agent fx

Area Tutorial Series Part 1

2011-12-08T11:29:00.001-08:00

Did a tutorial series for the AREA this is part 1 or parte uno if you're Spanish!
http://area.autodesk.com/tutorials/fx_shot_process_with_david_schoneveld_part_1

Current PC Build Recommendation

2011-11-08T06:19:00.000-08:00

My friend was building a computer so we went through a bunch of components to figure out what he should make. Here is the current list of what I think makes a great mid priced PC ($1600ish). Its not far from my current PC newer CPU, GPU and more power.

CPU: Intel Core i7-2700K Sandy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo)

Motherboard: ASUS P8Z68-V

Memory: CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB

Graphics: EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD

OS/Software Drive: Intel 510 Series 120GB SATA III

Data drives (buy 1 or 2): Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB

Power Supply: PC Power and Cooling Silencer 910W

DVD/blue ray cheapest one, whatever you need drive

Case... its kinda up to you on how you want it to look. This is the case I have, cheap and works fine.
Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower

Clouds Tutorial

2011-10-07T08:11:00.000-07:00

OMG A new post! Wow, yeah I figured it was about time to make a new tutorial. Clouds, something an FX artist gets asked to do many many times over the course of his/her career. While I have a bag of tricks for whatever the shot needs, this is by far my most trusted, in that it gets results fast and looks decent. Its got limitations but overall I find I can get most of the shots done with a combination of these techniques. The secret, I use maya presets! LOL just watch it.

And as a bonus, I did even an extra trick video. This ones a great technique that I'm still excited about even tho I've known and used it for a while now.

in case you've been wondering

2011-06-08T08:18:00.000-07:00

I've been on my UDK blog more than here. http://agentfxudk.blogspot.com/ I'll still come back here in a bit I've got some ideas and new tutorials to do, so sooner or later there will be a bunch of updates.

Review: Eat3D's UnrealScript

2011-03-31T10:36:00.000-07:00

As with all recommendations a lot depends on what you want to do and what you already know. My programming experience roughly is advanced MEL, some Python, Java, JavaScript, and familiar with C/C++ syntax. I've already gone through a lot of Allars Awesome Blog, all of wildicv's and The Guild Hall's youtube tutorials. Still, I wanted to get Eat3D's UnrealScript - An Introduction and Application to help fill in gaps and felt it was worth a check out being from Eat3D.
If you're like me, with some programming background, then I'd say its still worth it despite being an introduction. Just realize you're mostly paying for the second half. I'm really happy with the skill level and quality of instruction. I still recommend it, b/c he has production knowledge and good examples. Its nice to have them b/c I'm sure I'll re-reference the second half again and again.
I give this DVD a 3.75 stars out of 5 (4.25 if you have less experience). Great, full of useful information, He doesn't explain a few delete & adds in the weapon example, but does a great job explaining most other things. I'd highly recommend this in combination with the other two tutorial links above. Each one has its strengths and together fill in each others gaps to make a nice big picture.

Fluid simulations are hard

2011-03-26T09:52:00.000-07:00

I would think this post might be sarcastic like CG is hard :'( but no. This post is to explain why fundamentally fluid simulations are hard to control.

Real World Example: I give you a bucket of water and a variable speed fan. For a 3 second shot I need you to get the water swirling at just the right speed, not too fast not too slow. You have 1 second of "run up" time. Go. You take the fan, turn it to a setting try it the water splashes all over you and the floor. Nope too fast. Slower, water splashes all over you again. You feel like an idiot. Slower, The water splashes all over you again. Now you're mad, REAAADLLLY SLOW!!! the water doesn't move. ok little faster, water doesn't move. Ok little faster, water moves right for 1 of the 3 seconds. turn it on and off. 2 of the 3 seconds.... Ok that was a 40x40x40 now you get the titanic sized engine, and a small lake. Turn on the engines! 3 seconds! This should be easier b/c remember all your experience from the bucket? Huh, that's not really helping now is it? no. Not really. In fact its so different the titanic sized engine isn't really the best thing for this. Maybe you should find another way, 1000 motorboat engines! Its expensive but its fast to turn on and off! 2 weeks of trying and it doesn't move much water even tho there are so many. Well that was an expensive test. how much does it cost to bring the titanic engine back in here?
Here's the kicker. That's just 1 setting, magnitude. there are hundreds of settings. Think you are tweaking the right one?

Morpheus, "and that's air you're breathing? huh... AGAIN."

Review: Gnomon Unreal Development Kit: Materials

2011-03-18T15:25:00.000-07:00

Unreal Development Kit: Materials; An Introduction with Waylon Brinck is great. Just finished this DVD and wow, what a ton of information. I didn't think I really needed this DVD initially since I knew well how to work in the HyperShade in Maya and the Material editor in UDK is similar.
I'm really happy with how much I learned and how many gray areas were cleared up. I love how he broke down the math in a clear way. Some points I was like ARGH of course! now that makes sense! For example how the math behind how "levels" works in Photoshop. Not as complicated as I thought, totally get it.
This DVD is great for beginner-ish to advanced artist comfortable in another 3D app who want to get a solid base for materials in UDK.
This DVD well worth it. Only negative is the lessons are a little dry. I could only watch a few chapters a day, even tho I wanted to watch more.
4.5 stars could only be better with some jokes spattered in there. Top quality instruction, lots of practical, useful examples. Very happy with this purchase. Recommend.

Review: Gnomon Visual FX for Games

2011-03-10T08:02:00.000-08:00

I'm a big believer in continuing education. As I continue to push from film FX into the game world, I buy anything I can get my hands on if it looks good. I took a risk on this one, The Gnomon Workshop: Visual FX for Games, I wasn't sure. It started off really bad, and I was afraid I wasted my money, but it quickly got really good.
I think the description is a little misleading, they push the software aspect of the DVD, like saying "Fume FX" where there is only a reference that "this was made in Fume FX". Very little how to do things explicitly. Its not even that engine centric, so this would definitely work for other engines as well.
Maxime walks you through a wide range of FX, breaking down how they're made and what to consider when creating them. He's got a lot of tips and tricks, and general good to know stuff. As a seasoned film FX artist I wondered how eye opening that would be. Some key areas I was like damn, I don't know if I would have thought of that!
Overall I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars, not for everyone, but highly recommend and well worth the money for FX artist. Best for people who have a decent grasp of a game engine like UDK, and a 3D package.

