Feb 25

Shooting miniatures

Posted in: VFX Supervision / Pre-Production
Hi there,

This is my first post here at VFX talk, Been browsing it for a while and learnt a lot from it.

I’m currently at University and am working on visual effects for a friends graduation film. The film is about two people on the way to mars and they run into problems meaning one of them has to sacrifice themselves in order to complete the mission.

We have already shot all the interior spaceship shots in a studio, all that is left is to shoot a miniature against a greenscreen. This will be keyed out so the ship appears to be floating and rotating through space.

Does anyone have any tips and tricks for shooting the miniatures. I’m hoping to add reflections, lights, dirt etc.. onto the miniature in post. I have been watching ‘Moon’ behind the scenes and its incredible how much they improve upon their miniatures in post production.

Is their anything I should set up on the space ship when we shoot them, tracking markers etc.. Should I shoot it with a locked off camera. It was suggested that I build a CG version of the ship to map reflections onto the miniature.. Would be great to hear some tips and workflow ideas,

Thank you

James

No Comments
Feb 25

pathonPanels – procedure on button press problems

Posted in: Nuke Plugins & Scripts
hey,

i just did a script using a pythonPanels interface.
all worked fine until i did a small chande in one procedure.
i am not able to use "nuke.toNode("xxx")" in a procedure that is called from the python panel.

here a script that demonstrates the problem.

-> create a Blur node named "Blur1" before starting it.

Code:

import nuke
import nukescripts
class testPanel(nukescripts.PythonPanel):
    def __init__(self):
        nukescripts.PythonPanel.__init__( self, "testPanel")
        self.forwardButton = nuke.PyScript_Knob(">>")
        self.forwardButton.setCommand("test()")   
        self.addKnob(self.forwardButton)
 
def test():
    b =nuke.toNode("Blur1")
    print "b is currently: ", b
 
tp = testPanel()
tp.showModal()

after you press the button in the new panel, you see the return value "None". that means the command nuke.toNode("Blur1") thinks that the node "Blur1" is unknown..
it works, if you call it without the pythonPanels interface.

cheers

alex

(nuke 6.0v1)

edit:
if you add:
print "check exist: ", nuke.exists("Blur1")
in the test procedure, you will get the result "False"
but if you add:
print nuke.allNodes()
you will see the node exists..

strange to me.

p.s.: using "knobChanged" inside the class declaration does the same.

No Comments
Feb 25

MR render passes for nuke composting

Posted in: Maya
Hi There,

I am preparing some render passes for a compositor in mental ray for maya 2011.

The compositor would like the maximum ammount of control in the comp so I have rendered diffuse raw, diffuse levels, indirect raw etc etc using the multiple outputs of the mia_x_passes materials.

Using the architectural and design visualization shader library white paper information, these should be composited to match the beauty pass with the equation:

Beauty = Diffuse_level * (diffuse_raw + (indiect_raw * ao_raw)) + (spec_level * spec raw) etc etc

The passes are outputted as linear 16bit float exrs as specified.

The problem occurs when the comparing the beauty pass and the reconstructed beauty pass. There is a antialiasing/filtering artifact where objects of high contrast intersect.

I have attached a picture of a test beauty pass, the reconstructed beauty pass and also a picture of the difference between the two with a slight increase in gamma to emphasize the result.

Is there anybody that regularly uses mental ray passes at this deconstructed level that encounters the same issue? is there anything that I could be doing in maya to avoid this??

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you for your time

james

Attached Thumbnails

Click image for larger version Name: Beauty.jpg Views: N/A Size: 36.7 KB ID: 11458
 

Click image for larger version Name: Beauty_reconstructed.jpg Views: N/A Size: 36.6 KB ID: 11459
 

Click image for larger version Name: Beauty_difference.jpg Views: N/A Size: 19.6 KB ID: 11460
 

No Comments
Feb 25

Maskarad-Markerless Facial Performance

Posted in: 1

With Maskarad, you now only need a video file featuring an actor’s performance to get started creating lifelike facial animations.

No Comments | Tags:
Feb 25

Topogun 2.0 Sneak Preview

Posted in: 1

The TopoGun 2.00 beta testing will start in a matter of days. The upgrade from TopoGun 1.XX to TopoGun 2.00 will be free of charge…

No Comments | Tags:
Feb 25

Mental Ray Passes with IBL

Posted in: Maya
my friend lit a teapot with IBL, and he just has the image based lighting as the only light source. He wanted to render out different passes so he creates a couple of render layers for like shadows, ao, and beauty. and in the beauty layer he set up a couple of passes (indirect, spec, diffuse, reflection) within the layer, but when it renders, it renders the beauty fine, and every other pass within it comes out black.

like there is no alpha whatsoever (or maybe there was not too sure), and yeah nothing worked. what’s even more weird is the fact that the moment an ACTUAL LIGHT is inserted in the scene, every pass works.

all of the other layers (ao and shadow) works just fine, just this layer with all the passes do not work. and this is being rendered in mental ray, what could be the problem?

No Comments
Feb 25

how to open .nk file with py in Nuke?

Posted in: NUKE from The Foundry
Could somebody tell me how to open .nk file with python in Nuke???
I try to find the method in doc over and over again, but failed..

Thanks…

No Comments
Feb 25

Making-of video (“THE RETROSPECTS”)

Posted in: VFXTalk Short Film Forum
Hi guys,

I would like to seek your advise on this making-of video for my short “THE RETROSPECTS” submitted as a part of a CG challenge.

I got a pretty silent response from other participants about this making-of video. Has it broken some protocol? Is it too lengthy? Boringly repetitive? Offensive in someway that I failed to notice?

I’ve read the “http://www.vfxtalk.com/forum/top-10-things-never-put-your-reel-t9014.htm.” Is there anything like “TOP 10 THINGS NEVER TO PUT IN YOUR MAKING-OF VIDEOS”?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz88zoSdHss

No Comments
Feb 24

Cinema 4D Aritist Needed ASAP

Posted in: The Job Lot
Emmy Award nominated visual effects company in Culver City, CA has immediate availability for a Cinema 4D artist to work on a stereoscopic 3D project. This individual must be available to work on-site and must have a keen eye for design for broadcast, industrial, and feature film work.

The following are expected from an ideal candidate:
-3+ years experience as an animator or equivalent position
-Must be able to work positively in a team environment
-Must be able to complete work in a timely manner and follow up on fixes as well as self manage.
-Stereo background a plus, but not necessary.

Must be available to start ASAP.

Application Requirements:

Extensive experience with Cinema 4D is a must.

Please send links, reel, & resume to: jobs@ieeffects.com

Thank you.

No Comments
Feb 24

Why does making accurate size models in Maya doesn’t result in realistic simulations?

Posted in: Maya
Why does making accurate size models in Maya doesn’t result in realistic simulations?
For example:
I created a 2700 unit(centimeter) tall building, which is 27 meters (88 feet).
It is pretty accurate for a 9 story building.
If I create simple rigid body box falling from the 9th story it comes down very very slowly.
I set the gravity to 98 units(centimeter) , which is 9.8 meters.
What an I doing wrong??
Thanks
No Comments