Sea Monster Breach And Splash Realflow 2013

I thought I would end 2013 with a splash! Final Shot:

I have really started getting into large scale fluid sims over the past few months and as you know have been learning Realflow 2013 I recently got mentioned on Realflow's Facebook page, Thanks Guys!

I have recently started looking into Phoenix FD which is a Fluid Solver that works inside 3DS Max I don't know how it will fair against Realflow though, More to come next year!

Method: 

For this shot I created the Sea Monster in Mudbox pretty basic nothing fancy the texture map was painted in Mudbox as well.

Then the Animation was done in Max, again Pretty simple just basic keyframes and a simple bones rig for the tail to move about.

Exported to Realflow For the Sim. The Main Grid Fluid Sim took around 7 Hours and the Splash and Foam Sims took around 4 Hours. I am struggling to get the kind of foam I am looking for at the moment in Realflow. I am trying to get really stringy looking foam, Naiad and Houdin's FlIP seem to create this pretty well out of the box so I am doing tests in Realflow to get the same. I am also gonna see whats Phoenix FD's Foam System is like, but I am sure it will be possible in Realflow just need to find the right settings.

The type of Ocean Foam I am trying to recreate:

Anyway Then back into 3DS Max where I added the Houdini Ocean Toolkit ocean modifier onto the Fluid mesh and the PRT Files of the Splash and Foam. I then rendered the Particles with Krakatoa and the Ocean and Sea Monster with V-RAY.

For the Ocean Shader I made a quick Demo video on how i set it up, it needs some work though:

Comp'n in After Effects took around 1 hour and then it was done!

I need to figure out how to blend this into an infinite ocean? Thats the next job!

Final Shot on Vimeo:

https://vimeo.com/82881336

Thanks For Looking! Happy New Year! 

B29 Crash Land FX Shot

I have been working on this shot for the past week and will be rendering it over Christmas. 

                                 Wow That Thumbnail Looks Awful, Nice Job YouTube!
                                           



So managed to finish this before Christmas, gotta say I am not happy with it! The Fume FX Sims need some work also the scale is a bit off also wish I made it so it crashed land on a runway becuase it looks fake that there is no Mud been kicked up not found a way to do that (Maybe time for some more RnD!). I want to work on another Cool WW2 themed shot with this awesome Plane so might do one with it getting its engine shot out like in Red Tails?? Hmm!!

Method:

The Animation was done in 3DS Max, simple Key frames then adding more and more detail to the animation. The Propellers breaking look really good and the method for that was; Duplicate each Propeller and use Edit poly to deform them so they look like they are crushed, then scale them down untill the Impact with the ground and scale them up within 2 frames while scaling the intact Propellers down. Pretty simple but it works!

Next the Bush destruction, I exported the scene to Maya and created the bushes with paint effects, then I converted them to polys and used nCloth with bounded gravity to activate the leaves once the plane geometry hits them so that the animated graivty will only affect the active leaves if you get me! Then cached back to Max.

Preview's of the Bush Destruction:

Then the  Engine Fire (Which should of had more work!) and the Dirt Cloud were done in Fume FX pretty simple setup each were in seprate grids, I use a lot more Multiple scattering than usual becuase Fume can cast MS to all Fume Grids in the scene with out the need to link them and the shot is meant to take place at dusk.


Rendering Was done with V-Ray and Mental Ray, the Plan was to render some Hair and Fur Grass but due to flickering and it been a pain I left it out.

Compositing Was done in After Effects, I CC'd all the renders apart from the FumeFX pass to make them look like dusk. Also used a lot of Fake Motion Blur to save render time.

Final Shot on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/82474328

Thanks For Looking and Have a nice Christmas! Next Post Will be in the new year, until then I am working on another cool B-29 Shot!

Tentacle Splashing About!

Hi,

This is my Latest RnD with Realflow 2013 as I continue learning Hybrido 2. It looks pretty good theres a few things that I need to figure out for next time though.

1. The Splash and Foam pass (Rendered with Krakatoa) looks a lot like snow if you know what I mean it does not look like foam thats created when water is travelling at high velocities.

2. The Ocean shader is juts made using a Gradient Ramp for colour and a few different material nodes feeding into a V-Ray Shader. And It looks okish but when water is traveling so fast the water turns white, I have spoke to an FX artist about this and the best way to do it is use Krakatoa to import the Velocity Data from Realflow and then Mesh it with Frost which then feeds through Magma Flow inside of Krakatoa to create the Material. Its Complicated but I am going to try it soon.