Edit: I think I might give it 4.5 out of 5 since this is the only DVD I've gotten (ok Lighting too) that I've watched again. Its pretty good. Lots of little tips that with a re-watching you catch. Its a great resource as long as you know what to expect. Its a breakdown of game FX not so much how to make them from scratch.

Schools + DVD break-down

2011-02-07T09:21:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd do a break-down of some of the schools and DVD's out there. This list is not comprehensive, more like, off the cuff what I think of the ones that pop into my head.

As far as DVD's
eat3d has the best UDK (I haven't tried their other stuff) but you can tell they put a lot of time an energy into the examples. I feel they make a high quality product.
Gnomon has the best in depth (maya and other 3d 2d stuff)
Gnomon also has the subscription service which is one of the best values in online education.
Digital Tutors always get the newest stuff out way before anyone else. Not as full in the FX categories but lots of topics and good introductions to many things.
and 3dbuzz is awesome all around. Really like those guys, and for the most part its free!

Schools:
Gnomon School, produces the best modelers because Alex teaches the best classes and pushes REALLY hard so everyone comes out a really good modeler, altho you can come out a lighter, rigger, animator too... And if you're lucky I teacher there from time to time doing FX Classes.
Full Sail, Ex'pression Center, and other crank 'em out high cost schools are not bad, but you have to work hard to take full advantage of your education. Thats another blog post, I'd recommend them to the right person, ideally someone with some collage experience.
Animation Mentor is the best animation school, pixar guys... and I know people who've gone and speak very highly of it.
fxphd is one of the best TD schools. I've seen some of their course material/tutorials and great classes really informative.
there's also Animation World Networks (awn) database of schools

If you happen to be in France, then you'd be lucky to go to Gobelins which has produced some of the best student work in the world, IMO. I donno what they're doing but they're doing it right.

Anyway let me know what I'm forgetting, this is just a quick brain dump.

Free Gnomon Fluid FX DVD's*

2011-01-26T21:56:00.000-08:00

Free if you live in LA and want to pick them up at DD, ro arrange to make it ubber easy for me to ship them to you. I have 2 sets of 3 DVD's Fundamentals, Particle Integration, and Pyrotechnics (that I made years ago but still hold up for the most part) I also have a RigidBody Simulations for Visual Effects from the Kolektiv from 2002, that also has some neat tricks and worth a watch, hah considering those RBD's are still there in maya! Email me if you want them. Thats sort of a trick, whats my email? Not too hard to figure out, or you can find it for sure. Find it, guess it, email me and ask for them, (or linkedin message me) I'll update this post when they're gone.

Update: Gone.

CG Jobs are Hard :`(

2011-01-24T17:52:00.000-08:00

This article is part of a growing sentiment in the vocal disgruntled CG artists, whom I want to give a general “fuck off” to. Pardon my French. http://goo.gl/BSWvJ and http://goo.gl/ralvJ
A lot of people come into this industry, with false/unrealistic expectations. They think they are going to be making explosions and animating lead characters, and having fun, yaaay! People are going to know their names and see them in the credits! Then it turns out to be hard work and competitive. Guys work hard but not enough work smart. They work tons of hours and a lot of people don’t get compensated for it, or rather didn’t in the early days. Companies pushed them for more and they just fold like a deck of cards then get mad that they got taken advantage of. They lash out by saying how hard this industry is and how many shit jobs there are. There are no shit jobs, just shit attitudes. I loved roto, and did it better than 99% of roto guys, why? b/c I studied the frames and found key frames in action to make the least number of keys in my rotos. Matchmover, I enjoyed that too, b/c I tried to get good, matchmove what others cannot, make clean plates that are next to impossible, use my artistic skill and push myself to be even better, faster. 3d Model clean up, I figured out how to write MEL that would automate what I could, tried to make tricks to clean up geo faster, researched other applications that can re-topo... its all what you make of it. Render rangler is one of the best jobs, you learn one of the most important things, how to trouble shoot render issues. Everything needs to be rendered, and you then become an expert at it, very valuable easy to move into other positions.
Long hours? sure. We had deadlines. I work my best at everything I was asked to do. When asked to do OT w/o pay I said I’m not available to work w/o OT pay. They said but we really need to get this done! I said yeah we do...(pause) they say, “ok fine!” then I’m like, “great lets do it!” Thats an example of push-pushback that everyone in every job needs to have. Don’t get pushed around, or when you see how you are being pushed around push back or quit. If you work hard and smart constantly trying, then you have real job security. Places you worked before will want you back, b/c you bring real value to the company. They make money off your talent = real job security.
I did and still do, go home at night and continue to test and push my FX and other CG knowledge further. Its never enough, there is no end, this is not a marathon! Its running from the “nothing” (never-ending story reference). All these people who bitch about how hard it is can go cry me a river. Work your ass off, and that’s not enough, but FUCK, you’re getting paid $100,000+/- fucking be worth it!!! Don’t cry, make your life better, work smarter, think and rethink how and what you are doing with your time. Or alternatively, leave this industry b/c its not for you (btw “games” is not another industry it’s just another format).
There are too many people already who don’t know what the hell their doing. It doesn’t take long to figure out who’s good and who’s a button pusher. Know how? It’s not 2 kinds of people, talent and button pushers, its people who never stop trying and people who do*

} //End Rant

* with the exception of super talented people who never need to try, I’m looking at you Ben Neall

Pulled the Trigger on Sandy Bridge

2011-01-09T15:20:00.000-08:00

Upgrade time. Well time b/c my computer died, and the RMA process on a mother board is long and painful. Basically started buying new parts (geforce gtx465) to test if it was in fact the mobo that died, until I was like screw it. The Sandy Bridge, Core i7 2600k went on sale today. The K being the unlocked multiplier, but even still looks like a 20-25% gain on the core i7 920 I had/have. Not as exciting as if I'd waited until 3Q of this year but whatevs, need the new parts so got it.
If only it were that easy, get a new mobo and chip! Argh, I have 12 gigs of triple channel RAM, well guess what, triple channel isn't supported on the P67 platform, yaaaay. I guess the benefits were never shown for triple channel in real life tests.... aaanywho if you've even read this far I'm boring myself. So I got 16 gigs of DDR3 1600 dual channel RAM, and a 120gig SSD for the OS and apps. So all in all about 1.5 years later from my last computer build I spend another $1100 on my desktop. All on the hope that the power supply isn't the bad thing, oh god if it is I'll cry, then buy a new power supply.
I looked into a Dell but they are all, as expected, old PSU's and seem over priced. I do wish I had their support on my computer now but just can't bring myself to go that route. I'll probably go Mac... I keep saying that, if only for resale value, but never want to drop the actual initial money. Funny I hate spending a lot of money on that which I most.

