George Quelch - VFX

A few weeks ago I decided to set myself a personal project after seeing this tutorial  about making snow using Blender. I decided to adapt the tutorial into Maya. I wanted it to be a quick weekend render which I achieved, but I wanted to take it further and render a sequence which was more polished. Here is the final result: I'm pretty happy with the result and the comp process I used, as it let me put into practice some new techniques I had been looking into, such as making use of World Point, Normal and Depth passes more. I also used this project as R&D for Big Top and Dino Diner's use of Renderman, this project highlighted a few issues, mainly with XGen and getting it to batch render. I found using nHair to be quite effective and simple to use however, so I think it is a good alternative. I also wanted to get good file and scene management going on so that its easier when we have to start doing it on a bigger scale. My workflow for this project starte...

Now  that dissertation is finally handed in I have been able to put more time into working on compositing for Dino Diner. After the many tests I did for the original previs model here  I wanted to take what I thought was the best technique and apply it to the new previs model.  From Arnold From Nuke I opted for rendering no volumetric lighting in Arnold and added them using Nuke and the TX_Rays node as with my last previs. I also made use of Normal and Point world passes to add additional lighting to the table and counter behind. I also added floating particles which interact with the light shaft, and a range of camera lens effects, including chromatic aberration, depth of field, blurring and more. This time I kept the additional lighting to a minimum, as in my last test I found it caused issues with matte lines and aliasing around edges with additional lighting. I think this issue could be somewhat resolved by making use of several matte IDs for...

A side to looking into Volumetrics in Nuke I have been exploring the Depth to Points node. It's a very clever workflow that only needs a depth and normal pass, which allows you to project your render out into 3D space within Nuke. This process would save having to export geometry and cameras out of Maya, it would all be self contained within the render and the passes, which I thought was really interesting and convenient. To give this technique a test I decided to composite in a sphere into the background of the shot. This is what I was able to produce. Which considering was all done in Nuke without and interaction after render with Maya is pretty cool. I was able to position the sphere within the projection, then by looking in 3D space was able to match where the lights were in order to quickly match the lighting on it. I also tested it with volumetric lighting, although this caused me a lot of trouble with matte lines around the table, I think ...

This week I have been looking into different render solutions for volumetric lighting in 3D. I have been working with Arnold to create some basic lighting with a previs model for the cave created by another student. It was only a quick render, whilst I felt this worked OK the volumetrics were quite noisy and added a lot to render time. I am confident with adding them into 2D space with Nuke but had not added them to 3D successfully yet, so they work with a moving camera, so this is what I wanted to look into doing with Nuke. I found a good toolset with the TX_3DRays gizmo from Nukepedia. This allows quick creation of a light shaft which you can positing within 3D space, by reading in the geometry I could also use it as a holdout so the volumetrics sit properly within the scene. Using two slightly different workflows I created the two images below, which have slightly different looks. I prefer this first image as the result is more subtle, and i...

Finally ! Renderman 21 for non-commercial is now out, meaning we can move into look development and lighting tests with Renderman for 3rd year films The Big Top and Dino Diner. I have been looking into it this evening, after downloading and installing it as fast as I could. I was pretty happy that old scenes were somewhat compatible. All I have had to change were the lights, but as I am focusing on relighting my kitchen scene anyway that was no problem, all of the shaders I transferred over to the new PxrSurface shdaer, which I am really liking. This version is far more user friendly than the last, but with all the power. I am also noticing a lot of the little things from Arnold which I like having coming across now into Renderman, which is great. The whole settings UI is much improved, now fully integrated into mayas render settings, its just far quicker to use and setup. One thing I am really pleased with are the new lights and lighting tools, I was keen to ...

I and several other students are working on a side project for Cherry Cherry VFX. We are creating a short cinema sting, featuring a photo-real seagull, floating on a lifebuoy in the open ocean, and an clapperboard jumping out above it. There was a lot to figure out with this project, mainly with the ocean as we need it to be simulated to create the splash, we need it to base animate the motion of the life buoy, and also be able to render it as a wide open ocean. My role is mainly to do lighting, rendering and compositing, and have been helping with pipeline, especially on the water simulation. Harry has been working with BOSS and Bifrost to create a workflow in which we can drive the bifrost simulation near the camera using a BOSS ocean, which means we can make the splash. But further away from camera will be a tiled version of the base BOSS ocean, without the simulation. We were struggling with long render times on the ocean as it is simulated and quite dense. We ar...