Shot Info:

Sim Time: 7 Hours
Mesh and Render: 6 Hours

Rendered with V-Ray and Krakatoa inside of 3DS Max.

Final Shot:

https://vimeo.com/81506576


Thanks For Looking!

White Phosphorus Grenade FX RnD

Latest Fume FX RnD/Test

After Watching reference wanted to do a White Phosphorus Grenade.

2 Pflow Emitters for Fire, another one for the trails.

Final Shot:

https://vimeo.com/80205694


I even recorded a making of:

https://vimeo.com/80205901


Thanks For Looking!

BlackHawk Ocean Crash Realflow 2013

I have been working on this shot on and off for a week. Its my first "Big" Realflow Shot.

I used Hybrido 2 in Realflow 2013 for the Fluid Simulation the sim took around 9 Hrs to Sim and Mesh. The Splash and Foam took another 3 Hrs to Sim and all of the Render Passes took 3-4 Hrs.

I should of used a more detailed domain for more water splashing. I left the rotor blade spinning when it crashed to get more water splashes but in real life the rotor would probably break on impact.

I deformed the Realflow Water Mesh with the Houdini Ocean Toolkit Plugin to create an ocean like surface.

The Mesh was rendered with V-Ray in 3DS Max and the Particles with Krakatoa.


The  Final Shot:

https://vimeo.com/80114799


Thanks For Looking!

Pyro Reference For FX Artists

I just posted on Vimeo a Video of some Shots of Pyro I took while on Location for a film I shot a couple of years ago. Check it out its great reference for FX Artists:

https://vimeo.com/79601863


Thanks For Looking!

Realflow 2013 Barrel Splash RnD

So this was some more Realflow 2013 RnD/Testing! For this test I used a spinning barrel model to splash into my Hybrido Sim, I used the Splash And Foam Emitter with default settings apart from:

Secondary Splash Was on
Splash and Foam Min Lifetime: 110
Splash and Foam Max Lifetime: 120
Emission Rate: 95,000
Particle Type: Dumb

I seem to be having a problem where the some of the Splash and Foam particles just hang in the air?? Don't know what that is! Need to find a solution though its really annoying me.

Realflow Particle Preview:

Sim Time was around 3 Hrs


Realflow Mesh Preview:

Mesh and Render Time: 4 Hrs



Final Shot On Vimeo

Thanks For Looking!

Super Stallion Explosion Version 2

(Final Shot At Bottom Of The Article)

Its Here!! A Huge Improvement from my previous shot! 

I started from scratch (still using same asset and Background plate) I got some great advice from Friends and people from Vimeo so thanks guys! The New Explosion is lit better and has mutiple of set particle emissions for more realistic FX.

I also used a New Fume Gradient for better looking fire, Still needs some work! Gradients are pretty easy to put together!

The RBD Sim of the Helicopter Breaking was done in Rayfire suprisingly I opted for this instead of TP to make Cache sizes smaller for ease of use with the Fume FX Simulation but also I really like the Rayfire Bomb helper and wanted to try it on a proper shot. Only problem is a Super Stallion is made out of metal and the shatter looks like concrete so that needs work!!

Renderd Fume with Scanline, Helicopter Pass with Mental Ray and also the GI pass with V-Ray...Weird Pipeline huh!! (I Know!!).

I am very pleased I went back an re did this shot it looks so much better now! What do you think??

Final Shot:

As Always,  Thanks For Looking!

UFO Rise Out Water Attempt 02

Please note this is a Work In Progress shot and my First time using Hybrido 2 in Realflow 2013 so don't expect Life of Pi Quality sims just yet!!!!!

I messed up on this shot! I did not set my Realflow Scale/Axis right so all my sim data was wasted (basically the splash and foam simulation would not sit on top of the mesh properly when exported back to 3DS Max due to the scale differences between Realflow and Max (when importing Splash Foam ect. with Krakatoa PRT) this is now sorted for my next shot!

Anyway heres the details!

Main Hybrido sim took around 4 Hours then the Splash and Foam another 2 the meshing took another 3 and the rendering another 4 so all in all about a days work.

