Final Final Finish Final Thing...

Massive effort but it's all finished... Check out the video, but preferably watch the higher quality version it or download it at:

http://www.benfx.com/filmsforyou/t3dfxproject.html

Let me know what you think..!!

Ben :)

Close.. But No Cigar.... Yet!

Well the time of hand-in has nearly arrived and I've basically not slept very much, rendered everything, and most of the way through the compositing.. these are a couple of initial comp's to get your taste bud going.. The next post should be the final piece.. Wish Me Luck...

Got the MoCap & Started to Apply..

Hello.. I've been up for 36 hours working hard: dummy geometry for both shots (DONE), and now also have my MoCap Data.. Cheers for the superb work Andy Cousins.. also thanks to Jo Plaete for converting the fbx file to a .mmd for me.. So with the data in hand/on computer, I'm now applying my systems to it.. Here are a couple of image of some cool FX I'm getting... I'm still trying to decided what the overall movement, length, size of the trails should be.. but these images show the aesthetic I like and want to get across.. More coming soon....

Shot One: Tracked & Dummy Geo'd

He's a couple of flipbook renders showing the first out to the two shots, track and dummy geometry in place.. I'm straight onto shot two now..
I word on the MoCap... I'll be getting it hopefully by Tuesday evening, so then it's all systems go to apply everything I've developed and render the beast.. So apologies in advance for any lack of blogging... Have a good Bank Holiday Monday... I know i will :P

Monumental Banana Skin RESOLVED... :)

I've been tearing my hair out over the last couple of days... and seriously worried about the destination of my project... even drafted 'Plan B'... But I managed to get it working..
The problem basically, was when I came to implement my collision particles inside an animated form, it didn't bloody work... But I resolved it after losing half my scalp by simple using a imported triangulated version of the model Mr Staber kindly sent me, rather than triangulating the model inside in Houdini.. Simple when you know how.. anyways.. here is a quick render of the animation Kris sent me, and the particles bouncing around inside.. They need controlling a bit, and a few escape.. But Fluff That, It WORKS!!!....

"SOLD" To The Man Made Out Of Trails

LOCATION........I went for a reshoot last Thursday as mention a couple of posts ago.. I shot at the same venue as my test shoot (Merryfield Park in Sopley), but not the same buildings (couldn't get permission, we didn't ask last time). So I hunted around, and found two different buildings, and the video's below show the location I have chosen for now!!! I need to have a tutorial really to discuss, but I'm happy with these shots. The room's in the new location were alot larger allowing me to film a wider shot for the character to be framed in... So what's going to happen in these shots? I hear you cry!!

SHOT 1: Trails will birth from the floor in the foreground, and as the camera pan's up the character will start to be revealed by another set of trails building his structure (from the feet), as he walking away from the camera, toward the room. As the shot progresses and he will start to be formed and the trails from the ground will continue to birth following him almost like his path..

SHOT 2: This shot is a continuation of the previous. The character will start to enter the room, and as he does he falls (for know real reason, but it'll be dramatic, I did the MoCap after all), and the trails (kind of) disperse and flurry into the room as the camera continues to pan..


Oh, before go.. I've got a preliminary soundtrack with the edit, but won't unleash that on you until I've done a bit of colour grading.. :)

MoCap Take Two...

Had a MoCap session today.. Wasn't too sure exactly what i wanted (nothing changes), but after a quick brainstorm in the studio, I've decided to end the animation with the character falling!!! and yes it hurt.. So basically the character will walk down the corridor and then enter a room in which he/she will stumble and fall. Here are some videos exported from MotionBuilder (I think, correct me if I'm wrong Andy), just to show you the walk, and the fall.. They will be 'Blended' together in Blender by Mr Cousins so the motion transition will be seamless... Check raw data videos out anyways..
WALKING..

FALLING..

Actual Light Emitting Trails.. First Test.

Hello... I've managed to get the light instancing working with my trails.. this is a rough comp to see how it integrates. Need quite a bit more work to get it looking ok. I can get away with a lot in comp, but I need to get more out of Houdini so the effects don't look overly 2D. Check the video anyway, but no doubt there be another one coming soon, probably after I track my final footage.. p.s Got MoCap tomorrow/today, I have a bad back so forgive me if you notice the chararter hobbling a bit :) to be continued...

Flip I'm Tired.. Personal Research Submitted though.

I haven't posted for a while due to the hand-in date of our Personal Research project being today. And yes I've been up all night but finally managed to collate my website, and it'll be on the NCCA Personal Research site soon, I'll keep you posted..

