Something I'm doing for my Kids

My kids every now and again request daddy to make something for them, sometimes a monster, sometimes a robot...other times crazy things.  So this is something I'm messing about here and there with for my two kids.

Materials still need some serious work and I'll be sorting those next time.

Moonfleet nominated for VES award

Moonfleet,the 2 part special that was shown on Sky TV here over xmas and new year that I worked on has been nominated for a VES Award for "Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program".   Screen Scenes work is whats up for the award.

You can read the other nomination's at the link above.

Short test with Arnold and Maya

I decided to do a quick test with Arnold in Maya, after coming in cold with no previous knowledge (apart from what I know of other render engines over the years) this was the result.  So far I am impressed.  The model is a 3D scan from my 'Beast' System I did earlier last year for tests just such as these by the way for those wondering.

Ripper Street Series 2 & Moonfleet Breakdowns

Moonfleet

Today the Screen Scene breakdowns fairy has been busy and now I can put up not one but 2 new breakdowns.  One is from Ripper Street Series 2 that I worked on, the other from the sky TV miniseries 'Moonfleet' that I also worked on.  What complicates matters is that I was working on both at the same time last time I was over in Dublin.


Ripper Street

BBC's Ripper Street VFX Breakdown Season 2

The Infamous 'Phossy Jaw' Shot I worked on that you have scene before

The diamond mine shot I worked on (I still wake up in cold sweats over this one)


Stuff of mine include the Phossy jaw shot, model  and sculpting to match supplied wax reference (this was done by hand as the wax sculpt was in Dublin and I was in my office in Leadgate at the time), and the diamond mine shot assembly, characters and crowds and crowd simulation and various set extensions.

and just to keep it all tidy, the more detailed breakdown of the Phossy jaw shot:

Ripper Street VFX Phossy Jaw

Moonfleet

Sky1's Moonfleet Ship VFX Breakdown

I did all sorts on this gig!  Ranging from the Digital Doubles of the two lead actors (Ray Winston and Aneurin Barnard ) the background doubles, to rigging and skinning these doubles, the hole in the ship, modelling and texturing the sails ready for cloth simulation; up rezzing various ship parts for the end destruction / beaching sequence to all sorts of jobs I cant remember.  This was done at the same time I was working on the Ripper Street Diamond Mine shot above and also writing a full tool set for the comp dept in python for nuke.

So all in all a busy time. For those wondering the wave and water stuff was done by John  O Connell, Garloff Lagenbeck. Eduardo Battman and Dan Woods

All sculpting done in mudbox, character texturing and parts texturing done in Mudbox, rendered in Vray in 3Ds Max 2012.

You can visit Screen Scene Here: www.screenscene.ie/, the Screen Scene Twitter account at @SSVFX and VFX sup Ed Bruces Twitter here:  @EdBruceVFX and get an early heads up on stuff by visiting ed's site here: http://edwardbruce.tumblr.com/ I of course am on twitter at @WayneRobson

1st Doodle of 2014

A quick doodle I did this evening.... 1st doodle  / speed sculpt of 2014.

Impending 'Death' of the Youtube Waynecasts

I very very rarely ever mention or embeds my video diary  /video blog I have ran on YouTube for a long time here on my blog or the main site.  I've always tried to keep them separate and not connected to this site really as they were more for entertainment / amusement than anything serious.  They grew to have quite a following in 3D for god alone knows what reasons.

But some of you know that very soon I am going to be killing off the 'infamous' YouTube Waynecast video series / video blog.  But as I am up to Waynecast number 148, the obsessive in me wants to finish at number 150.  So I thought I'd look up a few facts and figures.