CG Unionization

2010-12-07T15:35:00.000-08:00

The topic of CG Unionization is heating up, let me say more on the topic since I feel like my views have changed recently.

A Union is as simple as we agree to group together on these issues. Could be enforcement of labor laws, and lobbying for equal laws across states, fighting subsidies inequalities where they can.

Union is not an agent who will get you more money, agents are agents. Unions are not going to keep students/jr level artist from being abused and over worked b/c they do it to themselves. They can’t effect base salaries b/c that has to be able to naturally sway on a number of factors.

Unions could organize health care, but then companies won’t be afraid of that b/c all their competitors pay equally so it’s easier to add to budgets, and not a line item to be removed.

Set up and manage 401k’s to make it easier for artist to keep theirs, this doesn’t mean the company matches contributions. This could even be cheaper for a company if the benefits are already there.

Union will be what the market wants and what will fit naturally.

The negative is the artist will start paying from their own pocket some full time staff people to use their money on union salaries and lobbying. Organizing health care ++ doesn’t come for free. I think another large part is many union members don’t want to be involved and want it to work for them w/o voting or taking part. Union maybe sound scary but it doesn’t have to be. You have a voice.

So, is this what you want? yes or no?

SOuP dev

2010-11-27T20:32:00.001-08:00

I keep waiting to have a better more perfect'er video to post on the SOuP dev I've been doing. But this will be a start/where I'm at. Peter's been working on (as some of you do, and all of you should know) but the newer part is an uprezing wavelet turbulence.
I wrote about each video on the vimeo page so check them out.
http://www.vimeo.com/17243715
http://www.vimeo.com/17249372
and
http://www.vimeo.com/17249372

SOuP upRez Wavelet test 11d_1 from destruct007 on Vimeo.

http://www.soup-dev.com/
SOuP, get it. Its free.

FX Houses Open for Biznass

2010-11-23T12:07:00.000-08:00

I know when I'm looking for a list of US FX houses it's a pain in the ace. I found a list of some on a reply to some talk about Asylum closing, I added the links... Anyway, the list!

Psyop
Eight FX
Motion Theory
Prologue
MPC LA
The Mill LA
Public
Logan
Brand New School
OOOii
Svengali
D-Train
Method
Sway
Look
Hydraulx
Eden
Stargate
Zoic
Buck
Radium
A-52
Brickyard FX
Blue Room
Sight
Luma Pictures
Crazy Horse
CIS

Getting Good with Maya Fluids

2010-11-13T08:27:00.000-08:00

Maya Fluid Testing from destruct007 on Vimeo.
Ok ok ok its been a while since I last posted. I have for you my "scientific method" of fluid testing. I use this a few times a week when in heavy development of a new effect. There are so many combinations of settings, it could be arguded billions of combinations, but lets say even a few million. There is no way and no one who can predict how a fluid will react given a set of attributes and influences. This is one of the key parts of fluids that make it hard to learn and harder to master. A master of fluids is someone who knows how to narrow in on the attributes that are effecting the fluid... well faster than someone who would just be good with fluids. I use this technique to help me understand different attributes. A lot of the time I fine my understanding challenged, and refined as I continue to learn what the hell is going on in there.

2D Maya Fluid Sun

2010-09-21T09:38:00.000-07:00

If you don't know to right click and save as...
http://agentfx.com/mayaFiles/2DFluidSun_m2011.ma

What's all this? A Maya file? What? Thats a first. I never share Maya files! Well an exception. For years I tried to make a file that looked like this just for fun, but its harder than it seems. You'd think, turbulence no buoyancy. Yeah sorta, but that still tends to build up velocities that are hard to control.
Anyway I was messing about trying to make a sprite for a fireball with no buoyancy... and it worked for something else. It looks kinda like the surface of the sun. Try other resolutions, high detail solve, I feel like I stumbled on this, and just stare at it playing back. The high turbulence "breaking" is controllable in a few ways like substeps but I didn't care to slow the playback down.

Maya 2011 only, Enjoy.

(oh and try to go to http://agentfx.com/mayaFiles/ to see if there are other files... there arn't, hah but I would have tried that)

Delete History, Maya Nodes 1

2010-08-29T07:52:00.000-07:00

Delete History, Maya Nodes 1 from destruct007 on Vimeo.

In order to become better at Maya we need to have a better understanding of what's happening "behind the scenes" in Maya. How the node network functions and how Maya automatically connects, disconnects, deletes, etc nodes in your scene. This is a really quick look at a simple shape node network, and what is really happening when you delete history.

Mel script to mess with 2

2010-08-27T16:02:00.000-07:00

I posted before a script to mess with, that was a short script, well I've added a UI to it and now its a crap load longer, but there are new features. It will save your cache settings with the file, so if you oversample it will remember the oversampling, etc.
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/dynamics/c/cache-fluid-and-playblast
So check it out, I'll make it work for windows this weekend. Right now it's only Linux.

EDIT: now version 2.1 with changes from "Alberto" plus a few extra things that I needed to do like error checking.

New Laptop (nobody cares)

2010-08-23T10:08:00.000-07:00

$1000 budget, and I was || close to getting a 13' macbook pro, the cheapest one, when I said screw it, I don't care, going Dell. I got so much more computer for my money.

Studio 15 Laptop
Intel Core i5-520M 2.40GHz
6GB DDR3 at 1066MHz
15.6" Full High Def (1080p) High Brightness LED Display
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470, 1GB
500GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Disk Drive
Back-lit Keyboard
$1022 total (After tax n stuff, - discounts)

vs the mac has less on all fronts except: body, battery life, arguably video card, iPhone app dev, and resale price.
But the 13" mac is $1225 with tax even after the $100 savings from teaching at Gnomon! Lame. That's about a 20% cost increase, over budget, for less. I'm still not a mac.

Fire 1.5

2010-08-19T09:13:00.000-07:00

2d Maya Fluid Fire Settings from destruct007 on Vimeo.
Finally! Fire tutorial 2... er 1.5 This one is better than 1 but honestly I did it a few months ago and now forget some of what I said. I remember it being decent and good to see workflow of fluid sims. I think this would probably be the most important video to watch if you already have a good foundation in fluids.