Water Mesh rendered with V-Ray using my own water shader which is basiclly a gradient ramp of different ocean layers/colours piped into a V-Ray Mtl Shader it looks pretty nice! The Splash and Foam was rendered in Krakatoa and compositing was done in After Effects.

I do want to come back to this shot now I learnt my mistakes the hard way however without making these mistakes I would be stuck next time so I don't consider this wasted time, At least I got the render a Breakdown:

As Always Thanks For Looking!

Realflow 2013 Hybrido 2 Fluid Simulation Test

This was a project to test the workflow between Realflow, 3DS Max, Krakatoa and V-Ray.

The Fluid sim is simple with a splash and foam particle sim on top.

Final Shot:

SkyScraper Destruction Visual Effects Shot

I do plan to get my teeth into a VFX project but for now here is some more RnD!

(Final Shot at bottom of the page)

This is probably my biggest Thinking Particles scene attempted so far!

This shot came about when seeing 2012 for the 20th time (estimated!) and I was trying to figure out how to model a building that would look realistic as well as been optimized for Volume Breaker in Thinking Particles.

After a few attempts a had a model building with glass windows and individual floors and support beams for extra realism.

I used Thinking Particles (In 3DS Max) with the Plugin Demolition Master for the Destruction/RBD Simulation. There is a total of over 15,000 Pieces of Geometry in this sim (without extra debris) and my PC handled it pretty well! The Final sim and cache took around 1 hour. I then decied to create a simple scene with camera movement for that extra effect! Instead of just rendering the building collapsing on its own.

Here are some Playblasts from inside 3DS Max:


The Destruction Sim:

 The Camera Move with scene and Sim:

Final Shot:

Thanks For Looking!

Bi-Plane Crash Land FX Test

Hi Guys,

I have been away for a week but am back in action with some more RnD!

This week a Bi-Plane Crash.

This was set-up before I was away for a week and then sim'd and rendered yesterday and today, The Fume FX could be higher res defiantly but looks good enough for the test. The only bad thing is the Fume FX hides the RBD sim done with TP and DM (using Shape Collision) however you can see the RBD sim alone at the end. Please excuse the awful Hangar Models made in under 2 mins just to give scale reference.

Fume Sim Time: 1.9 Hrs

There is two explosions, the Impact explosion of the fuel and then the engine fire which sets the Debris on fire. Also another PFlow System for the smoke trails.

V-Ray render with GI, Comp in AE. As stated in the shot notes I would like to do this shot with a Live Action Plate at a higher quality. Maybe do a Red Baron style crash shot with loads more Debris and The Propeller kicking up the mud/earth on impact.

Render Time (All Passes): 5 Hrs

Shot Completion Time: 2.5 Days (est)

Final Shot:

As Always Thanks For Looking!

TUP-RnD: Helicopter Shot Down

This is my second attempt at RnD for this effect which will feature in my upcoming VFX Seqence The UFO Project (TUP).

My Method:

First I created the basic animation of the helicopter (which looks very fake I know!!) then I used Thinking Particles inside of 3DS Max to simulate the Missile hitting the Helicopter and the destruction that would occur. It took several simulation attempts to get the breaking look good.

I then used Particle Flow to set-up the Explosions one emitter for the initial  fireball and another to create the smoke trails that you see a lot in air-burst explosions. For the Trails I used Spawn as you can see below in the screen-shots. The Fume Sim took a long time to sim and render due to the size of the grid but it was worth it in the end! Also the Sparks were simulated in Pflow using a very simple set-up.

I rendered in V-Ray and Comp'd in After Effects. The Background plate is Live Action so it took some work matching the elements in correctly.

Here's a little clip showing the elements of the shot:

And

The Final Shot:

As Always, Thanks For Looking. More TUP RnD and info to come!

The UFO Project- Tank Destruction FX Test

So I wanted to do an FX test over a day to see what the UFO would look like in an FX Shot. Now I know its NOT "Super Amazing" but I am pretty proud with how it came out considering I have never really done hard surface modelling before (And I don't really want to to be honest!!).

For the shot I wanted to show the UFO's Rocket Pods that can lock on to any target and fire at them, I set up a basic animation in 3DS Max of the engines going in to Hover Mode and the Rocket Pods swinging round.

