3D – Page 3 – Jer's Life

Tag3D

Dear Voxel, Where’ve Ya Been?

2008/10/29 / Jer / 4 Comments

Anyone remember the voxel? Gamers used to remember voxels from the Voxel Space engine that was used in Comanche: Maximum Overkill and Delta Force. Or maybe there’s some gamers out there that played Outcast? (maybe?)

In any case, it looks like voxels are not dead… but taking a little vacation. It’s only a matter of time till someone exploits the hidden potential. Real destructible terrain w/ density! Hellooooo? Well, one person seems to have figured it out and disguised his tech demo as a game called Voxelstein 3D. I can’t tell you what hope this game gives me. Imagine not just blowing chunks off off buildings, in pre-cut peices… but actually being able to carve into terrain.

Seems like the medical field hasn’t let this technology unused. A few Siggraph’s back I was able to get a demo from one of the software engineers of this intuitive application, but on ATI hardware. He moved points around to adjust the density and appearance of those densities in order to zero in on the skull and (with a little tweaking) the brain.

Lucky for me, Houdini has voxels in it… voxel fluids.

Looks like there’s still some money to be made in software & hardware using voxel technology.

Still wondering “What are voxels“? Well Wiki seems to have the usual depth, including a list of games that used the technology, like Crysis & Worms 4 Mayhem… ? Ok, now we need an update to Scorched Earth, but with voxels. Mmmm MMmm good.

3D curve sketching

2008/10/14 / Jer / 0 Comments

With a tool like this, maybe there wouldn’t be such a strong aversion towards using NURBS in the entertainment industry.

ILoveSketch from Seok-Hyung Bae on Vimeo.

Thanks to Drawn! for the link.

Metal Gear Solid’s Characters

2008/09/06 / Jer / 0 Comments

Love character rigging and especially good rigging… and above that, I love to see how others achieve great results.

Chris Evans has dug up some info on the character work that has gone into Metal Gear Solid 4. I’m on the fence about which console to buy, but the tech put into this game is enough to end the debate.

Thanks again to “Stumbling Into Awesomeness” for these great posts.

Character Pipeline of MGS4

Facial Animation of MGS4

* UPDATE * Oct 16, 2008

CGTalk just posted a production focus article for MGS4. Looks like there’s some great stuff in here that I’ll have to take the time to read later.

MGS4 WearWolf

Emily is Not Real

2008/08/19 / Jer / 0 Comments

Believe it or not, she is not real. I recommend going to Youtube and clicking the “Watch in High Quality” link. Image Metrics Tech Demo is showing that we’re getting closer to “bridging the gap uncanny valley. For once it’s spooky because it’s so close to real, not spooky because it looks like animated plastic. Of course, you can still tell… after the second viewing. 😉

More info @ Creative Cows, Times Online & a video interview w/ Image Metrics on VideoSift.

Guinness Commercial: noitulovE

2008/07/17 / Jer / 0 Comments

Guinness gives us a little history of life with “noitulovE” (that’s “Evolution” backwards, if you haven’t noticed). The question of “Daddy, where did we come from?” can be answered in less than 1 minute! I know this commercial is old news, but needed to post it anyways.

Get a better quality Quicktime version here.

Also, Guiness.com has posted a short making-of documentary w/ Danny Kleinman going over some of the FX shots.

Radiohead – House of Cards

2008/07/14 / Jer / 0 Comments

“Geometric Informatics scanning systems produce structured light to capture 3D images at close proximity, while a Velodyne Lidar system that uses multiple lasers is used to capture large environments such as landscapes.”

The making of this video can be found here. Thanks goes to Simon and Dan for this one.

Softimage’s ICE

2008/07/08 / Jer / 0 Comments

Softimage has introduced ICE (Interactive Creative Environment) in XSI 7. Taking strong cues from Houdini’s procedural workflow, ICE finally brings XSI a particle system and much much more.

Despite what the general public thinks, there is a LOT that can be done on a 3D production that does not require a programmer. Using node networks, we are attempting to keep it that way. However, this doesn’t mean there isn’t some serious logic puzzles to figure out, it just means that the keyboard and typos are less prevalent.

If you are a 3D professional that is curious or if you’re a newb that wants to see a slick way produce do 3D effects, please take a look at Softimage’s XSI 7.