The audio starts to go out of sync half way through but whatevs, that always seems to happen in longer tutorials. But just so you know...

Mel script to mess with

2010-08-17T12:37:00.000-07:00

http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/c/cache-fluid-and-playblast

Just posted this for people to check out. Its a somewhat polished somewhat rough cache then playblast script. I've commented it heavily so you can check it out and break it down. Only works on Linux right now, since the "system" call is a linux format. A good simple test is to get it to work on Windows or OSX.

The importance of //Notes

2010-08-03T17:19:00.000-07:00

Why do I do this to myself? sometimes I make only a few notes then I come back to my set up and say WTF was I thinking?!?! Its not like I can't read any one thing, I wrote it. But why some numbers are there, what settings were doing what, relating to each other how, why, damn. I hate going back to work on old code, even with notes. Often I feel like screw it just re-write it, easier than fixing what was previously broken.
This is one of a few sparks particle expressions... and my eye glaze over when trying to understand this initially, but I have to cram this back into my head. Honestly its not that much code, but to make this code do what you want artistically with easy is another thing altogether. You have to have the math, connections and settings back in your head working congruently.

//creation
//spark strong %
sparkShape.strongPercent = rand(1);
float $strongPercent = sparkShape.strongPercentage *.01;
if (sparkShape.strongPercent < $strongPercent)    {
    sparkShape.indexPP = 10;
} else {
    sparkShape.indexPP = 0;
}

//short %
float $shortPercent = sparkShape.shortPercent *.01;
sparkShape.shortPercentage = rand(1);

//spark scale
float $length = rand(2.5, 3.5);
float $yScale;
float $zScale = $yScale = gauss(0.55, 1) * sparkShape.widthMult;
if (sparkShape.shortPercentage < $shortPercent)    {
    float $shortRand = rand(.15, .3);
    sparkShape.scalePP = <<($length * $shortRand), $yScale, $zScale>>;
} else {
    sparkShape.scalePP = <<$length, $yScale, $zScale>>;
}

//index start value
sparkShape.splitIndexPP = 0;

//split scale
sparkShape.splitScalePP = <<0, 0, 0>>;

//split pop amount
sparkShape.splitPopEmitter_emitterRatePP = rand((sparkShape.splitPop * 0.5), sparkShape.splitPop);

//lifespan
float $life = 24.0 / sparkShape.life;
float $lifeRand = 24.0 / sparkShape.lifeRand;
sparkShape.lifespanPP = $life * (rand(($lifeRand * -1), $lifeRand));

//scale spark on second frame of life
if(sparkShape.age > 0.042 && sparkShape.age < 0.08)    {
    float $mag = mag(sparkShape.velocity) * sparkShape.lengthVelocityMult;
    vector $sclPP = sparkShape.scalePP;
    float $velLengthMult = $sclPP.x * $mag;
    sparkShape.scalePP = <<$velLengthMult, $sclPP.y, $sclPP.z>>;
}

//runtime
//vary fade out speed
float $randFadeOut = rand(1);
if($randFadeOut < .05)    {
    sparkShape.indexPP += .4;
    sparkShape.splitIndexPP += .4;
} else {
    sparkShape.indexPP += .2;
    sparkShape.splitIndexPP += .2;
}

Awesome XSI - ICE Dynamics

2010-07-19T21:40:00.000-07:00

http://lagoatechnologies.com/

EDIT: After digesting the contents of the videos over a few days I want to change this post. Initially I was, and still am, impressed and blow away by the awesomeness of these dynamics. Definitely some things in here that would be extremely hard to do get maya to do, but at the same time, I've also only once in my career had an need for most of those hard-to-make-in-maya fx.
Unlike Fume FX which is still the leader in my mind for smoke, fire, and explosion fluid solves, thats something I need often.
I'm excited to see where Lagoa goes, and still very impressed and inspired by the demo. I would love to find out the sim times on it, which could be impressive or sim-ilar to RealFlow which is the standard.

Speaking of Demo reels

2010-07-08T14:12:00.000-07:00

I'm always telling jr artist to see as many reels as they can, hell, I think everyone should see a lot of reels to get an idea of what your peers are doing and to motivate you to push yourself in raising the bar. New site out there that has just that all in one place.

http://www.cgreelworks.com/

If your lucky and they find your reel, sweet. Otherwise, it can't hurt to get your reel up there in front of more eyes. Anyway, check it out.

DD Intern

2010-07-07T10:11:00.000-07:00

We just hired an intern on our show and I thought I'd share his demo reel with others to see what kinda of student reel gets you into DD.

http://www.cmessineo.com/

With this demo reel he basically flew threw the process. We were like yeah, looks great, hire him. Interviewed him, but mainly to see that he knows what he's talking about/he did the work shown. Anyway, he started yesterday, so if you're looking to get a job in FX, an internship like this at DD will fast track your career vs starting off in roto or the alike and working into FX. Work hard and work smart to show your best skills.

Negative effects of 6 day weeks

2010-05-18T10:02:00.000-07:00

I feel like one can expect 6 day weeks to garner more work produced for a few weekends, but after a while that benefit fades into just taking productive hours from one day and moving them to another. My maximum production efficiency with the most usable work produced is 50 hours/week over 5 days, and honestly of that 50 I expect that I'm only REALLY productive for 6-9 hours/day but those productive hours shift from day to day and the 9-10 hrs caters to that.
We don't need just "FX elements" we need "good/final FX elements". In order to create that an artist needs creative energy and mental focus. There's only so much of that you can squeeze out of yourself a day, if you squeeze that extra back up energy it just takes some from tomorrow. Each day it takes some from the next day until you basically come it tired and useless. Unable to crank out final work in a timely manor just be as good as our auto pilot is. Managers often feel better about having artist around for longer/more hours. They feel like if they're in their seats they'll get more work done, and all time in a seat is equal. That misconception is why we work the way we work.
Our goals are the same, produce the best looking work in the fastest way possible. Get shots to final with the least number of hours. For weaker artist, or anal Sups/Directors that's done by producing the most iterations possible so that the notes can clearly define the direction. Iterations need to be done b/c there are things in the shot that are not right. Good artist can give themselves notes and final a shot with minimal iterations, when they have the creative energy and mental focus. This saves time in dailies and across the board and ends up working out for both the artist and the company.
The hard thing, from the companies perspective, is the weaker artist who need more iterations to get their shots to final. In that case the company might feel the need to ask them to do more hours. I get it, but across the board 6 day weeks, seems to be more costly than it's worth for both the artist and the company. I normally reserve the 6th day for the final 2-4 week push.
On this current show, after many 6 day weeks, I feel like I come in and don't have my usual artistic power to make final looking work with ease and crank out whatever is asked of me. I feel drained and artistically weak. I can't think of what to work on next, when I render something I sit and think, lose my train of thought and am comparatively unproductive. My joy in this occupation is cranking out work I'm proud of faster and better than expected.
Only the managers will know what works best for each artist on each show. There's a lot to consider on their part, and that's not my expertise. I only know management of myself. I hope that my perspective is helpful to you on future shows.