The Rockets and Explosion were created in Fume FX. The Explosion is pretty basic but the Rocket Trails were made after some experimentation in PFlow. I used Spawn and Find Target to one, spawn the trails that will only last a few frames and the Find Target is set to the tank so the particles fly towards the tank. Here is a screen shot of the simple set-up:

I used only one Grid for both the Rocket Trails and the explosion, The Burn rate was keyframed so when the rockets were in flight the burn rate was fast so there was less fire trails and more smoke however on the emission of the explosion I key-framed the burn rate down really low to 10 so the fire would linger a lot longer.


Here is the Final Shot:

So now I need to start writing my UFO Vs Military Attack Sequence! I will keep this blog up to date so keep checking back!


As Always, Thanks For Looking!

Freeway Collapse RnD and Working on Machinma Short Film

This is my latest RnD Shot based on a freeway bride collapsing. I used Thinking Particles for the Destruction Simulation which is based on a shock wave from an explosion that causes the beam to break and the freeway to then collapse.

I also made a debris system in TP which turned out rather bad as it looked very fake and crappy! So I left it out the final sim and render.

Final Shot:

In other news I have just finished working on the Destruction of an Osprey Helicopter for a Battlefield 4 Live Action Film which is going to be played on Machinima. I was working with another FX artist from California he was the lead artist responsible for the final destruction simulation which changed a bit from my version after we got client feedback. He is also going to be responsible for the Fume FX Explosion sim and the final render.

Sadly I don't have any breakdowns as they were deleted out the Dropbox Folder, however when the final films is out  I will post it up here. And I will have a credit as a VFX Artist!


Also I want to start working on a VFX seqence to show off all my skills so far instead of just doing RnD and Tests ect. I have had a few ideas but I plan to do like a UFO Military attack sequence where I will model,texture,rig the UFO craft then create all the scenes and FX and then edit it together with breakdowns to showcase my VFX Skills. When all this is decided I will start posting it all on here with daily/ weekly updates on the project so I can show how I am making the project.


As Always Thanks For Looking!

Thinking Particles Monument Destruction

A little test I ran last night with Demolition Master and Thinking Particles. Enjoy!

As Always, Thanks For Looking!

Fume FX Oil Explosion RnD

So I am stuck off college with Pneumonia! So I have been continuing with some Fume FX Tests. I am planning to re do my Black Hawk Down shot and add more layers of detail and Debris. In the mean time this was a little half a day project I did.

I lit the simulation with 4 Target Spotlights also I used multiple Particle Systems to give the explosion more shape. The Final Sim used about 5GB's of RAM and took nearly 3 hours to render.

I also have decided on a new way to set my videos out by using a Frame Counter so when I get feedback people can say which frames I need to work on ect!


The Result:

As Always, Thanks For Looking!

Black Hawk Down VFX Shot

I made this shot over two nights.

I started by animating the helicopter and blades to fly forward then I used Thinking Particles and Demolition Master to shatter the back tail then once I was happy I baked out the animation, scaled down the simulation so I could use fume fx to create the explosion. I emitted the Fire and Smoke off the Debris for a few frames to create the blast/fireball effect I also used a short burst of turbulence to create more realism as it would be very windy in the sky as well as the rotor blades effecting the smoke.


The Destruction Using Demolition Master:

I then went to rendering. I used V-Ray for the Chopper and Fume FX Global Illumination and Scanline for the Fume FX Render. I then Comp'd in After Effects, added all the usual glows and blurs in and Wella!!



Final Shot:

Overall I am not mega happy with the animation/Fume FX simulation so I plan to revisit this shot in the near future!

As Always, Thanks For Looking!

The Curious Case Of A Melting Teapot

This RnD was done in Realflow 2013 to simulate a Wax Teapot melting. I have seen a lot of videos of people saying they have created a melting object and all you see is a fill object and a gravity field added and it looks pretty rubbish! For mine I used a Bounded Gravity field key-frame to move over the teapot so its gives more of a progressive melting effect. I rendered the Shot in V-Ray using Sub Surface Scattering (SSS) for the "Wax Look".

I slowed the render down by another 70 Percent with Twixtor in After Effects so it looks a lot slower and more like wax, this saves me sim'n and rendering over 500 frames.

Final Shot:

As Always, Thanks For Looking

My 2013 Work So Far Reel is coming soon!

Chocolate Doughnut Time!

This was a little Shot I worked on last night and then comp'd this morning. Its based on them food commercials on TV where you see the product been doused with chocolate!!