– = UPDATE =-

The Softimage community website has a list of videos with some jaw dropping examples of how ICE is being used. You can dissect the IK solver? Uugh… geek heaven.

Big Buck Bunny

2008/06/20 / Jer / 0 Comments

Big Buck Bunny, Blender’s open source movie has been released! Yes, I know I’m a little late on this announcement, but better late than never. I received my DVD in the mail a few weeks back and was stunned at the quality of the short. The story is a little odd and violent, but entertaining! The deformation of the character rigs is wonderful and the animation was surprisingly flushed out. They certainly put more time and focus in this area than they did with their first open source film. Not too shabby for a 3D application that’s less than a 10MB download.

The DVD contains the full short film, plus all the assets used in production. Including the 3D characters, sets, storyboards and animatics. If you are curious about what is used in a 3D production pipeline, this is a priceless resource.

Did I mention that this was created entirely with open source software? The primary pieces of software used were Ubuntu, Gimp for textures & Blender for 3D and compositing.

I’d recommend downloading the HD version of the Big Buck website, but for those that are lazy and willing to sacrifice the quality, it’s also viewable on YouTube:

NaturalMotion’s Endorphin

2008/06/10 / Jer / 0 Comments

I’ve heard of this as an “Animation Synth”. Being able to take keyframed animation and then applying it to a dynamic dummy. Why haven’t I played with the demo yet? I’m disappointed that I haven’t yet animated a cartwheeling fool roll off a cliff… and then drop a safe on his head.

Combine this product with Massive, get yourself an animation library of some sword hacking and it sounds like you’d have hours of fun w/ a virtual camera. I mean… why leave the house?

Dan passed over this cool link to a TED talk presented by Torsten Reil. He explains how the study of biology was used in developing Endorphin or Euphoria.

King Kong Dynamics

2008/06/10 / Jer / 0 Comments

Without a doubt, there’s going to be some serious destruction in Peter Jackson’s rendition of King Kong. Word is, Weta Digital is currently using BlastCode to handle some of the tricky dynamic simulations. I’d highly recommend checking out some of sample movies they have in the gallery. Yeah. YEAH! NUKE THAT HOUSE!!! I love the smell of… the hum of computers simulating… boom.

Houdini and Mr X Inc

2008/06/08 / Jer / 0 Comments

I just finished watching Resident Evil Extinction. It’s the third movie of the Resident Evil series and I was pleasantly surprised. If not for any other reason, the FX don’t feel so fakey and the action is continuous. How about the story? Mad Max w/ zombies? It worked for me.

beatiful Houdini 9 UI

Working in the industry, it’s hard for me not to take note of the effects that make me loose my breath as I gasp “whaaaaaa?”. The effects are killer (pun intended) and they reminded me of another action/horror move I’d seen recently, Silent Hill. Mr. X Inc. was responsible for the FX in both Resident Evil & Silent Hill, and the Houdini software upped the awe factor. From what I’ve read, Houdini’s procedural workflow was essential in speeding up the process in receiving director feedback. How? Well, if something needs to be tweaked or a step backtracked, it’s instant with Houdini. No build history is lost, which makes it a snap to make modifications to prior steps. Fantastic! <insert geek snort here>. This also makes the program a dream to work with, as you can rely on networks of nodes instead of spending your days writing lines of code.

Been reading some other interviews about how Houdini is improving the lives of TDs around the world. I plan on improving my life as well, just as soon as I find a little more time to dive into the free 3D Buzz online class. Speaking of which, even if you have no prior experience in 3D applications, I’m sure you’d be able to follow along in Buzz’s free video tutorials.

Rigging Wizard – Masaki Togashi

2008/05/30 / Jer / 0 Comments

Claus, a very talented and technical animator friend of mine and I were talking of the recent events in the company. We were talking about some key things that can really set most rigs apart from the standard. This includes custom icons (locators) instead of just NURBS curves, or broken hierarchies which make it easier to post character silhouettes to camera.

He told me that his favorite rigger was a Masaki Togashi. I looked him up and apparently he was the sole rigger on Ghost in the Shell 2. I guess the guy really knew his stuff, though other riggers found him difficult to work with. A “my way or the highway” approach. In his defense, I can understand what it’s like what you try and go outside the normal boundaries in order to make innovations. Hope to meet the guy one day.

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑

Jer's Life

Personal Brain Dump

Tag Cloud