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.
June 5, 2017#
Evil Ed, another Zbrush sketch.
February 7, 2017#
DOF in CG animation video uploaded
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.
February 3, 2017#
Depth of Field Testing
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
January 26, 2017#
Ted’s Tech!
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
October 19, 2016#
Vlogger – Scene Setup
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.
October 5, 2016#
Vlogger Animation Face Rig
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.
September 17, 2016#
Zbrush Character Sculpt for a Vlogger Idea
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.
September 17, 2016#
Formation Logo Fun!
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.
August 8, 2016#
Yay! Animated GIFs
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
June 28, 2016#
Jelly Man! GI and SSS fun.
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
June 27, 2016#
60 Grams of Morphium!
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.
May 11, 2016#
Faking a moon landing!
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
December 16, 2015#
10 Lightwave 3D Tips I wish I’d known from the Start
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.
December 1, 2015#
Sharp Valley – A VR pitch
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
October 31, 2015#
Halloween Formation Logo
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.
September 15, 2015#
Cinemagraph gifs from ‘Objects’ project.
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
August 28, 2015#
Cotton Maps in Lightwave 3D (Free tiled textures)
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.
April 28, 2015#
Global Illumination with Animation
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.
April 9, 2015#
Visiting – Episode 1
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
March 18, 2015#
Download CG Water scene for Lightwave 3D + DPkit
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.
March 12, 2015#
Google Cardboard Animation
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.
August 15, 2014#
VisitingShort.com
VisitingShort.com is up and running. A handy place for all the visiting development and progress. At the moment I’m getting the workflow of motion capture and animation sorted out using new Rhiggit v2.0 tools, which, so far seem very flexible!
August 15, 2014#
Fun with Newtonian Motion Plugin for Lightwave 3D
Quick test of a new plugin for Lightwave 3D and that can follow any item, generating a Newtonian motion reaction to the animation. Super handy!
August 14, 2014#
Nodal Material, Displacements and Post Processing
A Lightwave 3D tutorial I put together has just gone live as part of Lightwave’s Siggraph 2014 showcase. Using nodal materials, displacements and post processing to achieve a treated final image straight out of Lightwave 3D. Special mention, as always, to Denis Pontonnier and his outstanding plugins.