Method:

I used 3DS Max to set up the scene I created 4 Tours's and added some large scale noise on them to deform the shape up a bit.

I then exported them to Realflow 2013 and ran a Soft Body Simulation on them to make the collide like dough would (very little stiffness and no elasticity). I then created a basic circle emitter with higher viscosity to create the chocolate flow on the Doughnuts. It took a few sims to get it looking right. After the sim was done I Meshed the Particles with Realflows new Legacy Mesh, the mesh came to about 800,000 Polys over 150 Frames. I should have upped my Filters Relaxation as you can see the Metaballs in the Mesh in some frames.

I Then brought the Mesh's back into 3DS Max and Rendered with Mental Ray. I did not add a Shader to the Doughnuts as the main focus was the chocolate Simulation. For the Chocolate Shader it's actually just a Mental Ray Ceramic Shader with a dark brown colour on and I have always found that it makes great looking CG chocolate.

Render Time was Around: 2.3 Hours

I then Slowed the whole sim down using Twixtor in After Effects to make it look like and Ultra High Speed shot, this saves me having to do a 450 Frame simulation and render. Twixtor handled the render really well and there was no visible warping. This is probably because of the white backdrop. Twixtor is an awesome tool for making fast shots look slow motion.

The Final Shot:

As Always Thanks For Looking!

Making Of The Image: Going Down

This is the second image I have made for a college brief. This one is based on a B-29 Bomber been shot down by a German Fighter.

This image was a lot less work and somehow I feel the result is a lot better than my Red Coat Soldiers Image.

I started last night by setting up the scene in 3DS Max. I detached part of the wing to look like it was falling off the plane. I then added a Pflow system to emit Debris of the wing which I fractured with Rayfire. The Explosion was done in Fume FX at a pretty low res but i knew it was going to be blurred out.

I also set up some Global Illumination with V-Ray to make the fire from the explosion illuminate the plane (it looks so much better with GI, Fume and GI together look super amazing!).

I then did comp in AE getting the explosion to look nice and have a cool glow.Also making sure all the motion blurs look realistic and consistent. The Clouds are just 2D layers with some Turbulent Noise on and lower opacity.  I added several layers of 2D Fog to create depth to the scene as well as trying to make it look more real.

The Final Output was a 2K Resolution. Turnaround was: 3.3 Hours. The Image is currently showcasing on 3D Aritst's Magazines website.

It was great fun to create this image. It was a blast!!!


As Always Thanks For Looking!

Red Coat 3D Image Creation

All Content ©Niall Horn

After been given my Project Briefs for college I have tried to bend them so I can do some 3D For my Final Output. Thanks to my awesome teachers (Andy and John).

For one Image I want to some Red Coats that are been blown back by a Cannon Explosion. 

I decided to bite the bullet and Model all the Assets myself with no external help as well as texture,fx,lighting,rendering will all be done by me in the coming days. FX is my main interest but all aspects of VFX I find amazing so I was very excited all the way through!

I looked at a lot of Reference, I knew this was not going to be Digic Pictures Assassins Creed 3 Cinematic Quality but I wanted it to look good. I started by modelling the Body and all the Clothes. I faked the cloth look by using Noise Modifiers and the Mesh smoothing the Noisy Mesh to create the look of creases. Once the Clothing was complete I modelled the Musket, Again I looked at reference but Its not mega realistic but it looks good enough and I don't have the time to waist detailing as I have 2-3 other Digital images to make!

I then went into Mudbox to create the face of the solider screaming and then texture paint his face. That only took like 20 mins. Back into Max to assemble the Model Then I exported It out as a Final FBX file.

I then have started to do the scene setup for the final Image using a simple Pflow system to create the rocks explosion which will emit Fume FX eventually but for now its more like Previz.

I created Both The Models and The Scene Set-up/Previz in Around 6 Hours.

Asset Creation Time: 6.4 Hours
Polygons: Solider: 137,000 Musket: 14,000

Screen Shots: 

RedCoat And Musket Turntable Render:

Also Here is a test animation using a Mixamo Rig. I plan to try and rig it myself in the near future.

Update** 15 September 2013

An amazing animation company called Image Metric's have released a Free Ware Facial Animation rig. I quickly did a pose and put it on my Red Coat Model. I am soon to experiment with this for more realsim in the face. (Thanks To Image Metrics).