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
January 2, 2018#
June 18, 2017#
Flat profile hack on Panasonic GX80 camera (Cine-D)
I really like the Panasonic Lumix GX80 (or GX85 in the US). There’s one this missing from the camera, and that is the flat CineD profile found on many of the higher tier Lumix cameras, until today. BTM_Pix user on the EOSHD forums shared their method for using the camera’s Wifi protocol to upload the CineD profile to a custom mode. Continue Reading
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
September 18, 2016#
The Coast – Clips from Newquay
Got back from Newquay, Cornwall and took the Panasonic Lumix GX80 with me. So far I really like the handling for a travel camera, small enough to carry around all day and very unassuming. But perhaps the best feature, which makes this my preferred travel camera, is the ability to charge it from a standard micro-usb cable. No more carrying around a separate battery charger and adapter cable! I think the other thing, along with perhaps a GH4-like battery life, that could be improved would be the inclusion of flatter picture styles that most of the other UHD capable Lumix cameras have. This, I’m hoping, may still be added in a firmware update? Unlikely I’m sure but, much like the GH2 days, it hasn’t stopped the ability to achieve Continue Reading
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
August 5, 2016#
A Snail at Night // Macro
Perfect opportunity try the Canon 100mm f2.8 (non-IS) macro on the Sony A7R II in crop mode. The on sensor image stabilisation works wonders for macro work, even able to pan around without too much judder.
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.
February 23, 2016#
ISO 3200 on the A7RII
Getting a handle on the image profiles in movie mode. I’ve played around with Neutral with -3 contrast, PP6 and PP7 (slog2). I’m liking how slog2 performs in these situation but find it hard to recover colour saturation compared to other profiles. This was also the first time I’d used the smart remote app for android, which works really well but I don’t seem to be able to select slog2 or any picture profile, instead it gives the option to use the photo orientated ‘creative styles’ only.
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
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.
July 7, 2014#
GH4 Low Light Test
Got the GH4! And so far I’m very happy with it. 4K video is sharp and there are is a huge amount of flexibility when it comes to image profile adjustments. Almost too much 🙂 Seems like a balance of achieving a flat image for grading without getting too flat as to loose fidelity in the 8bit compression.
April 8, 2014#
Diamonds!
Ramping up the rays to render some diamonds in Lightwave 3D with the Dielectric node. If you’re interested in the settings I’ve put a screen capture up here and there’s also some interesting links that people commented on the vimeo page.
April 8, 2014#
London’s Soho with a 5D3 ML RAW
Out shooting some low light footage with the 5D Mark III with Magic Lantern RAW module. The kind of invert, softlight grade I usually like to use to boost shadows seem to create quite a bit of aliasing on high contrast footage.
January 30, 2014#
CG Water fun
Trying out some displacement and material worked based on a little video I took of a of the Thames at sunset. Trying to get some sun highlights in that create a nice bokeh effect in the defocussed areas. I’m going to try Continue Reading
September 30, 2013#
5×5 – Close Complexity
Trying another Vimeo Weekend Challenge of five 5 seconds clips with natural audio with the theme ‘Complexity’. Shooting with Magic Lantern RAW on a Canon 5d mark III. The YN-160 led video light came into it’s own for getting enough light down the Canon 100mm at f14, although I still had to have the ISO around 800-1600. I found it really difficult keeping everything still, particularly when using 3x crop mode and could of definitely of used the Canon 100mm L with IS.
July 21, 2013#
ML RAW on the 5D Mark III
Trying out the Magic Lantern RAW module on the Canon 5D Mark III. So far no real performance issues with Lexar Pro 1000x and Kingston 1000x CF cards. I did have to return a Komputerbay CF card but I’ve heard they’re a bit hit and miss.
So far the quality and dynamic range is wonderful, the resolving power how seem on par with the GH2 and more so in under exposed areas. Importing the .RAW files and converting isn’t too much hassle and importing into After Effects is great via Adobe Camera Raw, however adjusting too many setting that are based on sample the histogram etc cause flickering when playing back the dng sequence.
July 15, 2013#
35mm – Playing with a CCTV lens
Playing with a Fujian 35mm F1.7 CCTV lens. It’s a tiny c-mount lens. It’s a pretty poor performer compared to other m4/3 lenses but it’s a fast 70mm equivalent lens that will set you back £24 from ebay and it has a lot of “character” 🙂
March 17, 2013#
24 Second Day
Music: “Quittin’ Time” by Patrick Lee (patrickleemusic.com)
I thought I’d try out one of Vimeo’s ‘Weekend Challenge‘. This one was one second clips, so I went for a walk around London having fun with a Sigma 8mm on full frame. I was really fun being part of a whole bunch of people creating videos for creativities sake. Also helped me find out about the Vimeo music store, pretty handy resource.
January 28, 2013#
Working on the Weekend – more GH2 clips
Capturing some more video with the GH2 and Dwiftwoods IntraVenus hack while working on the weekend. Had fun with a few split screens and shooting on a very blue (2500k) white balance compensation. Music track from RoyaltyFreeKings.com.
January 21, 2013#
Shots in the Snow
Trying out a new lens purchase, the Lumix 14-140mm. A great all purpose lens with an insane amount of reach. It was very easy to go out with in these kind of conditions without the need to switch lens and the pretty solid stabilisation saved a lot of post-processing.
December 1, 2012#
B&W footage with the Panasonic LX7 + mini review
Trying out the Panasonic Lumix LX7. Love this little camera, the lens is pin sharp and I really like the ergonomics, I had the Sony RX100 for a bit and just didn’t get along with it as well as this camera. I like the wider FOV of the LX7 and the better Continue Reading
October 23, 2012#
Unity3D experiments
Had some time to have a play with getting 3D content into a game engine, namely Unity3D. Continue Reading
October 15, 2012#
Formation Begins
Our new company specialising in 3D and Visual Effects is now up and running! We like to work closely with agencies and production companies to help bring ideas to life across multiple platforms. We’ve moved into our new studio and are settling in by trying out some content creation for the Unity 3D game engine.
For more information visit: www.weareformation.com
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