Testing the Waters, ep. 2 - motion vector pass

(experiments in fluid dynamics)

composite

Because of the render-time motion blur, the previous "episode" took too long to complete. This time around, I tried a motion vector pass, which shaved about 85% off of rendering time.

initial simulation (filling the pools)

After modeling some pools, the next step was to fill them with a torrent of particles. Once the pools were full, I turned the water pressure down to a trickle. Total simulation time (filling + adjustments) amounted to maybe 2000 frames, or around a minute of animation. Only 120 (4 seconds) of those frames were used for the final video.

motion vector

I only concerned myself with two passes this time around: motion vector and specular. The motion vector pass is represented above.  Each additive color - red, green, and blue - corresponds to a different spacial dimension - respectively, the X, Y, & Z vectors. The compositing software uses those first two colors - red and green - to blur pixels along the width and height of an image.

specular pass with highlight filter

The specular pass is used to create a sparkly effect on the water.

steps

This video shows some of the steps of the process.

Wonder Warthog, part 8 - blocking out the head

(I'm redesigning, modeling, and rigging Gilbert Shelton's classic cartoon character, "Wonder Wart-Hog.")

blocked-out head

The modeling is divided into 4 groups: head, suit, hand, and boot. The head's the most complex component. Along with hair and fur, it incorporates eye, throat, gum, tongue, teeth, and tusk objects. It's created first so I have plenty of time to re-think and tweak it.

the skull at progressive stages

(click to enlarge)

The skull is an intimate anatomical guide for skin modeling, and maybe a skin deformer during the rigging process. That is, the skull would act as something for the skin to slide over, primarily for jaw movement. For either purpose, it'll be invisible to renderings, so complete accuracy is not important.

head blocking at progressive stages

(click to enlarge)

There are several stages to the construction of the head skin. The first is to block out the overall shape. If we use the construction of a skyscraper as an analogy, this is the part where I put all the girders in place.

time-lapse modeling

I wanted to try making one of these screen capture videos. It shows the modeling process of the skull and the head. It's sped up 60x; e.g., 1 minute video time =1 hour real time.

The remaining head stages will build more and more detail onto this framework. The next stage will ...

• refine the skin topology so it conforms to the underlying anatomy
• build the mouth, eyes, warts and all
• subdivide and elaborate

Testing the Waters, ep. 1 - workflow

(experiments in fluid dynamics)

development stages of a splash:
mesh, raytracing, motion blur

Fluids are often animated with particle dynamics, which are also used to animate fire, explosions, lightning, swarms, and pliable substances (soft bodies). Dynamics - in 3D software - are a technique of animating objects with forces, instead of by keyframing. Dynamic forces include gravity, object/particle collision (normal force), friction, tension, and elasticity.

I've dabbled in fluid systems for years, but now I want to have a more comprehensive understanding of all their permutations. Also, their chaotic nature is a nice compliment to the intense meticulousness of the character-building in my other current project. For now, the software I'll be using is RealFlow with Maya.

video

Here's my first step, which is to just get comfortable with the basics. There are some rendering issues, such as flickering refractions, which I'll have to address down the road.