Fluid Resolution & Simulation

2010-05-03T21:12:00.000-07:00

The nature of the solve is to be different at different resolutions to a degree. Doubling resolution is common multiple for uprezing to get more detail. However 20x40x20 going to 40x80x40 is a huge jump in the fluids "mind" and the settings will need to be quite different between the two. Where as 100x200x100 to 200x400x200 is going to look close to the same with more detail.
Think of it like a picture 20x40 pixels can't make out what that looks like, 40x80 is now a tall icon and you can see a little more, once you get to a certain rez you can see the full image. Anything more will just be more clear/sharpness to the image. Fluid solve is kinda like that.
Now think about painting an image in photoshop. if you have 20x40 pixels how you paint that image and how you exaggerate colors and contrast to get it to show up and read is quite different then how you would paint it if you had more resolution.
This example is just to say low rez doubled is noticeably more readable where higher rez ends up just having more detail.

(click to enlarge)

Explosion Test 2011

2010-04-26T21:19:00.001-07:00

Explosion Maya 2011 test from destruct007 on Vimeo.

Messing around on a project, and figuring the ins and outs of Maya 2011

Cover Letter Example:

2010-04-25T17:03:00.000-07:00

To Whom it may Concern

Hello. My name is David E. Schoneveld. My profession is creating magic in the hearts and minds of people around the world! You may know this profession as your company hires artist similar to myself all the time to do that very thing. My interest is in this very aspect of your company, the hiring part.

While the last 7 years I've been travelling around the world as a big game hunter, it saddened me as I killed the last endangers African Elephant Lion, the largest and most dangerous animal on dry land. Saddened because I knew then I had reached as far as the road would take me in big game hunting. I use the same drive and focus on creating special FX, so you can imagine even though I have little to no training in computer animation I still am deadly when it comes to finalling shots! Oh believe you me, when you see my work, and you will see my work... just that. Dot dot dot.

Call me.

Or email me. Yeah maybe email is better, because I might be in a movie or busy and can't get my phone or something. I won't leave my phone number in case you stopped reading and tried to call me right away.

David E. Schoneveld

Specialties in specialties

2010-04-24T13:01:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about cg artist as RPG characters. Where people are at a level, and can level up with time or study. Each artist gets good at what they are mostly asked to do. Creature modelers get better at creatures, Lighters get better/level up with the renderer they use day to day.
In FX its interesting. There are specialties within the specialty of FX. I think of it as a mage character. You get to a certain point in the game and you can choose a more specific specialty. Dark, Light, Fire, Ice Mage whatever, something. FX is kinda like that. There are Particle specialist, Shader specialist, Fluid, Fire, Liquid, Deformation, Destruction etc. FX artist will learn in these and other categories. From time to time be further into one than another. Not that we can't do them all but people's experience make some a better fit for some jobs than others, "Specialists". Maybe its more like a thief character where we keep adding to our ability %'s.
I think about how you can keep pushing in one area but your improvement slows, like each level is double the current exp points. I think that is fairly accurate from games to real life "levels". hah NERD ALERT!!!

Fire test 1

2010-04-16T12:09:00.000-07:00

Fire Test from destruct007 on Vimeo.

Test fire render. Just messing around, trying some things. This has no fluid texturing, and not even the best settings for the fluid sim. What seems to be working is that the fire looks good/sharp & soft w/o turning into smoke. Its got a good speed for film, not too fast but fast enough to feel more "real". Fire is also not that hard when its on a static object. I'm able to focus my resolution to only where its needed (300x200x80) and maximize its use.
Anyway I'm going to move away from the techniques I used to make this so I thought I'd share it as it stands now. I want to push the sim to be better, and. add more detail with adding texture coordinates... we'll see.

The compression really hurts it, lose a lot of the details. I tried this and another version to keep the detail. The glow looks like crap when compressed, I'll see if I can figure out a better way. Anyway here it us for now.

New demo reel!

2010-04-07T10:10:00.000-07:00

demo reel, spring 2010 from destruct007 on Vimeo.

Its in HD so you can full screen it!

Extended Break Down (simple one is on the Vimeo)
2012: Josh Hatton & I did the Fluid sims, Chris Haney - Particles
Transformers 2: I dev the Meteors Apirak Kamjan and I implemented, Tank explosion was me & Talented Mark Renton in Comp.
Pirates 3: Maelstrom Lead Joakim Arnesson, Water Lead Paul Sharpe. I was under Paul, helped R&D and render shots. I helped R&D the fog. On the first shot I did the fog.
Wolverine: Eye Lasers me & Comp, probably made 75 versions of that. Destruction Josh Hatton, Zack Judson, & I Shatter/Debris Fluid sims, Kevin Brown Particle Volumetrics, Chris Haney made everything work.
Fast & Furious: Car is real and CG so added sparks, dust, debris, and CG car destruction.
The Covenant: "Assention" Magic was me & Chris Bradley, Comped by H Haden Hammond. The power ball was developed by me and passed on to H Haden Hammond & Dave Fedel.
Sky Captain: Plumes and explosions me & Comp, Rocket trails were developed by me passed on to Sean Applegate.
Nike Commercial: Tornado was me and Comped by Justin Johnson. Clouds are live action.

VFX Guild vs Union

2010-03-30T08:58:00.000-07:00

The VFX town hall brought up the idea of a Union or Guild for VFX. Neither is a horrible idea, but in practice it's not always the best idea.

