Effects

Hey all, it's been a busy couple of weeks...I hate to fall behind on my posts. I'm working on texturing my animated book which is very close to being done and I'm also texturing my gnome...I should have the gnome textures up soon. For the time being I thought I'd post another video since their fun and break up the flow of still images. This video is a test I did on creating fire. I'm planning on using fire in my Gnome story so I figured it is time I started investigating. This is my first 3d fire...(this video is what resulted after about 10 different attempts). I resorted to printing out every possible page on fluids and emitters and all that good stuff and am very intrigued by it all. Anyhow, this is the first fire I created. Along with my Gnome story I'm planning on using fire in the project my friends and I are working on, Dark Winter.

I plan on making a few varieties of fire...camp fire, torch fire and perhaps even some spreading fire. That's it for now.

John

Fun Project

I decided to take a break from my characters to make a prop that will be in my next film. As you can see it's a book with some flipping pages. I might add a few more pages. Anyhow, I found a tutorial on making animated books at:

http://www.computerarts.co.uk/tutorials

It is really fun, the instructions are a little jumbled, but if you know the software then it won't take you long.

Anyhow, thought I'd post the playblast.

Testing SSS on Gnome

So I've just finished UV mapping my Gnome tonight. I just spent the last 30 minutes playing with the Sub-Surface Scattering effect on the Gnomes head (basically allows light to pass through things like ears as it would in real life). Here is a sample of the SSS on the Gnome. You can see the ear glowing from the backlight. It's a fun effect but I think after tonight and seeing the large render times...I will probably refrain from using this shader on the Gnome...if I do use it, it would only be for select shots...of which I have one or two in mind. Anyway, just thought I'd share the current status of this character.

-John

*ADDED 8/2/07
Per request, I've added the basic version the gnomes head. I just applied a lambert shader to the mesh with the exact same light setup and shot. As you can see it is very dark and the ear has nearly disappeared. SSS fakes light entering the skin and bouncing around. Where as a lambert shader has no property like that whatsoever.