Dartanbeck's Journey - CG Filmmaking

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  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,332

    I'm working on different ways to work with the forces in the scene to try for better dynamic movements. These tests might not show perfect work, but they are the best learning experience I have right now. Each one really tells me a Lot about what I've done for that test.

    Here's the previous hair in a really wild test situation

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,332

    I'm still not sure if I like the newer, more realistic looking hair better than the previous version though. I really like that yarny, ratty look to the one immediately above

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,332

    I just noticed after typing, that these two gifs above also have great examples of how nicely Arki's EYEdeas 3+ eye figures work with light and refraction.

    That's exactly what I was hoping for when I saw them. I had just gone into (then V4) Rosie's eye mesh to work with the shape of the iris - only as a quick test of what I learned from Jeremy Birn's Digital Lighting and Rendering book, when Daz 3D bought up RDNA and all of those wonderful new goodies hit the shelves.

    I'll be getting a Lot more in-depth with the topic of those eyes!

    But check out how they react to the light as they get it. They go from being rather dark to when light fills them up and they just glow with that hint of liquid in front of them. There are many cheats for this. Cheat that I don't have to use ever again! Thanks again, Arki!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,332

    Success! This first test with new tweaks on physical forces used to shape and manage the hair, with new shaders and quality settings turned out even better than I had hoped. 

    A gig like this is one thing, but with the Object and Shadow accuracy cranked up to .05 in the render made the actual png output (at full size) look really quite stunning!

    Now to get this into something with an environment, and using more than just a turntable loop! :)

  • very good Dart heart

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,332

    Thanks Wendy! heart

  • IvyIvy Posts: 7,164

    I'm working on different ways to work with the forces in the scene to try for better dynamic movements. These tests might not show perfect work, but they are the best learning experience I have right now. Each one really tells me a Lot about what I've done for that test.

    Here's the previous hair in a really wild test situation

    Thats is awesome. did you do that in Carrara?

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,332

    My wonderful Carrara... yes.

    Here's a tutorial on making that scene with the volumetric lighting - quite brief

    Behind the scenes of my Hero

    Less than a minute showing of some pretty cool cloth and hair simlation results

  • IvyIvy Posts: 7,164

    Great results

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,332
    edited November 2020

    Thanks Ivy. Doing simulations like this is something I never really thought I'd do - just keep it simple, you know?

    Alita Battle Angel came out at a time when my Carrara computer was down, awaiting parts to build a new machine. That movie blew my artistic mind!

    While I'm still not bent on making something photorealistic, the idea of draping, moving cloth and hair really appealed to me. Digital Lighting and Rendering, by Jeremy Birn (Amazing book, btw) was a real eye-opener since my friend bought it for me a few years ago. That book is what led me to using Carrara's vertex modeling tools to reshape V4's Iris on her eyes, to capture what is called Iris Gleam - which is where the irides glow on the opposite side the highlights on the face, which many cinematographers use as an everyday practice. It's what makes those emotional moments so emotional.

    Arki's EYEdeas 3+ do a lot more than just concave the iris, but that's what I was after - along with the fact that they have additional layers for materials and that the inside of the eyes are mapped separately. She even put a lens inside. So with Carrara at my disposal, being so easy to work with for materials I gladly purchased them along with the texture packs, even though she's updated them to also work for V4 or M4 mapping as well - so they actually have three mapping versions to choose from.

    So anyway, in the gif that you included in the quote you can see the Iris Gleam in effect when she's done spinning and looks out. That's EYEdeas 3+ with some clever shader work in Carrara. I don't add glow or anything unnatural. I simply use Cinematographer light placement methods to cause the gleam and let the light handle the heavy lifting! :)

    So while I never really set out to make photorealistic movies, I keep accidentally tipping a little closer to that side of the scale, wondering if I'll eventually learn enough about realism to then slip back away from it and get more stylized.

    That gif that you quoted is the previous version of hair, which is the same version I used in the Simulation Tests video.

    I've been seeing some anomalies that I just didn't like and set myself to the task of 'upping the game' on the hair - which in that previous version is almost as low in quality as Carrara will muster. The smaller gif on this page, just above your quote is the current new version, which can render amazingly realistic looking. I was floored. So now I'm running hour after hour of simulation with that and enjoying every moment of it. But then I look at that gif that you quoted and just fall back in love with that not-realistic, yarn-like look. I just love that chaotic looking hair!