• I have been doing them for 6 years 3 months
• The 1st one was recorded on 31st October 2007 (Halloween)
• The name 'Waynecast' 1st appeared on the 7th nov 2007
• they have been recorded all over the place, Iceland, Vienna, Berlin, Pottsdam, Dublin, Vancouver, The Netherlands, Las Vegas etc... and in the middle of bloody nowhere.
• Each one consists of between 1 and 3 videos each with average running time of 10 mins each part.
• So so far 312 of the 533 videos still on my YouTube channel are Waynecasts (LOL). but many 3d vids and tutorial were deleted by me ages back.
• They have some crazy combined viewing figure I'm not even going to start looking up as it'd take too long.  But way more than I expected when I started these to keep in touch with mates of mine around the globe.
• 95% were recorded on my very old Kodak Zi8 pocket HD cam that had no stabilization.
• Apparently according to YouTube's stats one was embedded on huffington post a couple of years back...  no I am not going to look it up as it scares me why lol.  Seriously ...I don't want to know. :))

So my plan is this:

One more 'proper' old wobbly cam Waynecast (number 149) done just like the others while out for my walk.

Then I plan to finish them with something special for number 150.  After that no more Waynecast's...no more wobbly cam.... no more ranting at the camera..no more exaggerated version of me.....  They were done always in a way that I hope was real and that wasn't just me trying to be 'cool' (as lets face it that'll never happen if I live to be 500 anyway lol).  In a way I hope that they helped to illustrate that behind every 3d model or piece of art there is a real person....something that often gets lost.

The time seems right to kill them off as a series I think.  It'll be not far off 6 1/2 years I'll have been doing them once I finish them that's seen my life go on one helluva journey.  From the bad to the amazing...the crazy to the boring... no career...to quite a bloody nice one....being stuck in a dead end village at the time to travelling all over the world.   I don't think the journey of my life can top that so time to call it quits on them I think.

...and no I have no idea what (if anything) I will replace them with.

Ripper Street S2: Phossy Jaw Stills breakdowns

Ripper Street series 2:  The Phossy Jaw Shot

Ed Bruce the VFX Sup at Screen Scene in Dublin posted a few breakdown stills from the Phossy Jaw shot that I worked on form Ripper Street Series 2 over xmas.  As People still ask me questions about this shot I thought these still might help a bit.   They are all nice and big and you can be assured of one thing for certain...this shot will be at the start of my next reel ;)

Moonfleet 2 part series

Just a very quick note:

Stuff I worked on from last time I was over at Screen Scene in Dublin  is on Sky One at 8pm on 28th and 29th December 2013. :

It the 2 parter 'Moonfleet' starring ray winston.  Part two I think has the majority of the stuff I ended up working on.   I will outline whats I did when I am allowed.  But can say it required some skills other than my usual ones lol.

Enjoy.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

I asked my mate Zap Andersson (Who I am sure many of you know) if he fancied letting me remix and redo the track he recorded back in 1999 with his band beat symphony.  So here we go for the festive period with full permission of Zap Anderson :)

All the orchestral instruments were played by me, along with all the extra instruments added to zaps keys recorded 13 years previously. I also did the production and all sound engineering for this as well.

Beat Symphony were:
Zap Andersson and  Michael Gilboe

Merry Christmas everyone and all the best for 2014

The original version can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5kftWr-Bxs

The full version of the remix can be found here:
https://soundcloud.com/wayne-robson/beat-symphony-its-christmas

Full Breakdown of the 'Phossy Jaw' shot from Ripper Street Series 2

Today Screen scene posted the full breakdown for the phossy jaw shot I worked so heavily on for Ripper Street Series 2.  It still remains one of the favorite shots I have ever done.  Also I put an immense amount of research into phosphorous necrosis of the jaw (its 'proper' name) as there are no surviving photos of the later stages of the condition itself post op.  So I was determined to make it as good as humanly possible. (People oftyen assume I just sculpt away and something 'cool' pops out and forget the massive research I do ..often outside of work time...before I sculpt even one stroke.)

3D Tracking was by that ninja of 3d tracking My mate Yanko Slavov and animation and other stuff by John O Connell and the comp was by the epic Joe Courtis.

As those of you who missed it at broadcast will see the stills don't do it justice I think its safe to say. ;)  For those of you that ity caused nightmares for (as I know there were a few) we apologize lol.

My Review of 2013

This year has been a good one for me, I've managed a lot of output for clients and it saw both highs and the occasional low.  (But yet again what is life without contrast?)  So let's go through the list and see what I actually managed to get done.