For look development on The Big Top I am continuing to look into cloth shaders. Again testing in Arnold. The idea behind this was similar to what I did previously with Renderman. Using maya's cloth texture which I adjusted to my liking, and used it for a bump on the model, which was simulated with nCloth. I also added the small XGen hairs to enhance the fuzzy effect, I think this worked well. One thing I want to look into doing with this is small bumps, and caught hairs you get across different fabrics. One thing I did differently was use several noise textures to get variation within the colour of the cloth, so it wasn't one perfect shade throughout. I want to get a better look development maya scene set up so I can work on things in better lighting conditions, also so it is universal between engines.

A big part of the pipeline I designed for The Big Top was using HDRs of the sets for lighting the CG characters. This makes the process of lighting the CG much smoother, and the end result will look better. We shot 9 exposures from 2 angles using a Canon 5D mkiii, and a 300mm lens.  One of the challenges with shooting HDRs for stop motion sets is the size, so we had to find a camera with a short enough focus distance to capture both angles in the small space, but long enough focal length to fill as much of the frame as possible. Once we had the images I used Photoshop's HDR Pro function to merge them into one single image which I exported out as an EXR. I then took this into Nuke, to do the unwrapping process, I did this  with the spherical transform node, which worked well. Obviously there is massive distortion to the left of the image, and to the right you can see where we were taking the photos, this is where the second image is needed. ...

For look development on The Big Top I have been working on shader tests for plastic materials, in both Renderman and Arnold, these first 3 are rendered with Arnold. We are taking reference from Evil Corp  who make great plastic style CG models that look very realistic. The key things I picked up on was the subsurface scattering, and the amount of specular on the skin, so before we get some models and textures I am experimenting with these properties on this model. I played with getting the scattering correct, which you can see working on the ear. I then played with varying amounts of specular and reflection. I don't think any of them are quite right yet, it will be easier to play with shaders once we have some textures painted. I do like Arnolds ability to add lights for specific attributes, for example subsurface scattering, although its not physically plausible sometimes you want that control to push an effect in specific areas, although this could probably be...

After finishing some very basic materials for the lighting challenge scene file I went back in to relight the scene from my first version. This time with a warmer, more daytime feel to it. This is the 2nd version of this lighting setup, which I am more happy with, I changed how the outside lighting came through the window, tweaked the indoor lighting and added volumetrics. All done with Renderman for Maya and composited with Nuke. I used a EnvDayLight for the lighting coming through the window, this really boosted my render times over the HDR in my first lighting setup, so I will focus more on using a collection of HDRs for different times of day rather than the dayLight. I'm pleased with the lighting and feel but the textures are letting it down somewhat, so I think I will take them out, or at least the ones I definitely don't need, so I can focus more on lighting. I based this render off of this image , using it as an indication for the feel of the look I wan...

In order to practice more lighting I am trying to do more of the lighting challenges . I want to focus more on the lighting than the texturing and shading, I put some simple materials onto this scene but I may remove some of the weaker ones and focus more on lighting. I am quite pleased with this, I want to create more emotion and feeling in the lighting, so more of a mood comes across when you look at the image. I'll be updating with different styles for this image now it is completed and I want to try and push myself with what I create.

For R&D on The Big Top I have been looking into different ways to create crying in 3D. The first way I tried was hand animating a single tear, or several if needed, and creating the streak effect left by a tear within Nuke. It's a simple way of working but the technique worked. It also allows us to control exactly where the tear flows down as it is hand animated, rather than a simulated effect. I rendered the Face, the face with a high specular override, and the tear as 3 separate render layers from Arnold, using Maya's new powerful render layer setup. Once I had these I took them into Nuke. I fiddled with Time Offset, Time Blur and Time echo before deciding the latter did what I wanted. This let me make the streak which the tear leaves, I graded and blured this before merging the original tear back on top. I then used the resulting alpha to merge over the specular pass of the face, giving what would be the water left by the tear some reflection, I think this real...

To build upon what I am able to do in compositing I am starting to learn about Nuke's particle systems. I started with  this tutorial to get a basic grasp on how it works. I have always liked creating FX but never wanted to work solely as an FX artist so being able to include some basic FX in Nuke is good. It was a good introduction and I think I now have some basic knowledge to apply to some R&D for the 3rd year project The Big Top. One of the main things I want to be able to do well is add volumetrics and dust effects in a comp in a 3D space, its very quick and powerful to do with a static camera in 2D space, but the effect falls down quickly when the camera is moving. The tutorial went through creating falling dust particles within 3D very quickly and the result was effective so I'm already looking to include this in my future work.

