Now i saw on many company sites that they request, shake OR Nuke knowledge as a compositor. And I’ am not that familiar with nuke.
Are their much differences on those two?
seba
Has anyone here completely one of their 10 week courses ?
From what I have seen, they do some really good REAL WORLD training, unlike some of the other companies constantly churning out ‘intro’ type of stuff.
Have a look at this Maya / AE tutorial on different techniques for integration using
render layers. It touches on quite a few topics and has a quite a bit of information but hopefully it makes sense 🙂
Cheers
Jostein
Basically, the subject is standing in a white environment like in the Mac Vs PC commercials and needs to write on the background.
I know what you’re thinking. A.) Put a white posterboard there and have the actor write with a sharpie on it. When you key the green and increase the contrast, the white will disappear into the backdrop leaving only the black. That doesn’t work. When you’re shooting the white blows out in the lighting setup leaving the black invisible. So then you think B.) get a chroma green poster board and THEN write on it with the sharpie. When you key the green, the entire poster board will disappear leaving just the sharpie. Wrong again. Though the black shows up on camera this time, the keyer isn’t precise enough to leave the sharpie strokes clean and strong, they always end up looking aliased and stringy.
So after running those two screen tests I have now devised option C.) Using a chroma-key posterboard and a green highlighter. The poster board will be there to simulate the weight, and the highlighter will be used as a prop, as well as a method of simulating the actual writing so the actor can be sure they are making the proper movements. I would then key out all the green, leaving them waving their hand in the air, then track the motion of the tip of the marker, to which I’d marry a paint layer to follow the movements. Right? Isn’t that nice and simple and clean and dandy? Sure! Except it’s not. Why? Because as far as I can see, there IS no option to track the paint layer. Sure, I can make a single dot and track that motion, but it won’t move in a continuous stroke. It’ll simply be a dot moving around.
My question is: How do I actually simulate writing? I know they do it because you see it in commercials all the time. Like a commercial when a man is writing on the background and then pushing the illustrations away and making new ones. After Effects is known for mogra (motion graphics), so there must be a way to simulate that effect. If anyone knows that would be very helpful. Thanks!
Check it out at Pro Juice
We’ve got heaps of cool tutorials coming up including: how to make mortal combat style energy balls, colour grading techniques, day for night, how to build twitch style effects from the ground up and more.
I was wondering if anyone had some tips and advice on a skin replacement effect i’m trying to do for a university project.
In this test video I’ve used PS to cut out a part of the face, retouched the eye and then placed that as a material in C4D with camera tracking done in PFTrack.
To be honest i’ve thrown myself in the deep end and I’m looking to see if there are more productive and better ways than what i’ve been doing. As you can see the blend isn’t quite perfect as it is only one image.
While this is a test i’d like to cover the whole face with skin, like the effect in the Matrix with neo’s mouth although it doesn’t have to close.
I’ve also looked at modeling a mesh of the face and blending that in, am I on the right path? I guess it’s a mix of what is possible for me to achieve and what looks good 🙂
Cheers and what a great community!
Can anyone help me? :confused: The sample can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH23On6siog
Please respond if you can.
Thanks
Julie
julie.jancen@gmail.com
Princeton, NJ., January 31, 2009 cmiVFX | cmiStudios. launches its 8th training video product for Maxon’s Cinema 4d R11 3D application, but this time its a dual video feature kit with near 8 hours of video in HD. The mystery of XPresso AND Thinking Particles has riddled the Cinema 4D community for years. We take aim at eliminating the gap between the newcomers and extreme experts of this robust application. All 9 Videos are available today at the cmiVFX store. http://cmivfx.com/store/Browse.aspx?Category=12
Product Announcements CINEMA 4D Thinking Particles Featuring XPresso
http://www.cmivfx.com/Maxon/c4d_thin…o/default.aspx
Introduction to XPresso
Understanding how to navigate and create inside XPresso is crucial to managing Thinking Particles. With clear step by step execution, we will instruct you on the principals of working with XPresso networks and how they divide into the connections you would potentially seek.
Thinking like TP
As with learning any new language, we learn to follow different rules then what we are used to. Thinking Particles is no exception to the rule. It has its own rules and workflow. Decrypting how the system "thinks" is one of the most crucial endeavors, so that later on you can read-write solid TP networks knowing exactly why they are connected in such a way to be enhanced.
About Presets
Our presets are equally impressive in quantity and quality, because they were customized to fit each lesson based on the rules in which TP was designed. Learn how to read the presets in a way that will allow you to customize them while introducing new rules in the network.
Generators Paradise
The most important group of nodes, with out a doubt, are the Generator group. Without them, we have no particles at all! Each one of the generators has its own power and influence. All the information you will ever need will be described here in detail in addition to important xpresso workflows examples.
Setting New Rules
Even though it is important to know what any single node can do, it is indispensable to know how to get them to communicate. As the training progresses, we gradually get knowledge of how to set new rules for the particles by combining XPresso and TP networks.
Force Factory
Thinking Particles is well known for its Dynamic group of nodes. In our lessons we will increase the complexity of the examples incrementally building from the ground up. We feel it is the only way for the viewer to absorb the intensity of its workflow.
Emission Control
By this time you will already know how to work with the generators and dynamic groups. Now its time to start bending the rules a bit and combine nodes together to achieve something interesting and new. As with any other node in TP we can also customize the emission of particles in any way we want. So get ready for some really cool particles!
Particles Control
Drawing cool formations of particles is not a simple task, so we will take the time to scrutinize the scenes. We search for what would be the best network setup, while keeping it simple and efficient.
Groups Heaven
Thinking Particles strong point is definitely the ability to work with particle groups in which certain tasks can be assigned. TP allow the user to create and customize the creation and rules of groups on an infinity way. During each lesson we, will be dealing with this topic so it is sure that all users talk the group language as if it was their own.
Solidifying TP
Another great feature of Thinking Particles is the possibility of working with geometries. There are severals tips and tricks to make them work properly, assuring that they are doing exactly what you want. We will take you trough all of the important aspects of working with particle geometry.
Breaking Up is hard to do
Building networks to break things up will be our focus in this set of lessons. Some of them can be really tricky but do not worry! Once you finish these lessons you will be able to break objects about as much as an angry spouse!
Object Integration
By this time you will feel warm and fuzzy about Thinking Particle networks. Its time to integrate them into the projects and have them affect each other respectively. Our networks are clearly more extensive now, mixing XPresso nodes and TP nodes seamlessly and accurately. Driving the actions of our particles with a current scene animation is something really fun to do!
Breaking Barriers
Now that you have consumed all this knowledge it is time to test it out with a larger scale project. We will build together, from the ground up, a scene with an extensive list of rules inside Thinking Particles. Then after its ready and tweaked, we will set it to explode in all its glory with pieces flying and a storm of particles everywhere!
About cmiVFX
cmiVFX is the leader in High Definition Video Training for the Visual Effects Community. To test drive the new cmiVFX TVOD © system, visit http://www.cmivfx.com/cmi_window.html* For additional information about cmiVFX, visit www.cmivfx.com.
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