I put up a new section on supertextures.co.uk for HDRI’s. However they’re only 8bit, but with a lot of dynamic range compressed into them, which can be expanded via in an image editor capable processing 32bit. Here’s a quick video covering it. Continue Reading
Getting to grips with Lightwave 3D 2018’s new physically based rendering? Here’s a few things you can do with the new buffer export system, that allows for simple compositing and custom mattes to localise adjustments. Continue Reading
Here’s a quick render test in honer of kicking off the new year. It features the PBR materials and volumetric primitive in Lightwave 2018. The materials where very quick to setup without the need for fresnel nodes plugged into various shader inputs. The volumetric primitive is also really nice to work with, easily controlled with nodes. Continue Reading
I forgot how fun Zbrush is once I remember the workflow! I think I need to get a little more asymmetry into the next one, and maybe a neck and torso too. Started from a polysphere and Goz’d into Lightwave 3D for surfacing and render.
I’ve uploaded a video talking about depth of field in for CG animations. I also quickly cover my workflow from Lightwave 3D to After Effects.
I’ve found myself using depth of field a lot more in project, quite shallow depth of field which is very expensive in render time, require many, many samples. However depth maps can be used to MASSIVELY speed up the rendering process by processing the depth of field as a post process. I put together a little scene with the mind to test some of the solutions out there. Continue Reading
Ted’s Tech is a 3D animation featuring a mock technology review of an absurd phone concept, drawing stylistic inspiration from fantastic YouTube channels like Unbox Therapy, MKBHD and Dave 2D. Continue Reading
Scene and lighting pretty much done as well as the body rig. I started with a custom joint setup but soon fell back on the Rhiggit V2 tools, which I absolutely love at the moment. The scene setup was inspired by Unbox Therapy on YouTube. Not sure if I’m going to keep it like this but it’s a clean start. I’ve still got a little texture work to go and am re-writing some of the dialogue but hope to start animated soon…ish.
Fighting for time to work on my little vlogger animation idea and started creating the face rig. I’m heavily utilising 3rd Powers set of amazing LW Brush plugins for Lightwave to easily create different morph shapes and throwing in bones as and when it feels like it needs it. I think I’m going to go ahead with a basic setup and add finer controls as and when I need them.
I had an idea for a vlogger reviewing absurd products and am currently getting to grips with Zbrush so I thought it was be a good opportunity to merge the two. This is the first time I’ve started creating a character with zero consideration for topology and animation, which was incredibly refreshing. I was concerned that starting without a clean modelled base mesh and UV would result in more difficulty creating smooth surfaces with uniform creases, but I’m happy so far. Starting from ZSpheres, using Dynamesh, zRemesher and UVMaster was considerably different to the workflows that I’m used to, but they are amazingly powerful in their own right.
Not sure why but it was fun putting together these little logo idents, trying out a variety of animation and dynamics techniques in Lightwave 3D with the DP kit tools.
I started making some animated GIFs (as a video collection here), I’m not totally sure why but I’ve had a lot of fun doing it. In each one I’ve been playing with different techniques like; animated GI, low-poly, SSS and nodal animation. I think the reason that they’re enjoyable to make it the very fast turn around time. Each clip only took 1-2 days to complete and so didn’t interfere with any ongoing work. Here’s a few making of images for those that are interested. Continue Reading
Had a bit of down time and created this animated doodle. Part of my inspiration was to try being true to PBR materials. The scene was lit solely with GI, using Fresnel nodes for reflection and diffuse. Animation was FK joint bones. Ground contact was tricky with FK but the rig setup time was non-existent and allowed for stretchy bones. Continue Reading
I felt inspired to show some of the sonic properties of morphium. Again, created in Lightwave 3D and After Effects. Using the ‘shrink wrap’ tool to create multiple blend shapes / morphs. Vimeo Album.
Finished putting together the shots from a recent, massively fun job for Gramafilm. The work consisted of 20 VFX shots orf various complexity, featuring live-action astronauts on both the Moon and an adapted version of the ISS. My work started on set as VFX supervisor, each day I was able to test post processes on the set to give an idea of the end shot as well as starting to model the various CG objects. Continue Reading
I’ve had a few ‘how did I not know this!’ moments when using Lightwave 3D over the years. Here are some of that I’ve found particularly useful.
These polygonal landscapes were created as part of a pitch for a medical expo experience to promote a new pain management medicine. Our approach was to show the user an ever changing landscape based in the noise response from an EEG reader built into the headset. Continue Reading
Happy Halloween! Demonising the studio logo for a bit of seasonal fun. Created in Lightwave 3D using volumetric lights with node editor animated procedurals for the red smoke.
Thought I’d put together some looping animated GIFs for the ongoing ‘Objects’ project, creating simple CG scenes from the bottom up and focusing on the details.
Continue Reading
There are a few nice cotton textures out there but unless you have an electron microscope sometimes the fidelity isn’t that high, so I though I’d make one. A lot of the modelling was done in Layout with bones twisting and bending the mesh, then saving out a transformed mesh back to Modeller for extra tweaking.
After experimenting a bit with moving geometry in a character turntable lit with radiosity I thought I’d test a few scenarios with low ‘Maximum Pixel Spacing’, thinking it would be a sort half-way-house between brute force and interpolated. I’m quite happy with the results, considering the low Rays and render times of 2-5 minutes of a 1920×1080 frame on i7 4770 cpus.
Yay! Finally put up the first episode of Visiting. This episode acts as an introduction to more loose animated vignettes that focus on more candid moments. More information on: visitingshort.com
I did a CG water tutorial last year for Lightwave 3D and am putting up the scene file here for anyone that want to have a look as some details may have been glossed over in the video.
Finished a little CG animation to show the construction of a branded Google Cardboard VR headset. The animation was produced in Lightwave 3D and I make use of DPkit’s nodes to post process and grade the image straight out of the renderer.