The past few weeks I have been looking into XGen for maya properly. As my past experiences with it have either been brief or it's been a nightmare to work with. This is partly to help with look Dev, and being able to take shaders a little bit further with some hair, and the 3rd year project Dino Diner, which may need fur simulations. I've made good progress with this tutorial . I now feel like I have a good understanding of the grooming tools, and the extra detail that can be added via modifiers, how the groom controls the primitives, and how these get be rendered with custom shaders.  It was complicated at first getting my head around the texture maps to Ptex conversions but was more simple once I understood what was actually going on and what XGen was actually doing. I'm pretty happy with the result, I would definitely spend more time on the groom if I were doing this for a project, to get all the hair flowing properly. This was rendered ...

Finally with the film released I can talk about my part in creating a 30 second short film for the charity Create, as part of Bournemouth's  BFX competition. Here is the final film my team made: Alongside 4 other team members, who I had not met before, two from Bournemouth University animation, one from Arts University Bournemouth and a Falmouth Graduate. Over the course of 7 weeks we created a 30 second short for the charity Create. We had to take the film from the pre-production and initial animatic stage, through to final product. The design style was abstract, and mixed media. Bringing together a real life set, 2D animated characters, several 3D animated characters and props in a 2D render style, and 3D simulated paint. My role on the project was look development, compositing and rendering. I also assisted generally with pipeline, and with operation of cameras. Getting the look of the concept art was very important, so developing the 2D render style was one ...

Having completed my game of life script I wanted to get a nice render of it, which I've finally gotten around too. I wanted to make a grid of marbles, each different colours, however having around 2000 in total in the scene that was not gonna happen by assigning them manually. After a lot of trial and error I found a way to get what I wanted. First I created a procedural texture of squares, each different colours from the 6 base colours I chose. I then positioned this under the spheres. I gave every sphere a completely see through glass material, and disabled primary viability of the plane. This meant the refracted colour of the plane could be seen in the marbles but not the marbles themselves. I think this worked pretty well, definitely more efficient than  assigning  all the objects a material.

So after taking part in the BFX competition this summer I was able to attend the festival in October, which is comprised of 4 days of insightful talks, the BFX awards, and a day of networking and talking to recruiters. Thursday evening was the awards for the BFX competition and I'm so happy for our team to have won the award for best FX and Simulation. We put a lot of time into simulating the paint and getting it nicely rendered so its great to have won that! Awards Night with the Art Express! Our Final Film for Create! Monday to Thursday was talks from the likes of ILM, Framestore, Disney, Pixar, Blue Zoo, The Mill and many, many more, as well as games companies including Playground Games and Frontier Developments.  Topics ranged from production, to concept design, pipeline, fx. It was a really great opportunity  to see how different companies manage different parts of their workflow. ILM delivering their talk on Star Wars 7 ...

And finally the big 3rd year film pitches have come around! We're fully underway working now and that means me and  Tim  finally got the chance to pitch our 360 ° Stop Motion short film idea in front of around 200 people! including other students from all years, lecturers and a panel of industry professionals. Unfortunately it wasn't our day and we didn't get put through to go into production, which means we can't make the film as we had originally planned, but are hopefully going to be able to work the 360 ° element and technique into another production to help its promotion. The pitch itself was a great opportunity though, I am far more confident pitching now that I was in my first year. So although we won't be directing our own short we can still put to use all the R&D, planning and testing that we did during our 2nd year, and I  think it's gonna work out nicely! As far as productions for me the opportunity has come up for on Th...

After a summer that flew by taking part in the BFX Festival Competition, I'm trying to manically work through my list of saved links and techniques in preparation for 3rd year at Falmouth. I'm hopefully going to be able to talk more about BFX soon, including the film we made and some of the breakdown, and work I put into it, but we are currently waiting for the films to be released online to be able to talk about it. For now I am focusing on getting to grips with Arnold, and Maya 2017 in general. There are lots of little improvements all around, especially with the animation and general interface changes. As part of a continuation of the lighting I was doing before I took the  St anford dragon  into Arnold and lit it with a HDR image. One of the big problems I had with Mental Ray in 2016 was rendering  caustics , this however worked quite nicely in Arnold. I was pretty impressed by the quick results. The glass looks cle...