I chose to research Matchmoving, because I knew absolutely nothing about it. I wanted to tie in the research with my project, so I can now track my own shots and not have to rely on Cleve and Tom.. The video below is from the test shoot I did, and I've basically tracked the shot, added a Rigid Body Dynamic simulation and a rough comp for integration. Anyways I guess it's cool, and I'm pleased I actually managed to the thing working..

Oh before you see the video, I've been back to the location for my final shoot and waiting to digitise it, as soon as I do I'll let you know..

Test The Nation About It's Location

I went for a test shoot to that amazing location I showed in an earlier post... This is some of the footage and also some photo's we took.. Also had a little time to have some fun doing some light graffiti.. :P Photo's By A Sir Ben Dick...

Naturally Natural Naturalism...

The feedback from my weekly tutorial had a emphasis on the naturalism of the trails.. Randomness in length, speed, size, colour, "Remove Uniformity"...

The example below show's how I've dealt with this for the head of the trails. In the previous examples there all birthing from points on a given geometry. This example shows how I have taken the original point data, and created an alternative point which orbits and reacts dynamically to the object movement. The radius for each is set randomly, with some close to there given point and some further away.. This gives a far more organic aesthetic as you can see the video's below..

I have the front of the trail at a desirable level, now I need to work out the randomness in size, shape, colour, speed.. etc.. wish me luck..

Also I should be heading into the MoCap Studio to get the final animation done very soon.. Stay on the Trail..  :P

Location, Location, Location.

This might seem a little slack BUT.. Oli & Tom's found a wicked location for there Urban Destruction Project.. oh Ben also found it (these are his photo's).. I'm planning on using the interior of the building.. Look how cool it looks. I can image the corridor being lit up by my little wigglees.. or one of the rooms.. maybe even coming through the roof, endless opportunities..I'm going there today to check it out for myself.. Very Promising..

Hey! Ho! All Systems! Go!

Ok.. I've had another go at the applying the two developments again.. this time with no cheating, I promise. The example shows the a translating, rotation, and deforming pyramid. Trails are emitter from the geometry and also by a the smaller objects trapped inside the shape.. This shows both method and now I will develop my concept now the tool is at a procedural stage..

Trail Snail

My main goal this week was to get the trail shape working and making it procedural. The video below show the trail emitting from a translating, rotating box.. The trails shape is determined by a colour ramp in the POPnet as mentioned in a previous post..

The trails are created by emitting a particle every FPS which is given a dynamic colour according to $LIFE. The trail length is then defined using a delete by range function, which relates to the npoints of the original geometry. This is then passed into a ForEach node (powerful node), which creates a line along each stream. The tricky bit was to get them not to draw a line connecting the other trails, cheers Phil for your help on this one. After the ForEach a Sweep is used to copy a circle onto every point in the trail. The scaling values are added by a PrimativeSOP, which then is Skinned. The Skinning needs to be set up to skin every nth value, in this case it relates to the total number of points in the original geometry.. And heres the video to show you the result..

Cheaters Never Prosper

Long time no here..

I've done some tests trying to combine the two methods I've been developing.. (1, a motion according to geometry movement, and 2, being according to geometry bounding particles..)

These tests show the combination, but I had a problem with the collision of the particles to the bounding torus shape.. so I cheated, by bgeo'ing out the sequence and applying the same translation as the shape... This will not work for a moving / deforming human geometry for instance. So away with the cheating and on with the developing, and as for the trail that needs some work... check the results out anyway :P

Metaball Bound Initial Test

While I was out having a good night, my computer was hard at work rendering my metaball sim.. I think it took 26 hours in total.. I've got to take that into account in my production schedule.. I like the aesthetic, it's makes the streams "blobby", as they combine when they become close, and create more spontaneous organic forms.. I'm not sure I like the trails being soo short though, I'm going to do some more tests with fewer particles and longer trailing streams... and also maybe combine the motion based proof with the particles based sim... :P

More Light Based Inspiration..

I've found a few images at deviantART... looking at more potential applications of a light based trail... Ideas on a postcard...

Sphere Collision Based Trails

Just done some more tests based on collision geometry.. The particles are bound by a sphere and move around inside to fill the negative space.. The examples also show two different 2d treatments. One illustrating longer trailing and the other concentrating on the stram nucleus which creates a kind of 'aura' within the space.. I have another test currently rendering the pants off my computer. It's the same sim as these videos, but copying a metaball rather than a sphere.. This will give a "gooey" feel to the streams.. Stay on the trail.. :)

Initial Trail Tests..

