CGI Blood?

G

gusthebus3250

Member
Okay before this I ask my question I just want to make this very clear. I know Corn syrup and red food coloring is the more realistic way but thats not really what i want. Anyway here goes. Iam looking for cgi blood (squirts, bursts, ext.) that are fairly realistic. Now I Know about Andrew Kramer's product, and yes it can be powerful in some ways. But in my eyes the blood effects in that pack aren't very real looking they almost look "cartoon" like. Basicly fake looking. IAM really looking for somthing like you seen in 300 how do you think they did that? And if i can get the same result with programs like Particle Illusion 3 and after effects. If not 300 blood somthing like it.

Thank You :)
 
shoot some real blood (corn syrup and food coloring) effects of the type yuo need against a greenscreen or whitescreen practically, and then comp them in. youll likely get the best results this way if your going for realism.
 
Blood is one of the few emitter effects I haven't seen in Particle Illusion (at least in the free downloadable libraries that I'm using) - I'm actually surprised, it should fit in easily with what PI does. There are a few PI liquid emitters that could have their colour changed to red of course, but I don't recall any designed for gunshot wounds, stab wounds etc.
 
..the thing about using particle illusion or a silmilar program though is that your always going to get fake or leass than optimal looking results if photorealism is what your after, and for the amount of time it takes to fine tune simple software like that to creat somewhat reasonoably realistic effects, you could have just shot some fake blood out of a pump sprayer in front of a greenscreen and had real custom practical effects that will be as photoreal as it gets. ..just my opinion from here on, but i think its a thing nowadays for filmmakers to try and somehow create simle things using software all the time rather than going with very simple practicle solutions that have been used for years.
..you know..

director:
"i need some smoke coming out of this cigarette"

effects guy:
.. " ok, ive got a great plugin that can make some pretty cool smoke effects if we tweak it and use some custom particles i can create along with generating a fractal noise map with turbulance that the smoke cparticles can rise up through.. i think it might look pretty real if we blend it well in AE or shake"

director:
"..your fired. ..now will someone else please light the cigarette for me"



..its all really about just planning ahead and knowing where your going with your projects. i really think that now more than ever in the boom of the digital age young independents are shooting from the hip, and trying to somehow make it all work in post. thers just so many little software packages and plugins that generate marginal results which people are willing to settle for because its within thier realm of understanding. but im sure they could acheive much greater things with some basic understanding of working with minimal compositional skills, and learning how to create practical elements on a budget. .. again. just my opinion.
 
gusthebus3250 said:
I am looking for cgi blood (squirts, bursts, ext.) that are fairly realistic. ...
Click to expand...

I agree with a lot of what Neil says. However, there are definitely times when you need to be able to pull off a blood spurt or splatter cheap and dirty using compositing. My ass has been saved on occasion by some of detonation films' "Hemo Stock":

http://www.detonationfilms.com/UnitK.htm

Also, about a year ago 3DWorld had a very nice how-to feature on using Max to generate a realistic blood splatter effect. I have it here somewhere and will try to find it because it really impressed me.
 
karo syrup doesn't even taste bad, your actors might enjoy it alittle bit. I'm not a big fan of cgi blood because it looks like ps3. The blood in No country when the first guy gets punched with that cattle killer looked good, but still felt like cg. Real blood looks like real blood. If you have a dead shot put little torn up pieces of styrofoam cup and a little chocolate powder(ovaltine) in there too. The cup looks like skull and the ovaltine makes the blood look coagulated(spellcheck). my moms a nurse....yea.
 
it depends very much on the shots required. If you need an actor wandering around (or lying on the ground dead!) with a bullet wound in their chest, then yes, a physical effect will almost certainly be easier and more convincing.

But if you want blood spurts flying across the screen a la 300, then CGI may well be the best solution, especially if you're trying for 300's abstract graphic expessionist style rather than 'reality'
 
agreed. theres really no question or attempt on my part to say that there isnt a time or place for CG blood ..or CG anything for that matter. Im only saying that when it comes to CG, espescially liquids. you either need to do it the professional way with powerful software, and skills, or realize that its very likely going to look poor. you can aleviate this some by cutting the shot so fast that people cant fully realize the shot snd how bad it looks because they dont have time, but since were talking long drawn out 300 shots. you dont really have that option ..however. shooting practical elements overcranked and slowing it down further in post will look phenominal with some basic compositing skills. even if your breaking the effect down into its building blocks by getting a slow mo blood squirt, and then getting slow mo droplets of blood flying by dripping them out of a syringe or something and then compositing the two together with the droplets coming out of the squirt and overlaying a spray as well or something like that and blending them together so it appears seamless. when using practical elements, youve still got to know what your doing compositing wise, but the life saver is that the elements themselves actually visually belong in the real world, so they visually blend very well and will not stick out or appear cartoonish. i would say that in the case of 300 they simply used CG because they already had a professional CG crew on board that could do it with some level of realism and it allowed them to fine tune every aspect about how it happened to thier artistic tastes.
 
Any ideas on how to get brain matter to hang just a bit before falling? Sort of splatter against the wall and stick for a moment?
 
I did some tests on this type using fluid simulation, PFlow + Glu3d, let me just say, its very difficult to get it to behave how exactly you want it too,

for example with the brain matter hanging then slowly falling, I spent tweaking so many parameters (using particles, deflectors+ forces, and metaparticles) but the end the motion, formation didn't look "right".

Long story short, it can be done (with great difficulty), but remember when you want it too look "real" you can only do this was fluid simulation WHICH ironically behaves like its real world counterpart, BUT therein lies the problem, you have as much control of fluid sims as you would in real life! in fact my view is if you can do it in real life do it! (and this is comming from a passionate 3d guy).

my 2 Pence
 
Capt Quirk said:
Any ideas on how to get brain matter to hang just a bit before falling? Sort of splatter against the wall and stick for a moment?
Click to expand...

Get an air compressor to push out blood made with corn syrup, chocolate syrup, red food die, and add in some cork to it to make give it a little depth. And blast it out on the wall. It is the way things like this are typically done. :)
 
the syryps and food coloring will stain the cork. if you had any worries just presoak it in a glass with red food coloring to give it more time to stain it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top