you better….. i know where you live……
;-) Sylvain Lebeau // SHED V-P/Visual effects supervisor 1410, RUE STANLEY, 11E ÉTAGE MONTRÉAL (QUÉBEC) H3A 1P8 T 514 849-1555 F 514 849-5025 WWW.SHEDMTL.COM (http://www.shedmtl.com/) <http://WWW.SHEDMTL.COM (http://www.shedmtl.com/)> On Tuesday, 16 July, 2013 at 9:51 AM, Alan Fregtman wrote: > Believe me, I know. If it was entirely up to me I'd put up lots of cool > behind the scenes visuals. > > With commercials, it's a piece of cake to take a screenshot and attach to an > email; if it's aired it's usually fair game and rarely anyone ever cares, but > when it comes to big name distributors of film, you have to clear everything > with lawyers and there's many more bureaucratic layers. > > When it comes out on bluray I'll ask my boss if I can show some > behind-the-scenes. I can't promise they'll allow it, but I can ask. :p > > > > On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 4:30 AM, Angus Davidson <angus.david...@wits.ac.za > (mailto:angus.david...@wits.ac.za)> wrote: > > Hi Alan > > > > Awesome work. Just want to let you know that breakdowns like this are not > > only important for other professionals who have this massive shared > > curiosity but it also incredibly important when it comes to our students. > > When we made the decision to move away from Maya to Softimage for our > > teaching we caught quite a bit of flak for the decision. However posts like > > these are really great because we can show just how Softimage is being > > used. We have also just set up our first Arnold render farm and we are very > > excited to see the results we get from two really great pieces of software. > > > > > > Kind regards > > > > Angus > > > > From: Alan Fregtman <alan.fregt...@gmail.com > > (mailto:alan.fregt...@gmail.com)> > > Reply-To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com > > (mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com)" <softimage@listproc.autodesk.com > > (mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com)> > > Date: Monday 15 July 2013 9:07 PM > > To: XSI Mailing List <softimage@listproc.autodesk.com > > (mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com)> > > Subject: OT: Pacific Rim > > > > Hey guys, > > > > A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in movies, so I > > personally love to hear stories when it does happen. Therefore, I wanted to > > share some details with you. :) > > > > I'm the lead rigger at Rodeo FXhttp://rodeofx.com and we did all of the > > interiors of the control pods (the cockpits, that is), including the > > visors, foot actuators & mechanical stilts, some digidoubles, etc. (except > > the holograms/UI graphics that were done by the folks at Hybride.) We also > > had the chance of doing our first organic creature, the brain in the lab > > (which involved a lot of "gross" ICE deformations), as well as many > > beautiful matte paintings and a couple of helicopters. > > > > Overall, we did over a hundred shots. CG was done in Softimage and as far > > as I know it was all rendered in our favourite renderer, Arnold! We'd still > > be rendering today if Mentalray had been used. :p We threw countless ~8k > > textures with displacement and stupid amounts of topology, and good ol' > > Arnie performed like a champ. > > > > The stilts (the leg controls in the cockpit) had anything from 1500 to 2500 > > separate meshes and on average about 150 segments (solid groups of parts > > that moved as one.) Once we identified the "segments" by the end we had a > > rig of Arnold stand-ins with each segment saved as one ass file, and > > low-res geo representing that segment constrained to some part of the rig. > > It then became relatively "light" to have the standins rigged instead of > > the full raw geo, and it made it quite easy to replace parts or textures > > later in the pipeline during or after animation. (Also caching was a piece > > of cake in this scenario, as we only needed to plot the segment nulls > > instead of thousands of meshes or pointcaching anything.) > > > > On the brain there was procedural pulsing animation driven by ICE > > deformers. Globules would "breathe", a heart-like organ would pump its > > ventricles intermittently and an intestine-like organ flowed with bulges > > travelling along its tract. It was gross and (in my opinion) kind of > > awesome. lol Speaking of ICE, there was a kind of lettuce behind the brain > > that was also moving a bit. The modeling was done with strips that were > > procedurally curled and then if I remember correctly the whole thing was > > driven via Syflex as the brain gently floated. This lettuce thing was > > handled by another guy on this mailing list, my coworker and friend > > Jonathan Laborde. Maybe if he's reading this he can give more details of > > how he used ICE in a few other shots. > > > > It was crazy fun project to work on. Fingers crossed that Pacific Rim 2 > > becomes a reality. :) Anyway, did you guys go see it? What'd you think? > > > > Oh and speaking of other movies, we did a ton of work in "Now You See Me" > > as well, including hundreds of stadium dudes with our propietary ICE static > > crowd system, falling/flying money, cg bubbles, an art-directed liquid, > > lockpicking, flying cards, many vehicles, the projected motiongraphics near > > the end and a few invisible fx. (I feel like I probably missed something, > > but anyway, we did a lot.) We were the main vfx vendor on that film, > > delivering just over 20 minutes worth of vfx "magic" (pun intended.) Again, > > Soft & Arnold and lots of effects in ICE all throughout. > > > > Cheers, > > > > -- Alan > > > > This communication is intended for the addressee only. It is confidential. > > If you have received this communication in error, please notify us > > immediately and destroy the original message. You may not copy or > > disseminate this communication without the permission of the University. > > Only authorised signatories are competent to enter into agreements on > > behalf of the University and recipients are thus advised that the content > > of this message may not be legally binding on the University and may > > contain the personal views and opinions of the author, which are not > > necessarily the views and opinions of The University of the Witwatersrand, > > Johannesburg. All agreements between the University and outsiders are > > subject to South African Law unless the University agrees in writing to the > > contrary.