Been hard at work developing the stream and uploaded a couple of examples//

The particles are being emitted from an invisible xtransforming cube, one particle every frame, then outside the POPnet spheres are copied onto the points from particle system. The length of the trail is dependent on the $LIFE of the particles..

The first example shows the first establishing of the trail i did..

The second is a development of the shape of the stream..//

The shape is defined my a colour ramp based on $LIFE in the POPnet. This is then passed through to the copySOP to determine the scale of the copied geometry, in this case the sphere's ie the higher the value of red for instance, the larger the scale//expression used: (0.5+$CR)*2

ALSO.. I've done a quick comp to see how much of an glow aesthetic I can a achieve in 2d. The problem will come if the glow needs to effect other geometry (this will depend on my final concept), in which case Global Illumination / Radiosity will be required.. Roll on the render times!!!

Me MoCap'd & 1st Tutorial Feedback..

Did some initial MoCap to see if I could create my own shapes in 3d form.. then I'll try to apply the development I've done with the motion trails.. to be continued..//

 

But I also.. Had my first tutorial today... // The test I did yesterday with the bounding box has proved the concept and now I want to work on the shape of the trails.. I need to develop my own custom trailSOP based tool.. This way I will have far more control over the shape and length of the trails.. I need to develop the attributes of light glows and the trails.. Like paint brush attributes...  

The suggested philosophy/meaning of the project..... "think of it as a representation of enlightenment"..

Particle Trail Bounding Test

Twice in one night!!!.. continuing from the type of aesthetic I'd been enlightened to.. I've done a test using the particle based trails and a bounding / container to keep them within.. Using collision and the turn nodes in the POPnet the particles now stay within the specified form.. Maybe the next step would be to have a container in the form of a animated object.. Check the video to see the concept so far...

MoCap Testing...

I've got some basic motion capture data from Andy at AccessMoCap just to see if I could hook it up to Houdini and get something useful back.. The video shows the particle bases system with a leader following the motion line plotted from the MoCap... The problem I've found so far is with the caching of the trailSOP, it seem to reset and mess up the path after a certain time.. also the path geometry is very primitive and not as smooth as I would like.... Problem solving to be continued.... :)

Neon Glo-NO!!

I'm thinking of other potential ways I could apply motion paths and trails... and my friend Richard found this example of a way I could potentially apply the asset I'm developing.. It brings to mine the thoughts of.. Do I actually need the saturated coloured glows, if I can can make a beautiful aesthetic with other applications of the same technique??

The forum can be found at:  http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=579395

Initial Tests...

Hello... I've realised I've got quite a few options in terms of development direction, here are my tests so far.....

This is a test using particles which follow a specified leader and create a geometry trail.. This produces a really nice fluid motion.. as fluid as it is, I would like to incorporate some motion / movement to the trail once it is formed.. A kind of settling into place...

The second test uses a creep node. This produces multiple strands and utilises a duplication.. This is not as fluid as the particle based tests, but with the nature of the a line being a back bone to the path, flexibility, forces, and the spring function can be apply for the settling..

To Be Continued....

More Visual Reference!!!

Inspired By....

Check This Also://

Metacosm Project by Kevin Webster (http://www.metacosmproject.com)

deviantART : Light Painting (link)

http://abduzeedo.com/awesome-light-graffiti-pictures

The Concept

I've created this blog to illustrate the developments of  my latest project at the NCCA.

The concept that I have proposed is as follows:

Project Overview

I want to build upon and take inspiration from the forms and aesthetics of an art known as ‘Light Painting’. 

"Light painting, also known as light drawing is a photographic technique in which exposures are made usually at night or in a darkened room by moving a light source or by moving the camera."

......I want to devise a method of recreating the motion plotted paths and allowing them to create forms in motion.. The art-form already consists of a stop-frame approach which gives spontaneity and charm. I will investigate ways to reproduce this randomness in a true three dimensional environment.

My principle philosophy for this project is discovery and personal technical understanding and development.

"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it." Pablo Picasso.

"I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else." Pablo Picasso.

These quotes are philosophies in which I am applying to the way I will be working. I have an idea of how the project may end up, but I know through my group project experience that along the way for trying to achieve what you what you often find something better, more spontaneous, and more of what you need.

My formal proposal in full can be found HERE