First no union until the companies get their act together, with a trade organization or something. Unions will only hurt. ILM stopped being a union shop not too long ago. I was/am still in the ILM and DreamWorks union IATSE.
I like the idea of a guild b/c it can be much less invasive and more like VES, but with a different goal. Guild could enforce legal practices, like no unpaid OT. Set some standards for artists, and smaller things to make some people lives better, who can't seem to make it better themselves... well that would be the idea anyway. In practice it'd probably be some b/c hassle that made it harder for new artists (like actors) to start working.

A union to me... get read for a negative review... Union to me feels like the charge a lot of extra$ to the company like pensions that are complete BS, and a lot of artist never see that money. They get crappy health-care, charge you $3k or more to join, and feel like they do nothing. Think about who runs a union, full time union people. Lame. For every full time employee that's the union/the artists who pays for them. Are they worth it? That's money that could be in your salary but its not. "Oh but unions get us better wages" No they don't. You still negotiate your rate, but now there is less play for the company b/c they already have and extra $15k/year on top of everything for union crap, most of which you will never see. They will make sure you get holiday and vacation days (or get paid extra for not), which is nice for sure. But a guild could do that too.

Another thing, I don't think the most Sr artist want or need the union/guild. The mid and jr level need it, b/c its easier for them to be taken advantage of. Basically I'm skeptical, and think artist should manage themselves, but that's another blog post.

Lastly a union will never happen, so its not really worth talking about. It only takes a few big companies to say we're a non-union shop. We don't hire union people, during hard times, and you'll see people fleeing the union in droves just like the editors union now. Guild can start out soft and build in power and influence... but the moment it becomes a negative on the resume, is the moment it's hurting not helping.

Rendering Fluids with higher than 1 Dynamic Attrs

2010-03-06T10:34:00.000-08:00

Rendering Fluids with higher than 1 dyn attrs. from destruct007 on Vimeo.

Its not uncommon to sim and render fluids with dynamics attributes higher than 1, but that tends to lead to issues in shading and rendering since maya's internal fluid shader defaults to 0-1 value mapping. Yay! I mean, YAY there's a workable solution!The draw backs to this is not being able to see your ramps entirety, altho you could write a MEL script that just displays your ramp on another ramp...

The FX Process

2010-03-06T07:56:00.000-08:00

Here's the thing. Its not about how did I or why did I do something in a scene. Its a process. I start with 1 fluid 1 emitter kinda low rez (50x50x50'ish) I turn everything on, b/c I know what I'm doing and what I want to make ;) I set only 3 attrs damp 0.01 swirl 10 temp turb 5, the second 2 are just the sliders all the way up. Playblast. Hmm looks like the fuel isn't burning fast enough, turn up reaction speed and turn down ignition temp. playblast. Hmm looks like temp isn't fading out now. Turn up dissipation. playblast. Nope not enough, turn up more. playblast. Hmm looks too regular.

make hypothesis.
I wonder if I separated the temp into a smaller emitter it would react differently with the fuel?

test, playblast, nope settings off. tweek, playblast.

ok thats kinda better not much but it's better. hmm uprez. playblast. ok now it needs more bouancy or something, tweek. playblast. Still looks kinda regular.

hypothesis
what if I make the fuel emitter separate and give it a really high value and strong turbulence?

test. ok all my settings are now off. Tweek playblast, tweek playblast, tweek playblast. Hmm ok that looks better.

the point is, why did I do something and is it "the way to do it?" is hard to say and very case by case. Thats why I think of it as "playing" its not a real shot, its kinda general R&D. No rules, try things. sometimes they work other times epic fail.

I can't talk and play at the same time b/c my mind is totally focused on, what settings have I changed? What settings are the animating settings/strongest influences to velocity? Where is the balance of fuel to temp? What are the last 20-50 changes I made? (not THAT much of an exaggeration) if I make 3-4 changes then playblast what were they, and what were the last good numbers? Remember you can't really undo too much with fluids b/c the timeline change will jack your computer.
If I'm at work doing tests and someone talks to me, it could be the end of that test. I can't remember what I was doing. Now I just see a bunch of settings, but I don't understand why I did that, hah.

So play, have fun, test out you ideas. Only experience will make you better. Keep testing and playing. Guess at how it works, test that guess and see if you are right. A failed test doesn't mean you are wrong it just means the test failed. I find a lot of times what I thought was wrong was right later, I just didn't do the right test.

Fields & Fluids

2010-02-24T09:38:00.000-08:00

A work lesson I keep having to relearn.

If you use fields to push and force a fluids movements you open the door for unexpected and unnatural results.

Use fields sparingly. Think hard as to how you can get a fluid to move with only internal fluid dynamics (not the internal "turbulence") and weak motion fields. Sometimes it's turning a fluid in it's side so buoyancy is left or right. Sometimes its having a strong + temp and weak - density buoyancy.

I spent time doing a crack dust sim and kept getting crappy looking sim's. I played with all the settings, even conservatively went back and eased into it. I had a line of emitters along a curve and a turbulence field in the front to disrupt the "air" before the crack emission. The results were somehow unnatural, even at its best. Not to say I won't try it again but its not how dust would react in real life and it looks almost unconsciously fake when you see it CG. What I mean is, when a crack happens in real life there's no turbulent air on the leading edge of the crack, so adding one in CG doesn't help.

WIP test fx shot

2010-02-23T22:06:00.000-08:00

Magic Dust WIP 1 from destruct007 on Vimeo.

Just an fx test I'm messing around with. This is only the start. next the dropping dust, and the reaction when it lands, which might be a colorful nuke type thing... we'll see.

I'm posting this for comments, since it's just ok right now. I've got a lot I can do with it yet so... posting it to show some people, thought I'd share it too.

Fluid Emitter Turbulence

2010-01-29T22:07:00.000-08:00

Fluid Emitter Turbulence from destruct007 on Vimeo.

Maya Fluids quick tutorial on the fluid emitter's turbulence setting. How to get more control over it, and ideas for better break up in the fluid sim through the emission turbulence. Anywhoo, just some things I've been discovering about the fluid emitter.

The bottom line, Demo Reel Advice

2009-12-31T11:49:00.000-08:00

A lot of people talk a lot of advice on demo reels. Some good advice others not. I'm going to break it down really easy for you all. Every company in every industry has it, it's called the bottom line.