    Well thank you Ivy! I always feel honored when you post on my stuff - I've always been a big fan of your cool flicks! 

    Misty, from the Carrara forum, has made some preset characters for Genesis 3 and 8 that can work in Carrara, and I recently found an Alita Battle Angle look-alike in the Daz 3D store, (Syph, by Marcius), so I had to do a fan-scene! I gave her bigger eys and changed her up a bit - even used Carrara's shaders to sculpt the suit directly onto the figure, so it's now a second skin. Thank goodness for the PC+ sale! When I bought Syph, I hadn't realized that I did have anything (totally nothing!) for Genesis 8 Female! So I had to play a little catch-up! So here's Misty's Veronica Wr8th (G8F for Carrara) with Syph playing as Alita Battle Angel in The Digivault's Silent City (I'm a Big DigiVault fan!)!

    Cheers!

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • IvyIvy Posts: 7,164

    I  loved Alita  movie , I have not seen Alita Battle Angle 2 yet. I seen some reviews that were very cool. your version of Alita Battle Angle is very close.

    Yup Ive been urking your thread.,  I've been learning a lot from reading your post. Keep up the great work smiley

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,332
    Ivy said:

    I  loved Alita  movie , I have not seen Alita Battle Angle 2 yet. I seen some reviews that were very cool. your version of Alita Battle Angle is very close.

    Thanks!

    Yep, I've joined the Alita Army and have signed the petitions for a second movie, but Alita 2 is not a thing yet - but it'll happen... I know it will!

    We did get as far as to get Alita Battle Angel to hit the theaters again, which will happen soon, so that's good! 

  • IvyIvy Posts: 7,164
    edited November 2020

    I didn't know if it had been released yet or not i have seen a few trailers thats look great . but i guess they are still waiting for a green-lite fom the producers or something.

    I wonder if they are just waiiting for covid to be over with.?

    Post edited by Ivy on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,332

    Yep. That's "Trailer #2" for the first movie. I bought the full BR/Digital bundle and watch the movie itself quite often still, and all of the behind-the-scenes goodies are absolute treasures! Lightstorm and Weta Digital blew this movie out of the park! Rodriguez even included a tutorial for making chocolate! He made that delicious bar that becomes Alita's Favorite Food! :)

    This (fantastic short on 'making Alita') is one of the many featurettes that comes with the BR/Digital Deluxe set:

    "There's more geometry in one of Alita's eyes than all of Golem from Lord of the Rings!"

  • IvyIvy Posts: 7,164

    awesome demo reel. I would like to see a remake lets hope it happens.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,332
    edited November 2020

        Something new at Dartanbeck.com

       Story Page Highlight - Odysseon Station   

    Using product to help drive a story, we take a look at my current collection of Odysseon Station kits by Nightshift3D.

    I also briefly describe my initial setup procedure, but we'll be exploring that more in time

    Check it out!

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,332

    Digging through stuff... it's been a while since I've seen this one. I should explain first:

    MATcreator and I were discussing a bunch of possibilities and such and, on a totally unrelated note, he was putting the finishing touches on a really cool product and asked if I could help make a promo video showing off the various morphs and texture capabilities of this thing - it's really quite awesome - I wish he would have put it in the store!

    Anyway, I was editing the animated renders together but when I started to add subtitles to explain what was going on... what morph and what texture was being applied, it was obscuring the render too much. Hmmm... Maybe I should turn on a mic and talk through it? Hmmm...

    In the end I decided to write a song with spoken lyrics. So for the first voice (morph... xxx) I lowered the pitch of my voice way down. For the second voice (Texture Preset...xxx) I just whispered into the mic. For both voices I added a really strange Chorus setting to make it feel... strange - and it does, I think :)

    With that I introduce a really cool unpublished product: The Hole

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,332

    This is me talking to my fellow VFX classmates, doing my HitFilm homework in PD Howler. I was only doing it as an experiment - meaning to still do it in HitFilm afterwards, but I never had to. Howler rocks for this sort of thing!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,332
    edited November 2020

    In this one, I was experimenting animating Predatron's LoRez Horse (!) and also adding rain to an animation using PD Howler

    (music from The Witcher)

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,332
    edited November 2020

    Okay, some quick VFX 101 kinda stuff.