'The Lost Reel'

I started the year by putting out what was the 1st pass at a demo reel that never got released due to me starting work as 3d Supervisor on Last days on Mars. I suppose it helped people realize I was still alive and ,kicking after a somewhat quiet period at the end of 2012.

Finishing working Last Day on Mars

I did my last day working on the film Last Days on Mars on 15 march this year, it's a period I'll always look fondly back on as it meant meeting a lot of now very good friends.  We managed to get a crazy amount of people done with a core team of about 7 of us in 3D, and no matter what you think of the film I will stand by what we managed to get done till my dying day.  It allowed me to finally show how things can indeed be sped up by sometimes throwing out every rule and trying things  a different way.  It was 100% a team effort.

The VFX protest

A video that I did while in Dublin taking off the 'video persona' and spelling out a few home truths.  Ironically it suddenly caused ww3 to break out a few months back on a certain forum after being 'rediscovered' by someone on a forum and a lot of LA and industry types having a major hissy over it all.  What I found most ironic is they were more concerned with my accent than the actual content.  Opinions are cool it appears as long as you have one that the mainstream want you to have.  Although I didn't comment on my blog about that whole thread at the time (as to be honest I found the reaction bloody hilarious), I felt those people made the exact point I was outlining valid.

March saw me put up 'Wayne's 15 step guide to working in post production'.  

Those 15 things till hold up well and are worth a read if your new to post production..

Facial Motion Capture / 'Mask'

In April I started the very early experiments in what would eventually become my markerless  facial motion capture solution 'Mask'. After trying everything out there, I came to the conclusion that I could do better myself and so 'mask' was born.  Although it's not ever slated for release and is purely an internal tool of mine, its eventual results speak for themselves and I'm currently going through the patent process for it.  This period saw a lot of test animations while I refined the app.  What popped out at the end was a 'no clean up needed' facial motion capture app I am more than happy with.

Academy FX

On the 21st April I opened the company Academy FX to move a lot of my R and D and large client projects to. This enables me to keep an element of separation.  It's still going and I do not promote it in any way as those who need its services already know about it, if they don't then chances are they don't need them.

The End User Event

The end of May  / June saw me lecturing at my favourite event of the year the end user event.  After missing a year due to having my stroke 2-3 years back I wanted to come back in full force and did so with two unique lectures. One on digital double creation and the other on my facial motion capture solution Mask. I also managed to slip a joke about dildos in at the very end of the last lecture lol.

'Beast' Hybrid scanning technology

Under the Academy FX banner I developed the hybrid 3d scanning suite 'Beast' which approached 3d scanning a whole new way and gave amazing results arguably better than anything else out there.  This is also undergoing the patent process and is yet another internal only tool for use by clients.

A Digital Wayne

 

After about 4 other attempts over the years I finally produced a hand sculpted digital double of myself that I was happy with.  A personal project that I enjoyed more than just about any other.

Back to the Music

I started recording my music again in earnest, it was some cajoling by Rudy Sarzo that convinced me to start again with a passion that produced interesting results by the end of this year.

'Monsters' Episode 1

'Monsters' was an animation I did intended as the start of a multi part series of shorts.  Episode one was well received although I did cut a few corners on the rendering side that made me a little less than happy with it.  Up to date I have done episode 2 3 times and am still not happy enough with it to release it.  So episode 2 will see the light of day but only when I am happy with it.  Plus rendering out 4 minutes of facial animation on a single machine is not fun.  In case you're wondering, it is the character design and making sure it fits with the script is what I have not been happy with.

Max scripts

I released a few max scripts for people, 'Waynes Nitrous Tools' and 'Waynes Morph renamer'  they both did what they said on the tin and joined later by 'Waynes Morpher Switcher' for use with facial animation.

'Bigfoot'

I decided to do a bigfoot bust, but didn't want to just go down the 'make it look cool' route (which is always a way to easy route to take).  I wanted to treat it more as a zoological study of what it may look like if it exists.  The resulting model was a 3 way blend between gigantipithicus, humans and a gorilla.  I think it works well and ended up being used in 3d world magazine a little while later.