A company gets paid to DELIVER FINAL SHOTS. Thats what they do, thats how they make their money. They hire artist to do the work. They look for artist who can do as much of the work as possible, meaning do the most work with the least # of people (less overhead costs). Even if he/she is expensive if they can do more/faster work, better for the company. In other words, companies hire artists who they believe can FINAL SHOTS. Jr level demo reels are for artist who want to show they can final shots. If a reel doesn't show that, they don't get hired. A Jr guy who's 1/4-1/2 the price of a Sr guy needs to show they final 1/4-1/2 the number of shots a Sr guy can, simple as that. If your reel doesn't have one final looking shot, how can a company bet on you that you'll be able to final a shot later? Thats usually why Jr guys don't get hired. At LEAST ONE GOOD SHOT is a must. Forget about what software, think about what techniques you can do or show. Get one great shot. Finish that and still not have a job? Do another.

Some nice examples site (and yes most of them as 3dmax/fume guys) I have and am learning from their site design and am inspired by their fx shots. You don't need to do all this but get damn close if you can. Look at these for their tests and their shots. Don't worry about their tools. Think about what you know and what you can do, how can you show that? Bottom line :D

http://www.msalek.com/
http://www.pauljewell.com/
http://www.yeatvfx.com/works/works.html
http://www.brandonriza.com/3DVisualEffects/HTML/3DVisualEffects.htm

Lot of props to these guys for taking the time to get their work, show some of their process and getting it up online... that's a big pain in the ass, as most FX guys I know don't take the time to do that, me included.

The golden $1600 new computer ratio

2009-12-08T16:40:00.000-08:00

I have this theory. The best home workstation should cost no more than $1600 to build, with or without keeping parts from your old box. I work on some of the most expensive computers that make business sense to purchase, and run around $4k-$6k. I get a new computer at work about every 12-18 months.

It breaks down like this, I can spend $1600 for a great mid level rig or $4,000 on high end one. The $1600 computer is designed to last me 18 months and then I get a new one. The $4,000 rig will have to last 3-4 years at least to be worth it money wise. The second $1600 computer will be as fast or faster than the high end workstation from 18 months before.
I can tell you that a hand built (by you @ newegg) will not be THAT much slower than a $4,000 computer to begin with. More importantly, what is slower is ok to be slower. If you're doing particle/fluid simulations, or 3d rendering, then the slowness will cost you in time, which is just inconvienient not costing you money or frags. Small freelance gigs will be manageable with the newish proc and won't be significantly slower.

The difference will be ram size and proc count, not ram or proc speed as much, esp if you get into even minor overclocking. The sad truth is hardware depreciates to "nothing" so fast whatever you spend on a computer is money being slowly thrown away. Keep it at midlevel and keep it fresh, and you'll be fast and always up to date with the most bang for your buck.

I'll end on this story. My friend got a $4,000 workstation at the same time I got my $1600 one. His was 8 core (2 quad @ $1500 each) His computer is fast and so is mine. One night his one proc burned out due to a cpu fan lock up. He didn't have a warentee and didn't buy a whole system from a company like Dell, totally his responsibility. He couldn't afford another $1500 proc and the other didn't work with just one. He had to buy 2 new procs at a lower speed in order to get back up and running. Another reason to buy a computer where any fail component is easily replaced.

EDIT/UPDATE:
newegg.com sponsors a build of the month ($1500) for CPU magazine. A great reference for what to get in the ever changing DIY Computer build.

fluid rendering: handware/software mix

2009-12-07T14:03:00.000-08:00

~~Many~~ Most people who've worked with fluids, have noticed that it looks better in openGL than the render... in some ways. I'm refering to smoke, not more shader based fx like fire. Smoke will have some details that seem to get lost in software render, but software render also has the benefit of smoothness of gradients and propor lighting. Those 2 key aspects keep up software rendering. My friend at work was talking about trying to hardware render his fluids and said it was almost good enough. I played around and came up with this.
hardware render for the added detail and blur/add it into comp over top of the software render. I haven't done this on production level stuff but on my initial tests the results are promising.
Here's one test frame, I'll try to get the render online.

Maya Fluid Software Hardware Mix from destruct007 on Vimeo.

Fracture alpha/beta Testing.

2009-12-04T10:50:00.000-08:00

I'm alpha/beta testing
http://fracture-fx.com/
very cool shatter tool with an RBD solver akin to physX but working with it on 64bit linux maya2009. Some of you may know that there is no physX solver for that combination... which is probably the most common combination in the industry right now. Annnywhoo. See if you can get in on the alpha/beta it's cool.

Since BlastCode has been waiting for library files to be updated that don't seem like they are going to be, it's been dead in the water. Fracture is a differnt method of shattering, more like rayfire on 3dsMax. I'm currenltly working to build this into my destruction pipeline... so far so good.

The key to a good plug-in or even software is the motivation and passion of the developers. Work hard on it and push it to be great. Take mudbox for example. Was making leaps and bounds then got bought, and what? ZBrush blew it out of the water. Passion, drive, motivation, skillz... these are the things that make tools great and me want to use. I think fracture will make some waves, and I was skeptical about it for a long time.

Maya could do a great nRBDsolver and shatter tool but I don't see that happening in a timely way and like I said before, I think fracture will push harder and make greater strides for a number of reasons. Time will tell.

Motorola DROID: Stealth commercial

2009-11-04T11:08:00.000-08:00

30 frames of fx, hah.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9fXYQjwR0w

I did the ground explosion at :30 ubber quick, helped out with a few hours after my normal hours to help them finish (still at Asylum just not on my normal project)

The Game Plan

2009-09-25T09:53:00.000-07:00

EDIT/UPDATE: Taking a term off from teaching and going to push hard on upping my skills. Of course in Maya effects, but also in other areas... here's the plan. Right now, 3dsmax, Fume, Krakatoa, Fracture, and Maya are my main focuses.

Nuke :: working knowledge - advanced
    currently : none
    plan : Gnomon Nuke DVD's or just have some guys at work show me the ropes.
General Compositing, going through "The Art and Science of Digital Compositing" <- great book

3dMax :: general good working knowlage
    currently : Got 3dsmax, doing some basic tutorials to learn the interface
    plan : Assortment of Gnomon DVD's (not sure yet which ones)
Fume :: advanced
    currently : got it, not working.
    plan : mess around with it, have my friend Ian Farnsworth  show me a thing or two
Krakatoa :: working
    currently : none
    plan : online tutorials

Maya
advanced lighting; rendering in Mental Ray
    currently : good
    plan : Gnomon DVD's and read "Introduction to Computer Graphics" by James D. Foley

Fracture (Maya Plug-in): advanced
   current : some tutorials
   plan : use it at work (got it) and get really good with it.

