth full of points, then nexts night I went on to capture the eye and nose etc.. .. This could be done in one shot, but film itself without moving the eyes is quite difficult, not to mention capturing his ears :-P

Une partie du résultat en vidéo:

Modeling from matchmoving from 1k0 on Vimeo.

Panoramic !

2010-02-13T17:24:00.000-08:00

J'ai enfin reçu mon convertisseur 0.25X pour créer des panoramiques à 360°, il ne manque plus qu'une rotule type Nodal Ninja 3 pour ne plus avoir de problèmes lors des assemblages.
Avec "seulement" 10 photos (x3 ou x7 pour les HDR) j'obtiens une texture sphérique mieux définie qu'en prenant le décor à travers le reflet d'une boule chrome, et ainsi mes modèles 3D ont enfin de beaux reflets :)

I finally got my 0.25X fisheye converter for 360° pano pictures, I only miss a pano head like the Nodal Ninja 3 to avoid mistakes during stitch process.
With "only" 10 pictures (x3 or x7 for HDR) I got a high definition spherical environment picture, better than capturing stage with the help of a relfect ball. Now my 3d models get nice reflections :)

(I love Arch&Design material :D )

Pano sample:

PT - iPhone charger 2

2010-01-24T20:30:00.000-08:00

Et voici les premiers rendus finaux :)
Here are first final render

2 area lights + Skylight

3 area lights

Light setup:

Render Settings :

+ logarithmic exposure control

Shaders:

Only 2 Render pass

Zdepth has been achieved using a direct spot, ambiant only, with falloff by distance.

Compositing in After Effects.

PT - iPhone charger

2010-01-23T10:10:00.000-08:00

2 rendus tests de ma dernière modélisation en cours, chargeur de batterie d'iPhone.
2 test render from my last modeling work, iPhone charger.

Daylight system, mental ray, 3dsmax 9.

CG Nature 2

2009-12-25T17:26:00.000-08:00

Expérimentation avec Mental Ray afin d'obtenir un shader de feuilles/herbe.
Experimenting Mental ray to get a leaf/grass shader.

CG Nature

2009-12-21T18:32:00.000-08:00

Inspiré par un didacticiel de Andy Zimirski que j'ai essayé, mais cela prenait tellement de temps que j'ai apporté quelques modifications à sa technique en jouant avec de l'edit poly, un modificateur noise et des shaders Mental ray.
Au final l'effet rend mieux avec de la glace qu'avec de la neige, le tout restant assez automatisé mais avec assez de contrôles :)

Inspired by the tutorial from Andy Zimirski, I tried it, but it took too much time for me, and as I don't like to stay 6h waiting for my computer to work something not really controlable, I change the method he used by some poly editing stuff + Noise modifier + Mental ray shader, displacement map, the result works better for glass stuff than snow :)

Mental ray, Daylight system Mr sun+ Mr sky
Compositing in After effects

Steadicam - 20mm F.1.7

2009-11-15T14:59:00.000-08:00

Nouveaux réglages, des poids en moins, une marque en plus!
New settings, less weights, new white line!

Des tests, bientôt :)

Versus II Update

2009-11-08T09:16:00.000-08:00

The list of remaining VFX shots fell below 200, there are now only 150!

Now we are working on sequences with some tricky VFX including crowd simulation, BIG compositing, Cloth simulation, CG/real interaction, all fun stuff we loooove to do :D

DIY Steadicam 02

2009-11-07T13:40:00.000-08:00

Voici 2 nouveaux tests effectués ces derniers jours ainsi que le premier design du steadi en 3D (qui a été simplifié au final :)

Here are 2 new tests shot these days and the first design of the steadi in 3D (which has been simplified in the end:)

Videos:

Lumix GH1 - DIY Steadicam 03 from 1k0 on Vimeo.

DIY Steadicam

2009-10-22T15:20:00.000-07:00

Après avoir visité de nombreux forums, vu de nombreuses images et vidéos je me suis lancé dans la construction d'un steadicam, mon Dad Gyver était là pour m'aider avec la soudure (pas aussi simple que souder des vertex dans Max :)
/
After visiting many forums, seen many pictures and videos I started in the construction of a steadicam, my Dad Gyver was there to help me with the welding (not as simple as welding vertices in Max :)

Beaucoup de gens m'ont demandé comment il a été construit, l'image ci-dessus explique déjà de façon globale comment les pièces ont été assemblées. / Many people have asked me how it was constructed, the image above already explains comprehensively how the pieces were assembled.

