Weekly – June 22

by - 2012/06/23 24 Comments Production, Weekly meeting

Here’s a random pick from the weekly presentation again. Things are really coming together :)

  1. 3pointedit says:

    Some terrific looking early comps here. Brain is nice and icky.

  2. shul says:

    when did wesley snipes joined the crew?? :-)

    love the brain!! although the purple stuff around it is a bit over-cgi

  3. ZetShadnow says:

    Wow, it’s amazing the work they have done so far, but some things are wrong, for example, the quatbot looks very squared, and the brain is very false, I think it looked better the other version, I can not know if it is flaso or not, I have never seen one: D, but I think the brain has a texture more like jelly than clay.
    Good luck with your work, I hope to see in September

  4. Eibriel says:

    Amazing!!

    The scientist have a 3d polarized glasses (like Cinemark’s) or I’m confused? :P

  5. Joshua says:

    looking great so far , i was wondering if there is any plans to be able to cache frames in compositor like ram preview in after effects because having to render out just to preview seems like long way around, it would make it easier to use stock elements for a muzzle flash for example.

    • ton says:

      Still on the todo; currently you have to render it out and then play back :) Works too, but can be slow indeed.

  6. Dman says:

    Renders look really great so far, but for the love of god (and all compositors out there) please DON’T overdo it on the lightwrap! I’ve seen many a decent feature film or junior demo reel absolutely ruined by a uniform white blurry edge appearing around the foreground characters. Bright light never looks like that in real life. Err on the side of subtlety. I know compositing will be the last stage, but it’s just soo important to get right.

    • ton says:

      Yep, as seen in Elephants Dream :) We try to keep this toned down as much as possible! All WIP here.

  7. Glenn De Backer / SilenceBe says:

    Last I saw GI joe the movie and damn that CGI was bad. I’m impressed by the fact that even in it WIP status of these shots and that with a lot less resources then such a blockbuster movie, I already have the feeling that this is a lot better. To be perfectly honest I had my doubts.

  8. Simeon says:

    Looks very promising… Great work!

  9. joostbouwer says:

    Wow looks great already. Will the matte/keying of the hairy scientist stay like this (I mean the fuzz around the hair) or are you guys still working on a better keyer?
    Keep up the good work.

  10. Payton Hubbard says:

    I have a question about planar tracking. While the planar tracker is really awesome, I don’t see how it can be useful for things other than 3d camera solves. Currently, as far as I see it, there is no way to use the planar tracker for anything other than its center point, so its just a fancy tracker. There is no way to do things like set extensions or digital makeup. Having an empty follow the track just gives the position data, not the scale and rotation data that makes the planar tracker so useful on its own. Has a way to actually use the planar tracker just not been implemented, or am I just missing something?

    • stephen says:

      I’m sure the current planar tracker could be used to create the data you need. Are you looking to export to something like After Effects? It would be a case of tracking the corner points of the object you want the planar track for. After tracking, hook in the pixels of the plane/object to the tracking markers. You’ve now got the object deforming over time with the track (similar to translating/rotating/scaling). You can then export the scene to After Effects using the script (think it comes with trunk builds these days) and you should be good to go. I think. Haven’t tried this, but can’t see why it wouldn’t work… And that’s assuming you want to export to After Effects….

      • Payton says:

        I don’t want to necessarily go to AE. (I don’t even have it). But use digital makeup as an example. I can track the face of a woman deforming her face perfectly fine. The planar track follows perfectly and deforms with it too. But now, how could I have that planar track deform an image of say a scratch or a bloody scab. Or say a woman is waving a green cardboard cutout of a cloud. I can put one planar tracker on the cloud, and it follows it nicely, but how do I have a picture of maybe, a cloud, follow the track. If a ad a follow track constraint, it just gives me position data and not rotation and scale data.

        • stephen says:

          Ah ok, well I’d recommend getting the Track, Match, Blend training DVD:

          http://www.blender3d.org/e-shop/product_info_n.php?products_id=147

          Sebastian goes through some digital makeup stuff there (haven’t reached that part yet), but it should just be a case of using the tracker to track the deforming object, making sure you have enough tracking points for a good resolution representation of the object’s motion. You then create a replica of the object in blender and use hooks to link certain vertices to certain track points. The object will deform with the motion of the object in the tracked footage. Here’s a simple tutorial from the training DVD showing the concept:

          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXOnPisiugA

          As far as digital makeup, you’d use the same principle, but have more tracking points I’d imagine, a bit like this example by Sebastian:

          http://vimeo.com/34571143

          Would be a case of UV unwrapping the object, add the texture of the digital paint that you want to add, then composite…

  11. Manson says:

    I have a comment on the scientist… his gun looks floating, it lacks shadows on his sleeves where he puts on his potato gun… :))

    • stephen says:

      Agree, without the sleeve shadow it does look a bit floaty, guess it’ll be a case of modelling a rough approximation of the sleeve for catching the shadow. At least the motion of the arm is already tracked for matchmoving the gun ;-)

      • andy says:

        thanks for the suggestion!
        that was already done, the shadow just isnt visible from that angle.
        it’s also very difficult to match the hue of the shadow according to the changing light conditions (he’s stepping from dark blue into bright yellow light)
        not as easy as it might seem, but we’ll get it right eventually! :)
        .andy

  12. tf says:

    Is there any video noise on the cg? It doesn’t really look like it came out of a camera. Otherwise keep up the good work!

  13. Lyle Walsh says:

    May I suggest a gentle pulsation to the blood vessels on the brain implying pulsatile blood flow.

  14. Kirado says:

    Looking good guys, keep up the great work!

  15. The Twins says:

    Sorry I couldn’t get in contact with anyone through forums. I was wondering if it okay if my brother and I to make an improved version of Yo Frankie called Frank Escape. If so either tell us on this site or on Yo Frankie’s as I don’t have any email address or forum account (the email I stated was just a so I could post. Make it easier for people who don’t have email. Allow you to say “none”).

    Sorry for the inconvenience but this might have something about copyright.

    And I know this site is not a forum.

  16. The Twins says:

    Note on previous comment:
    If we got to make Frank Escape it would include:
    -New levels
    -Reduced poly versions of most levels
    -New mini levels
    -Plot
    -Pause menu
    -Ask yes or no before playing level
    -Etc. Etc.

    Again we are sorry for the inconvenience.