Matty's WIP #1

[Mattykins]

Unlike Raptor - I have no idea what I am going to be doing yet. But I know I am going to be doing something.

[triplej96]

lol Great Start Matt. I'm sure a idea will come to you soon.

[Mattykins]

Well I have a general idea.

Basically around the idea of the supernatural entering the natural.

Basic plan: Construct a modern city. Destroy it. Burn it. Put in demons. And tada.

A month is going to be hell.

[triplej96]

That sound cool Matt and like a lot of fun.

[Gord.T]

Maybe we should have called this HellFest or maybe RenderHellFest.

[Mattykins]

RenderHell would be more appropriate. Haha

[Gord.T]

Yepp'er'ee Bob.

Looks like I'm probably going to have to settle for a still image. Right now I'm at 4 hrs/frame. I can probably do a static cam and work that around to an hour or less/frame but life's getting in the way ( 5 hrs worked on it so far) and I'm basically down to working on it on weekends. But that's fine. Maybe I''ll abort it for something simpler.

I've been thinking though, your idea gives me shivers timewise, as well.
Looks like TripleJ may have a leg up on his. Man it's a tough call. Getting something decent in and on time is easier said than done.

Well, good luck. I think we all need it. :beer:

[Mattykins]

I appear to have already run into issues.

Modeling is nothing I am good at. And I suddenly have run into a problem. That being modeling the small section of city I am going to be using. But then again, I also need this thing to be destroyed. So that might be more mattepainting than modeling.

I don't know. Those are my ramblings for tonight.

[MrFluffy]

What tools are you using?

[Mattykins]

Maya primarily. I do fluid and particle effects. So I can't really model...yet.

Aside from that - I have real flow, after effects, NUKE, MatchMover, and the Imagineer suite.

[MrFluffy]

Maya primarily. I do fluid and particle effects. So I can't really model...yet.

Aside from that - I have real flow, after effects, NUKE, MatchMover, and the Imagineer suite.

Cool stuff, look forward to seeing what you pull off.

[triplej96]

Maya primarily. I do fluid and particle effects. So I can't really model...yet.

Aside from that - I have real flow, after effects, NUKE, MatchMover, and the Imagineer suite.

Nice lineup of software there Matt. I've always wanted to try Maya out. Have you looked into Houdini Matt? Seems to be a standard for particles.

[Gord.T]

Terry Posted this in the cafe. Something like what you were talking about doing, except a little different...

http://www.sonypictures.net/movies/terminatorsalvation/poster.html

[Mattykins]

I haven't looked into Houdini yet. Well I've looked at it. But didn't really think I needed it yet. Plus it needs OSX 10.5 and I have 10.4 with no real intentions on upgrading yet.

And raptor, that looks like what I was going for. Now take the camera and place it on ground level. :) That is where I have the problem. The damn buildings.

It seems like a very simple thing. But I can't figure it out for the life of me.

[Gord.T]

Here's an idea. You know those videos of buildings being taken down with explosives?

If you could get your hands of several of those you could put them on billboards and integrate them into a picture with other buildings, if they were long enough and close to the same persective. It would be a locked down camera shot though. And maybe with a before and after photoshopped pic you could add some smoke and flashes to hide the other transitions. That's if you can even get some decent footage. Maybe do a long shot if they'r too lo res.

Maybe, maybe not. Just a thought.

[Mattykins]

Okay, so here is my newest issue. I can't figure out how to collapse a building. The smoke cloud is easy. The fire in the air is easyish.

But the building falling? Or even looking destroyed for that matter - easy said then done. I am getting much busier than I had anticipated. I might only have a proof of concept by the end of this fest. Who knows?

[Gord.T]

If you can settle for a static camera, you could use pictures/mattes of the burned out buildings like we did for VFXfest #2 -Destruction.

A great example of that is the recent TwilightFest winner, 'Broadcast'.
He has several scenes of destroyed building with mattes and smoke animations.

Getting a buidling to fall and look good would be pretty hard. I know I've dabbled at it and didn't have any luck.

[TowerFan]

I suppose the difficulty would be proportional to how you want it to look. Do you need it to fall straight down like an implosion? Or falling over? If an implosion then they usually stay fairly intact looking before the dust cloud rises to obscure it. They lean a bit and shift around while falling but in large pieces. Using a morph might be a good way to do that. Then you can dissolve from a half collapsed but mostly still intact building into a complete rubble-pile behind the cover of the dust cloud.

I uploaded a building I modeled a while ago. Maybe it can give you a jump start on the modeling or give you some ideas.

http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/21191/1228359072.zip