Hehe, I wish! I'll suggest it though. In the meantime, there's a handful of social profiles: https://www.facebook.com/rodeofx<https://www.facebook.com/rodeofx?rf=159524600749192> https://vimeo.com/rodeofx http://www.youtube.com/user/RodeoVFX/videos http://www.behance.net/RodeoFX https://plus.google.com/106443376038511688221/posts http://pinterest.com/rodeofx/
On Wed, Jul 17, 2013 at 10:25 AM, Ben Houston <[email protected]> wrote: > So why doesn't RodeoFX have a blog where you can post this in more detail. > :-) > -ben > > > On Wed, Jul 17, 2013 at 12:12 AM, Alan Fregtman > <[email protected]>wrote: > >> Uh-oh! lol >> >> artofvfx.com has posted an article on our work for *Now You See Me*. You >> can see some nice before & after pics: >> http://www.artofvfx.com/?p=4669 >> >> ** Before: >> http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_03B.jpg >> http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_04B.jpg >> http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_05B.jpg >> >> ** After: >> http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_03A.jpg >> http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_04A.jpg >> http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_05A.jpg >> (falling ICE money simulations, ICE standing crowds, additional Arnold >> volumetric lights) >> >> >> >> ** Before: >> http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_11B.jpg >> ** After: >> http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_11A.jpg >> (lots of funky motiongraphic cubes driven by ICE particles. not sure if >> the crowd is cg or 2D, I didn't work on that particular shot.) >> >> >> >> On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 10:40 PM, Sylvain Lebeau <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> 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 < >>> [email protected]> 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 <[email protected]> >>> Reply-To: "[email protected]" < >>> [email protected]> >>> Date: Monday 15 July 2013 9:07 PM >>> To: XSI Mailing List <[email protected]> >>> 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 FX*http://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. >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >> > > > -- > Best regards, > Ben Houston > Voice: 613-762-4113 Skype: ben.exocortex Twitter: @exocortexcom > http://Exocortex.com - Passionate CG Software Professionals. >