Houdini :: not actively
   current : decent can get around and do what I need to, but I'm slower right now in H than Maya

The overall plan is to get 3dsmax, Fume, and Krakatoa into Asylum so I can use it everyday on shots that would benefit from it. Thats the best way to learn it, but have to start by showing some cool examples of what I can do with it first.

Comments enabled!

2009-09-25T09:52:00.000-07:00

Finally figured out why comments weren't enabled.

Halo ODST

2009-09-04T15:51:00.000-07:00

It's not much (what I did) but in 2.5 days I made 2 of the alien ships explode with smoke trails. The easiest one to point out is the crash right before the fade to the future of that Marine or whatever master chief kind of guy he is. Anyhoo, cool trailer/short thingy!

http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/852871/bungie-project-2/videos/haloodst_liveaction_trl_090409.html

Fire Reference Photos - links

2009-07-20T10:54:00.000-07:00

It's of course, important to study real elements when creating them digitally. That is very true with fire. The more you study it the more you realize the wide variations of fire and the many forms it can come in. For your convenience and mine here are some good links.

http://celestiniosity.com/wp-content/fire.jpg
http://www.sces.uk.com/content_images/flame1.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_photography
http://my.firereference.com/
http://www.firephotography.com/
http://www.firegroundaction.com/
http://www.shutterfly.com/progal
http://www.printroom.com
http://www.pbase.com/fotoguy77/mikes
http://www.juanguerra.smugmug.com

and a awesome rocket launch reference
http://www.wghartenstein.com

Fire Part 1

2009-07-19T20:07:00.000-07:00

Fire Part 1 from destruct007 on Vimeo.

Here we start with the basics of fluid fire in maya. We just get the ball rolling, but it should be enough to get people well on their way to making fire, play with this setup and get to know it, understand how and why it moves. Next time we'll be pushing it further but when you make your own you'll need to know why things are moving the way they are. 90% of making fire will be knowing how to tweek it per-shot and per instance of your fire. Fire is a tweek fest of the highest regard.

Please to enjoy!

Vimeo videos

2009-07-02T05:38:00.000-07:00

Upload complete. All video's now on vimeo, and future ones will be there too. It's got the best playback and general viewing. Just watch it fulls screen (or not) but it should still have the resolution 'n all.

Please to enjoy.

AUDIO-VIDEO SYNC issue fixed!

Talk on Fluid Transparency in Maya

2009-07-02T05:37:00.000-07:00

Fluid Transparency in Maya from destruct007 on Vimeo.

Not a tutorial so much as it is me explaining some things about how I understand fluid transparency. It's a confusing thing since there are so many places it can be edited, and it's unclear what effects each slider has on the final render. I try to get into where and why it's confusing but I don't really make it clear since it is confusing... but I make it clear-er.

Fluid Rendering Optimizations Maya/MR

2009-07-02T02:08:00.000-07:00

Fluid Rendering Optimizations Maya/MR from destruct007 on Vimeo.

Speeding up fluids renders can be key to farm efficiency and iterations to a better effect. Using Mental Ray with low AA -3, -1 gives a fast good looking fluid render, so long as there are no hold out geometry objects. This is by no means the perfect tutorial, meaning you'll have to play with the settings to get the quality you need to the shot, but this is the way to get a big time savings.

We also cover, instanced destruction and voronoi shattering. But that's just a bonus side effect to get the main effect.

NEW COMPUTER!

2009-06-30T06:38:00.000-07:00

Just got a new computer and I spent more than I planned to. I wanted to spend $1350, spent $1600. Taxes, quiet fans, 2 HD instead of 1, best head sync instead of just OK, is what threw me over the top. But for my money I got a LOT so check it...

Leaving out the more boring parts, case, drives etc

NewEgg:
Proc: Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz (OC to 3.8GHz eventually)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB
RAM: 12 GB DDR3 of CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 1600 Triple Channel
Mother Board: EVGA E758-A1 3-Way SLI Intel X58
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling S61EPS 610W Continuous @ 40°C

CrazyPC:
Best Air Cooler for Core i7:
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme RT 1366 CPU Cooler

Email me if you want the links to these, or the whole list. Man this post is GEEEK!

Crap servers!

2009-06-23T14:12:00.000-07:00

Just found out the reason for the video to stop loading or freezing is the servers they are hosted on are not streaming/not made for video. So... I'm looking to get better server to host them. Until then, crap apples, it's hit or miss if the whole thing will play.

EDIT: Just got new servers, will transfer the videos over tonight.
EDIT: Too expensive going to figure out vimeo

Emitted Softbody & Facing Ratio

2009-06-23T08:40:00.000-07:00

Emitted SoftBody & Facing Ratio from destruct007 on Vimeo.

This is a tutorial I did, actually a while ago. It's a trick that comes into play every now and again. Emitting softbodies with a facing ratio shader, gives a stringy wispy look that can make for some cool fx.

Please to enjoy.

Overburn technique video tutorial

2009-05-18T22:57:00.000-07:00

Overburn technique video tutorial from destruct007 on Vimeo.

From Peter Shipkov's Overburn technique (maybe not the first to do it but most well known) Basically it's Fluid Shaded Cloud particles. I made a video tutorial about how to make it from scratch and edit it into a meteor.

Sorry about the sound, it crackles at points and is annoying. Welp, this is free so please to enjoy.

click the image to see the render on youtube

Fast and the Furious 4 shots online!

2009-03-13T10:25:00.000-07:00

Pretty cool, I worked on the fx, did dust, smoke, debris from the crashing BMW. Some live action elements in there and the smash off the bridge shot was done by Kevin Brown.

Click here to see autoblogs post

Student FX shots boards

2009-03-08T12:09:00.001-07:00

Demo Reel :: Spring 2008

2008-09-18T21:57:00.000-07:00

FX Demo Reel 2008 (no Kung Fu Panda) from destruct007 on Vimeo.

pre-viz Hostage

2008-06-15T16:56:00.001-07:00

Click the image to see some pre-vis shots on a short I'm working on. I basically set up a 3d scene and places the characters. Next I'll rough animate them to a scratch dialogue track. Already doing this I learned I what hand it will be best to have the phone in for lighting purposes, and I saw the need for the extra small table lamp (or something like it).
After the 3d prep, I'll do some lighting tests with real people and figure out how well a key light like that will work directly in camera view.