Les différents éléments:

- Un tube en acier cintré avec un machine à cintrer
- Un joint universel trouvable dans un magasin de bricolage
- Deux plaques de fer avec trous reliées entres elles par 2 petits rectangle de fer, trouvable en magasin de bricolage
- Une butée à bille ( commandée ici)
- Plusieurs rondelles de env. 11gr, trouvable en magasin de bricolage
- Des vis, boulons, écrous papillons (trouvé dans mon garage:)
- Un plateau caméra trouvé dans un magasin spécialisé en photo (Photo St Pierre à Nantes)
- Un tube en aluminium pour la poignée, recouvert d'une poignée de vélo en mousse.

Elements:

- Steel tube bent with a bending machine
- Universal joint discoverable in a DIY store
- Two iron plates with holes connected by 2 small rectangle of iron, discoverable in DIY store
- A bearing ball ( purchased here)
- Several slices of approx. 11gr, discoverable in DIY store
- Screws, bolts, wing nuts (found in my garage:)
- A camera plate found in a shop specializing in photo (Photo St Pierre in Nantes)
- An aluminum tube for the handle, covered with a bicycle handle

Pour ce qui est du réglage du steadi, tout dépend de la caméra fixée sur le plateau.
Je l'utilise pour mon GH1 avec l'objectif 14-140mm (bientôt avec le pancake 20mm et ses 100 grammes :P)
Je me suis référé à cette vidéo pour le réglage des poids, en prenant en compte le poids déjà fixe de mes vis et boulons. Pour le balancement à celle-là provenant du Site MMC Hague (Si vous aimez la bonne musique...)

About setting the Steadi, it depends on the camera mounted on the plate.
I use my GH1 with the 14-140mm lens (soon with the pancake 20mm and its 100 grams : P)
I referred to this video for adjusting weights, keeping in mind the already fixed weight from screws and bolts. For swinging see this video from the MMC Hague (If you like good music...)

Premiers tests:

Lumix GH1 - DIY Steadicam from 1k0 on Vimeo.

Plastic collection

2009-10-01T09:04:00.000-07:00

Playing with Arch&Design to get a simple glass/plastic shader:

Hair & Fur

2009-09-06T14:21:00.000-07:00

Playing with Hair & Fur in max on an old model :)

The Street Chamaan - The paranoraman

2009-08-14T15:28:00.000-07:00

Le tournage du clip "the paranoraman" touche bientôt à sa fin, les effets spéciaux sont en cours de traitement. / "The paranoraman" video clip shooting comes soon to end, we are already in post production.

(Plus d'infos sur les Street Chamaan ici et là:)

Ce clip, réalisé par Nicolas Santini, a été tourné avec une Sony HVR V1 et mon GH1 a même servi pour 1 plan (!) avec la combinaison "adaptateur grand angle+ G vario 14-140mm".
Un peu de fond vert, clonage, 3D, retouche d'image ce qui était nouveau pour moi ;-P
This video clip, directed by Nicolas Santini, was shoot on a Sony HVR V1 and my GH1 was here for 1 shot (!) with the "wide angle adapter+ G Vario 14-140mm" combination. A bit of green screen, 3D, cloning, image correction, all that was new for me ;-P

Un making of (dont voici quelques extraits) tourné avec le GH1 est en préparation. / GH1 was used for a making of ( here you can see some shots) coming a bit after the video clip.

GH1 photos:

GH1 - Incrustation - Chroma Keying

2009-07-26T15:12:00.000-07:00

Mon second petit test d'incrustation avec le GH1 qui fonctionne plutôt bien... / My second GH1 chroma key test which works pretty well...

1280/720 - 50p - Kit lens 14-140mm

Lumix GH1 - Green screen test from 1k0 on Vimeo.

Details:

Lorsqu'on regarde bien en détail le résultat est loin d'être parfait, cela est dû à l'espace colorimétrique un peu limité du GH1: 4:2:0... Mais en bidouillant les effets on obtient quand même un résultat satisfaisant. / When we look closer we see the not so perfect result, resulting from 4:2:0 GH1 color space... but by playing with effect parameters we can achieved a good looking result anyway.

GH1 + Wide angle converter x0.7

2009-07-16T15:10:00.000-07:00

Surprise du jour / Surprise of the day

Convertisseur grand angle x0.7 monté sur le G Vario 14-140mm livré avec mon GH1 :D /
Wide angle converter x0.7 mounted on G Vario 14-140mm sold with my GH1:

GH1 14-140mm and Wide angle converter X0.7 from 1k0 on Vimeo.

