First roto project done

Hello all!  I've finished my first project in rotoscoping, by removing a wire and some dust from source footage provided by an awesome book by Ron Ganbar:  Nuke 101 - Professional Compositing and Visual Effects.  The video is posted above.  Enjoy!

More book progress

Hello all!


Today, I finished out Chapter 4 in my new book by Ron Ganbar:  Nuke 101 - Professional Compositing and Visual Effects.  This chapter went over color correction, which was a lot of fun for me.  Below are the results of the project that was done.  The first image is the source image from the included materials, the second is the completed version.  It was an attempt to give the image a car commercial feel to it.  I think the end result looks rather nice.  Next on the list is 2D tracking, something I've been dying to learn!  =oD

Another lesson completed

I'm working on lessons out of a book by Ron Ganbar:  Nuke 101:  Professional Compositing and Visual Effects.  The materials used for this scene are from the book's training materials, but I did the compositing between the background plate and the character.  =)

I'm only 3 chapters in and I would recommend this book to anyone that wants to learn Nuke from the ground up.  It's very easy to follow, and the examples in the book can easily be transferred to a professional workflow.  Below is the end result, and the node graph of the same.  I still have color correction to do but this was mostly an exercise to become familiar with working on files with multiple passes (openEXR) and tweaking them to look right.

PS:  You may notice the two write nodes at the end, I was just messing around with them and aren't necessary, although one write node is a necessity to render an image sequence or a video.

End result:

Node graph:

Learning Nuke!

I've started on learning Nuke, a node-based compositing solution.  Having worked in After Effects, it's quite different to me, almost alien.  However, so far I am enjoying how the workflow is pieced together, working in a node-based system seems simpler to me.  

Smoke Simulation done

Render of my smoke simulation (seen above) is finished!   400 Base resolution, rendered in Mental Ray.  Lit with raytrace shadows using segments as the shadow method.  Three separate renders were done for this project:  lit side, shadow side, and an overhead shot, in that order.


I'd go with a higher fluid resolution but I've reached hardware limitations.

New fluid simulation

I'm working on a fluid simulation of a fireball, here's a test render!

Bringing in various effects animations

I'm in the process of rounding up all my effects work and will be publishing it here soon.  =)

Change of plans

My modeling project is being placed on the back burner as I am starting work on a new effects reel, renders will be posted as I progress.

UV's getting there..

Head and neck are done, I usually start with the most complex parts of the model first then go to the easiest.  Hands/feet are next.

UV Layouts underway

I'm going to devote this weekend to UV mapping §erpentine.  After that it's going into ZBrush for sculpting and texturing.


Next on the list is character setup.


Renders to follow  =)

First character model complete

It's been awhile since I've posted, with work and everything else that's been going on.  That said, I'm happy to report that my first character model towards my new project is complete!


While I say it's complete, there's a lot more to do (UV's, sculpting low and high res, character setup and the like) until it's ready to go.  Here's some wireframes, first of one half of the model and finally with both sides merged.  These renders were done in vector with triangulation (as that's what will be used once imported to ZBrush).

Progress update

Torso and arms/legs almost done, next up will be the head and after that...
UV LAYOUTS!  Woo I love the next step..  >_<


(Yes I know  the appendages are not yet attached, but that's about 10 minutes of work tops ;))

Working on low poly model

I've started work on a low poly character model which I plan to bring into ZBrush, sculpt, and output the normal maps back into Maya for render.  This will encompass a lot of stages including UV layouts, texturing, character setup (for posing) and possibly some animation.

I've stumbled across a method for modeling hands that is a huge time saver and greatly reduces overall poly count!

Just getting started

This will basically serve as a development log, as well as a place to find some 3D tutorials in the future.  I'll also be posting some of my previous work and works in progress (wip's).  More to come!


My mini FX reel can be viewed here:
http://www.vimeo.com/14819038