    This is a video I made to demonstrate how I intend to use Fluidos, and this was made long before Fluidos 2, but that's not the point.

    The point is this:

    I have my character running through a room with a watery floor so I need water to splash as she runs.

    If I were working at a big VFX house, do you think I'd run a liquid simulation on the floor so my character splashes as she runs through?

    • No. Why?
    • Too unpredictable, time-consuming and unnecessary.

    So how do we do it?

    • We use Stock Footage of a water splash and composite the splash in post!

    So right from the start, I have intended to use Fluidos as a fluid simulator to create the effects that I can use in post efficiently. Now, I'm still very new to compositing and a lot of the techniques behind it. I study it, but haven't had a lot of experience yet - especially when I made this video.

    In this video I demonstrate how I will use Fluidos in Carrara to create my water splashes and other effects. I'm just kinda talking through it unscripted. I've learned not to do that anymore going forward - just so you know.

    1. Fluidos in Carrara for water splash simulation and render
    2. Render from Carrara using multi-pass render options to help create selection masks for the next step
    3. Bring the rendered elements into PD Howler to isolate the splash and create a final Stock Footage for use in Post
    4. Bring the main animation and our new stock footage into HitFilm* for the composite

    * I could have simply done the composite in PD Howler as well, but I wanted to spread it out to other packages for the demonstration

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,135

    You have been busy, Dart.  

    Thanks for the info on using Fluidos 2 to make your stock footage for FX in post.  Great explanation.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,332
    Diomede said:

    You have been busy, Dart.  

    Thanks for the info on using Fluidos 2 to make your stock footage for FX in post.  Great explanation.

    My pleasure! But just so you know, that's Fluidos 1. I still have to read the manual for 2 :(

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,135
    Diomede said:

    You have been busy, Dart.  

    Thanks for the info on using Fluidos 2 to make your stock footage for FX in post.  Great explanation.

    My pleasure! But just so you know, that's Fluidos 1. I still have to read the manual for 2 :(

    Well, if you can do all that with 1, then I can't wait to see what you do with 2.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,332

    smiley

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,332

    A very short promo - this is another clip I put together with a few simulation tests along with the Dominator Attack on Project Xion City.

    The music is entitled "Dartanbeck.com", which I put together as an opening title for my stuff. I think it works pretty well, since it keeps these little videos less than a minute long.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,332

    About the video - Rosie 5 is Artemis Knight (ArtemisX and Liquid Knight), piloting her ship using Ravnheart's Marcoor Control Room, with TheAntFarm's Biobotic, frantically trying to navigate them out of this mess. Petipet's massive Dominators rain down from above to devastate and destroy Inception8's Project Xion City (the final three images/links below - Xion sets 1, 2 and 3) 

    Images/links are in the order they appear in the above statement

           

    Rosie's version of Artemis Knight is using KookNfat's The J-Suit as the bodysuit, still using ArtemisX's gloves and boots, and guns if the need arrises!

    The belt is from 4blueyes' Elf Age Light

     

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,332

    With any luck, I'll have a bit of a cloth simulation tutorial tomorrow,

    While I was waiting for the outcome scene to render I created new pages in honor of the new version of Daz Studio which looks very promising!

    New Filament PBR Viewport Render Engine

    New Animation Features

    I've never been quite so excited to try Daz Studio before - this looks Fun!!!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,332

    ..and my first Iray rendered animation - ever!

    I really pooched the hair animation job! But I haven't figured out (yet) how to access keyframes in DS! That timeline is... well... I have to watch some tutorials! LOL

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,332

    I've been promising tutorials, and time/responsibilities have not been on my side in that regard.

    I am going to try very hard to keep these coming! This was So Fun! But I'm still awake since 38 hours ago in order to get it done... I have absolutely No Voice Left!!! LOL

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,332
    edited November 2020

    ..and here's an Iray render I managed to pull off in the interim

    This one is a WIP of a Rosie 7. The above GIF is the WIP of Rosie 8. It's going to be fun to finally have a version of Rosie for Daz Studio... but now I have two!

    I had to for now. Very few of my aniBlocks (which I rely upon heavily) don't work on Genesis 8 :(

    Absolutely no postwork. DOF done in camera. Would look great with a little Howler Magic, however! ;)

    Rosie 7 Warrior Willow Creek A.png
    1280 x 720 - 2M
    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
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