GH1 Mud artefacts

2009-07-11T14:53:00.001-07:00

Voici le plus gros problème du mode vidéo du GH1, la compression cracra pendant les mouvements rapides (et moins rapides) de la caméra/ Here is the biggest issue of the GH1 video mode, mud artefacts occurring in mid/fast pan camera movements.

Ce sont mes premières conclusions/ Those are my firsts conclusions.

Filmé avec un GH1 version PAL, 1280/720 50p, iso 100, tout en manuel, lentille Canon FD 50mm, focale variable / Shot with GH1 PAL model 1280/720 50p, iso 100, full manual, Canon FD 50 mm variable focal.

Images:

On voit clairement qu'utiliser un shutter lent (1/50 ici) minimise l'effet indésirable, il est toujours là mais caché dans le flou de mouvement. Plus le shutter est rapide, plus l'effet aura de chance d'apparaître, au delà de 1/50-1/60 ça devient un jeu de hasard :)

We see clearly that using a slow shutter speed (1/50 here) seems to make the issue disappear but it's still here, hidden in the motion blur. Using higher shutter speed than 1/50-1/60 will become a hazardous game :)

On peut comparer l'effet compression cracra aux étoiles:
On ne les voit pas en plein jour, juste certaines dès-fois mais elles sont toujours là, et bien c'est pareil pour la compression cracra, le shutter lent dans le rôle du jour et les shutters rapides dans celui de la nuit, dévoilant toutes les étoiles.

We can compare the mud artefact to stars: You can't see them at day, only a few sometimes but they're still here, that's the same for mud, slow shutter speed acting the day and high shutter speed acting the night revealing all stars.

Mais alors vient un probleme si l'on souhaite utiliser un shutter rapide dans un mouvement rapide de camera pour des raisons artistiques ou pour faire un beau ralenti en 50p... Et bien pour ma part ça sera assez difficile d'obtenir un résultat exploitable, la compression cracra venant tout gacher aléatoirement... J'utiliserais un shutter rapide pour des mouvements de cameras lents jusqu'à ce que Panasonic sorte une mise à jour du logiciel réglant ce problème (on peut toujours rêver:) ou que Red sorte sa Scarlet (on peut toujours rêver :( )

But what to do if we want to use a high shutter speed with a fast camera movement for artistic mind or nice slow motion in 50p?... For me it won't be easy to get a usable footage, the mud artefact killing the shot without knowing when before seing the clip in playback... I'll use a high speed shutter for sloooow or fixed camera until Panasonic make a firmware update (we still can dream:) or until Red release his Scarlet (We still can dream :( )

Pour d'informations veuillez visiter le forum DVXuser qui a un (trop) long post sur le sujet/ More informations on the (too) big post in DVXuser forum.

Panasonic Lumix GH1 - Part 2

2009-07-04T17:03:00.000-07:00

Back again for some slow motion and color correction tests.
All clips were shot with kit lens 14-140mm in 1280/720 at 50p, manual focus,
Contrast -2
Sharpness -2
Saturation +1
Noise reduction -2

Scaling 50p to 25p is easy, no dropped/duplicated frames, nothing more to say, it works prefectly.

Color correction: adding contrast, playing with colors should not be pushed too far, but it's still good at "normal" color correction.

In the following clips I adjusted contrast, saturation and color balance, added motion blur in the car clip.

Lumix GH1 slow motion + color correction from 1k0 on Vimeo.

Lumix GH1 Color correction from 1k0 on Vimeo.

Panasonic Lumix GH1 - Part 1

2009-07-03T13:30:00.000-07:00

F5.3 1600 - iso 100

14mm F4.0 400 - iso 100

14mm F4.0 40 - iso 640

14mm F4.0 20 - iso 100

25mm F5.8 4 - iso 100

18mm F5.0 15 - iso 100

25mm F5.8 40 - iso 100

14mm F4.0 6 - iso 100

14mm F4.0 30" - iso 100

14mm F4.0 60" - iso 100

Well I was able to take good pictures with this GH1 and the kit lens 14-140mm.
One thing I don't like is the digital grain you can see in the night pictures.
All pictures (resized) are rough from the GH1 except the clouds where contrast was adjusted by curves in Photoshop.
I really love the possibility to choose between different shooting format: 4:3, 3:2, 16:9 and 1:1, the focus assist in manual mode, choosing OUR white balance, MEGA O.I.S. stabilizer, articulated LCD... I love it :D
I'm waiting for my Canon FD adapter to have a little more fun :)

Now, how the GH1 can handle visual effects? Here are 2 quick shaky matchmoving tests:

Lumix GH1 3D matchmoving test from 1k0 on Vimeo.

