Chase Like A Boss

YEAH! It's finally online! :) This was the most awesome and interesting project i've worked on lately. Adi Chifor, a friend and colleague at FLAVOR3D (the new film and print devision of RTT), came up with the idea and concept for this awsome short movie. We did the CG work mostly after work hours but later also got some support (resources and render power as well as budget for sound, music and final grading) from the company we work for.
I got to do FX on this one (in cooperation with the guys from post). It's been a lot of work but also heaps of fun and i learned a lot working with TP and FumeFX! Cheers to everyone involved! Looking forward to the next project! ;)

Adi Chifor: "The material was shot in the course of 2 days from the back of my car with a Canon 5D. The idea came about while watching a comparison between the old 1970 Boss 302 and the new 2013 model. Unfortunately they discontinued the Boss model for 2014 which is too bad as it was a nice looking car.

After finishing it, we were very fortunate to have these guys do the music and soundFx : soundadventures.tv/ Very cool company to work with.

The grading was done by Peter at scanwerk.de/ , another amazing post production house in Munich."

FBX Export for Camera Matching in 3dsmax

Here is another tool i developed for RTT some time ago. It's a hybrid script utilizing MEL and MAXScript that automates the process of camera matching (still images) by integrating 3dsmax's Camera Match into an existing Maya pipeline. It was meant to speed up the whole process, establish a unified workflow and relieve the artists of all the tedious task (like browsing for files, adjusting settings, etc.) that ate up time or could've been error sources in the past.

Automated tasks:

• export selected geometry as FBX (bypassing the FBX export dialog)
• run 3dsmax (works with 2009-2012, automatically runs latest version you have installed)
• import FBX geometry into 3dsmax (bypassing the FBX import dialog)
• set render settings in 3dsmax (according to size of given image file)
• set backplate in 3dsmax (matching render output)
• configure Nitrous viewport (3dsmax2012 only)
• configure units and snap settings (3D snap to vertex)
• maximize perspective viewport and frame imported geometry
• save 3dsmax scene file
• switch to CamPoint tool so you can start working right away
• one-button interface in 3dsmax for FBX camera export (bypassing the FBX import dialog)
• import camera into Maya & create image plane with the given image

 

 (click to enlarge)

 

The tool is being used on a regular basis and has proven to be a real time saver in production.

Tool for Automated Dust Trails

I've got permission from RTT to present some of the tools i wrote for them over the last years. I'm not allowed to supply any script files for download but i can show their UI and functionality.

This one is called "Automated Dust Trails". Its a nParticle based dust trail tool that was optimized to work with RTT's car rig. I wrote the tool in 2009 when we prepared for the Lotus Elan spot, but it was used in many other productions since then.

The system uses dynamic hair follicles to read the speed of each wheel. The speed influences emission rates and density of particles. All relevant parameters (color, size, lifespan, density/opacity, emitter attributes, shading, etc.) are adjustable through a convenient UI, so even other operators with little to no experience in dynamics can generate dust trails easily.

Language: MEL 

Size: ~6500 lines (incl. UI)

Main features:

• automatic detection of RTT car-rigs
• automatic dust trail creation for any number of cars
• wheel velocity drives nParticle density & emission rate
• closestPointOnMesh / closestPointOnSurface nodes and in some cases colorAtPoint expressions are used for terrain specific dust trail options (e.g. to get the trail color from the terrain texture)
• use of a volumeNoise on the blobMesh channel of the particleCloudShader is based on a technique described in detail on djx blog, but goes further by controlling more shader attributes on a per-particle basis
• load and save presets option in menu
• all relevant attributes adjustable through a custom UI
• only few expressions, most of it is node-based to optimize performance

 (click to enlarge)

Exploded View Rig for Audi Showroom Movie

Another youtube find: A project for Audi I worked on last year at RTT. I developed the explosion rig (fully node-based), wrote a tool to create and animate the rig, animated most of the explosion shots as well as camera and car in some other shots.

I hope I can post a demonstration video of the rig and tool some time soon. Will have to clarify the legal situation (copyright-wise, concerning the model and tool) with RTT first though ...

Dust Trails for Lotus Elan Movie

I found this on youtube today. It's a project for Lotus I worked on at RTT in 2010. I was responsible for most of the effects (mainly dust trails) as well as animating some shots (car and camera). I developed a nParticle based tool using MEL, which I used to create all the dust trails. Only for the dust in the pack shot I used Maya Fluids.

More info on the dust trail tool will follow in a later post. I'm working on video tutorials for all the tools I wrote for RTT during the last years and will post them here with the permission of RTT - hopefully ;) ...