This shot is a fairly simple shot to setup and composite which makes it perfect for demonstrating some basic compositing techniques for integrating your effects plate into the background. These techniques apply to CG renders and live footage. Continue reading
Vfx Breakdown Rendezvous With A Swindler 3.5
A breakdown of a few shots from Rendezvous With a Swindler 3.5. Every time I go to create a vfx breakdown I am surprised by how long it takes to create them! They go by so quickly as you watch but the editing takes much longer. This is part of why I only broke down three shots from the film.
As a special treat just for you guys I am including annotated images of the node trees used in the three shots! Continue reading
First Render from Armageddon!
Behold! The first render from our sci-fi concept short Armageddon! I was working on the materials for the alien patrol flying saucer which is featured largely in the film. For this project I decided to go with the fairly new Cycles render engine, which first became available early 2011! Take a look at the render engine here on the wiki: Cycles Wiki
For an introductory tutorial check out this Blenderguru tutorial: Introduction to Cycles
Ok, back on topic. Continue reading
Armageddon: Blog Update #2
This is from when we finished the second day of filming for Armageddon. Some sneak peaks at some of the footage! The visual effects and pre-vis will get a start in 2013!
Armageddon: Blog Update #1
I was recently in Idaho for Thanksgiving and, of course, I couldn’t resist making a movie! The scenery was gorgeous and the weather cooperated (I was afraid it might snow, which would have killed the second day of shooting) But, that didn’t happen and we got all the footage we needed (not all that we wanted but that’s how it goes). I’m going to be documenting our movie-making process and keeping you all updated! There is going to be a good deal of visual effects in this one. We will see how that goes! Video #1:
Flying Saucer Breakdown
I’m going to make a tutorial out of this to demonstrate some simple integration techniques, so stay tuned for that! But here is the breakdown:
Tears of Steel is out!
Here it is, Tears of Steel:
Tears of Steel/Mango Project Online Release is Tomorrow!
The Blender Institute project Tears Of Steel will be released tomorrow, Wednesday 26th, September! This is very exciting for me as the project focuses on the art of visual effects. I strongly recommend purchasing a DVD box set at http://tearsofsteel.org/! This set will contain all the studio files from Tears of Steel along with a making-of documentary, breakdowns, and behind the scenes goodies! You can also check out the blog and read up on what the team has been doing. A lot of cool behind the scenes information has been put up on the blog. The DVD and the Tears of Steel blog are great learning resources for everyone, no matter what area of Blender you are interested in.
Mango Project – Blender in Visual Effects production!
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Ladies and Gentleman, I am afraid that I have missed the boat as far as announcing the Mango project on BlenderForHumans (I really need to get better about updating the site). Anyway, Mango has now been going for quite some time. Principle photography has been done for a little over a month, so…. Yeah. But I am now sharing it with you, because it is awesome. The goal of this project is to improve Blender in the area of visual effects. So, be prepared for awesome to ensue! Continue reading
Blender 2.63 is out! Bmesh, Cycles improvements and more!
Awesome Robot
Blender 2.63 had been officially unleashed on the world! New features include:
- Bmesh! This new mesh system allows N-gons (polygons with more than four sides)
- Cycles has added support for Mirror Ball Environment Textures, and a shadow pass. Which is great news for Vfx artists. There is also Layer masks and some other sweet additions!
You can read more about the features here: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/2.63
Happy Blending!