Lumix GH1 Matchmoving test 02 from 1k0 on Vimeo.

Shot at 14mm, 1280/720 50p AVCHD full manual.

Process:

1/ Edited the AVCHD in Sony Vegas pro 8c, exported it to jpeg sequence,
2/ Imported the Jpeg sequence in Matchmover pro 4, tracked the shot, (hard tracks placed manually + automatic tracking to add a few more tracks), solved for camera and exported it as maxscript,
3/ Imported Maxscript in 3dsmax 9, created a simple scene, built ground (for shadows) from tracking data, rendered as TGA sequence,
4/ Composited the original shot with the TGA sequence from 3ds max 9 in After effects 6.5 and that's it.

The result is quite good, even with little jello resulting from rolling shutter.
With stable footage, glide cam, steadycam it will be nicer :)

Versus II Update

2009-06-11T07:15:00.000-07:00

List came down to 2o8 shots :)

Still mocap, key framing adjustment to do.
Here is a little preview of Movimento maxscript applied to my rig in 3dsmax :

3dsmax - Movimento mocap Slow motion from 1k0 on Vimeo.

PT - Rei Ayanami 3

2009-06-07T22:11:00.000-07:00

At last, 3D model completely achieved :) It's not perfect but I still can see it looks like the original model.

As you can see, most of the details have been done in displacement mapping, to make a lighter mesh and simple clean topology.

To help me drawing my displacement textures, I made splines on the model and use "render to texture" to edit them in photoshop:

(For the first time I was able to made a nice clean pelt mapping in the unwrap process :)

For lighting it's a classical 3 point light set-up, 3 area lights/raytraced shadows and a sky light for the low ambiance.

Compositing in After Effects: a bit of desaturation, curves, little depth of field, add a white glow, chromatic aberration , grain, typo.

PT - Rei Ayanami 2

2009-06-01T08:40:00.000-07:00

3D model achieved! Unwrapping done, displacement/normal/bump maps done, next week end will come complete textures and final images ;)

PT - Rei Ayanami

2009-05-24T12:08:00.000-07:00

Here is a preview of my last personal modeling training in 3dsmax, the Rei Ayanami revoltech toy.
Missing parts : Hands, left side hair. Unwrapping, texturing, more next weekend ;)

Versus II - Naya trailer on youtube

2009-05-19T11:46:00.000-07:00

Hi, having problems uploading the Naya trailer on vimeo, so here is the youtube version from the director Nicolas Santini.
Enjoy in HQ :)

Versus II website

2009-05-08T10:11:00.000-07:00

Here it comes, in a few hours :)

The Naya trailer will be available at the same time in high quality.

Personal training (Fake)

2009-04-27T09:15:00.000-07:00

Fake because it's a old model (bad skinning) and taken from Versus II ;)
Still getting issues with depth of field in after effects.

Versus II official website

2009-04-26T16:50:00.000-07:00

Versus II website will soon open. You'll be able to download teasers and trailers in high quality.
A Facebook group has been created to see pictures, videos, discuss about it. Enjoy :)

Versus II Update

2009-04-25T16:34:00.001-07:00

16 more shots achieved

And the second trailer coming with the versus 2 website next week :)

Versus II update

2009-04-21T20:19:00.000-07:00

Damn, I've lost my TFN forum password, again... and the server won't give it back to me quickly... again :)
I'll answer questions on the forum as soon as I'll get it.

10 more shots achieved

Versus II Update

2009-04-18T16:51:00.000-07:00

Hi, here is the list of remaining work sequences/shots for the movie + some screen captures.
You'll be smiling as soon as you'll see color in the last column ;)

Personal training

2009-03-22T15:06:00.000-07:00

"Every week end" a new 3D object to improve my modeling skills, I started with a very simple object last week, my favourite marker, and today I've achieved my DS lite.

Good bye Pocket film festival

2009-02-28T11:59:00.000-08:00

I couldn't finish on time all shots for this competition.
Being busy, I was just able to achieve these 2 shots, for your eyes only ;)