I am running into some problems with my fur baldnessmap. Maybe someone knows this problem and has a solution for it 🙂
I have a polygon model with a UV layout in the 0 to 1 space. Since working with the Fur attribute paint tool seems to be a pain in the ass, I painted a baldness map with photoshop:
When I assign this file to the baldness channel and bake it, there is still some fur in the black areas of the baldnessmap. I’ve tried to do some additional changes to this painted map with the pain fur attributes tool on the baldness map and exported this map. Here is the result:
As u see, this map looks kind of crapy. Also, there are some areas that i can’t paint with the paint tool, no matter what I try. The original mapsize has 2048 * 2048 pixel and should contain enough detail.
Did anyone run into similiar problems with fur? Do you know how to fix that?
Hey all, forgive me, I am not a 3D guy at all really. But I have to be for a project.
#1
I need to have a bunch of pieces of paper flying past the camera (each one has an animation on it). Rather than just parade flat cards past the camera, I’d like to do something more dynamic -so that the edges of the paper curl in and out slightly based on the animation… much like real paper falling, that would catch wind pockets, etc.
I looked into nCloth and some IK ideas – I think the best thing I have come up with is a jiggle deformer, with the weights inverted on the inner and outer vertices of a plane. But this doesn’t totally work. nCloth is cool, but more of a beast than I want to deal with for this animation.
#2
Smoke. This one is killing me. I’ve used 3D containers, particles, nParticles… I just can’t seem to get what I want. I did better making a perlin noise gizmo in Nuke to do this. I’ve looked everywhere, and no tutorial is quite exactly what I want.
Basically, I import a block of text from Illustrator – like "WELCOME TO" – Extrude it a little, etc. Standard stuff. This comes flying at the camera, and right before it breaks frame, the text breaks/morphs into smoke that continues flying at the camera until it evaporates/fades away.
I’m fine with rendering two passes and blending in Nuke or something… but I can’t seem to get a 3D container to make the smoke right. Also, I don’t want a continual steam of smoke, just one puff from the letters. I also want the letters to deform with the smoke.
Any ideas or points in the right direction are much obliged… I’ll buy you a cookie one day!
Some philosophies of aesthetics enumerate seven primary art forms derived from Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s “Lectures on the Aesthetics” and the writings of film theorist Ricciotto Canudo: architecture, sculpture, painting, dance, music, poetry, and cinema.
The order is disputed, and architecture is sometimes shuffled to the third position, as it was by aspiring filmmaker Alex Roman for the title of his breathtaking work in progress, TheThird&TheSeventh, an artful combination of photorealistic architectural renderings and stylish CG cinematography.
In Roman’s able hands, the combination is undeniably poetic. His reverence for light borders on transcendent, and his attention to detail is inspiring. We caught up with Alex for a little background information.
Tell us a little about yourself. Who are you? Where are you from? What do you currently do?
I was born in 1979, in Alacant (Alicante), a city in Spain. I would first like to say that my real name is Jorge Seva, but I use “Alex Roman” as an artistic alias for publishing independent work.
After being trained in traditional painting at a few academies, I discovered this other world called CG. After school, I made the move to Madrid and began working at a visual effects company. That stint did not last too long due to the lack of demand for visual effects in the Spanish market at the time.
It was then that I switched into the VIZ (architectural visualization) business. I have been working for several companies since. After that, I took a sabbatical year for to work on an “already-built work” visualization series, which will be stitched together into a short animated piece.
Were you formally trained in architecture?
Nope, never. But I was very interested in architecture since I was a child. Maybe it’s not too late.
Can you tell us a little about the TheThird&TheSeventh film?
Well, after working in VIZ for years, I realized that there was a huge aesthetic difference between most clients’ commercial demands and photography of already-built structures. The lack of respect for the architecture itself in some “pure” commercial illustration was very frustrating to me. (Well, this is just my opinion, of course.)
Then, I decided to start a personal journey: to experiment with a more cinematographic and/or photographic oriented point of view of some of my favorites architects’ masterpieces.
Hence, the “TheThird&TheSeventh” project…
After thumbing through a book of Frank Lloyd Wright’s sketches once, I chatted with an architect friend of mine about the art of architectural rendering. He told me that sometimes architects intentionally leave sketches vague or messy.
It not only creates wiggle room when it comes to client negotiations, it leaves room for the imagination to paint in details. How would you respond to that idea?
Well, there are of course several purposes behind computer graphics benefits. That “messy” representation style is very useful at a birth-idea/growing-process stages. Also, there are of course many architects that use CG as a sketching oriented tool… why not?
Your sensitivity to light is amazing. How would you describe the interplay between light and architecture?
Thanks! I think architecture is sculpting with light most of the time. There’s neither volume nor colors and materials without light and shadow.
Like Kahn said once: “In the old buildings, the columns were an expression of light. Light, no light, light, no light, light, you see…”
The level of realism in the TheThird&TheSeventh is stunning. Your render times must be incredible. What software and hardware do you use? How long is an average render?
I use 3DS Max and Vray for rendering, Photoshop for texture work, AfterEffects for compositing and color grading and Adobe Premiere for edit it all.
My desktop PC (i7 920) it’s now the only hardware i have. Every frame rendertime may vary from 20 sec to 1:30 hr (720p) It all depends on how complex the scene is.
However, i invested a lot of time in scene optimization for rendering. I think it’s the key for a flexible workflow.
How can we see the full TheThird&TheSeventh film?
I’m finishing the latest shots, fighting with the music—the hardest stage for me—and editing at the moment. We will see it complete around the end of the summer of 2009. I really hope so!
I know it was supposed to be 2009 by now but I was in the army for the most part of 2009 so there is not much new work in there. That’s why I called this my 2008 reel. I hope I will update this with a 2009 one by the end of the year.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A. during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