The 'Brainkiller' EP

A sort of 'test the waters' release of an EP of nightcore remixes of music of mine.  I discovered the musical style of nightcore, liked it, deconstructed it and mixed the entire EP in one night.  I made the decision to release it for free online.

The 'Make an Album in 14 days' challenge

One of my better ideas for a personal challenge outside of 3d was to try to produce an entire album of music to a professional standard in 14 days using only my time off on an evening (about 3 1/2 hours a night). I managed it...but only just.  Many of these would make it onto my 1st commercial album.

Modo Kit bashing

I decided that it was time to also have a 3d app that was outside of the Autodesk sphere so started using Modo as well as my other apps.  I also ended up making two things for Modo that as yet I've not released. One is a kit bashing set for cathedral and gothic architecture the other is something under the radar.  One or both may see release at some point.  I also donated a anatomically correct human skeleton to a challenge for Modo users to create one for use as reference on the Luxology / Modo forum.

Mudbox  / Modo pipeline test model

Knocked out a quick model to test the pipeline between Mudbox and Modo... it worked well.

My 3D World review of 3Ds Max 2014

A review of mine of 3Ds max 2014 was in the September issue (or was it the October issue??) of 3d world magazine.  An in depth double paged review that ironically I never found a single copy of in my newsagents I went into lol.  So I don't have a hard copy of it :)

Trailers, posters and mini breakdowns for Last Days on Mars

Various Last days on mars stuff got pimped such as the trailers, the poster and some mini breakdowns.  Although the main breakdowns and stuff won't come until April next year.  By which time I will have been 13 months form finishing the end of that film lol.

The Black Rhino

Sort of a sad one this..without realizing it I did what was probably the last photo real model of the black rhino before it was declared extinct.  I picked the subject at random for use by a client for demos.

The Autodesk Cave video Interview

I was asked by Shawn Hendricks to do a  online interview about the stuff I would be presenting at Cave / Autodesk University in Las Vegas .  The outtakes would have been hilarious to see. :)  We had a great time recording it.

Mudbox Plug-in: 'BlendWiz'

I released a small tool for those handling blend shapes for facial animation to make life a fair bit easier in Mudbox.  I never did release the mac version I meant to... or MudWalker X2 that has been sitting on my drive with a new feature set for a year now. (not enough free time).

The 6.2 million views thing

While waiting on a render on 17th of October I did a check on how many views my videos (well the ones still there, which is about a 3rd) have had on YouTube and Vimeo combined. I was dumbstruck to find it was 6.2 million views!  Which was very humbling and made me ask myself how this was possible.

Ripper Street series 2 'Phossy Jaw'

It is rare that I am 100% happy with a shot I have been involved in, in post production time is always too short, and you often never have time to get something done the way you would like.  This shot was one of the exceptions.  It turned out pretty damn well and was a sort of CGI 'showcase' shot that I can say without any doubt will be at the start of my next reel.  Also there were a few shots I worked on in the penultimate episode of Ripper Street such as the diamond mine crowd shot and a few set extensions.

Releasing 3 Commercial Albums in 4 days.

 

I am still not sure if this was a sign of insanity or just really good planning.  But I finally bit the bullet and did something I swore I never would do: release my music commercially.  So in my usual eclectic /breaking the rules style I released 'fat Funky Bastard' (the electronic album),  Inferno of Bullshit (the hybrid album), and The ballad of Jonas Scrim (the classical concept album, which exposed some of the 'class system in clasical music as apparently a lad from Consett isn't supposed to either want to or be able to record an classical album).  I gave them no publicity outside of a mention on facebook, my blog and twitter and they did well and were very well received.  It was nice to show I do have talents outside of 3D that people were not aware of.  There will be more albums next year at some point.  All are available on Spotify, iTunes and Amazon BTW.

'Las Vegas' (Cave /Autodesk University lectures)

Finally the time came around for me to go to Las Vegas to do my lecture on digital doubles (where I showed my workflow that enabled me to get a film quality digital double out in 24 hours), and also took part in a live video for 3 December on the 'Phossy Jaw' shot.  I had a great time and it was great to not only see old friends, but meet new ones and finally meet face to face some I had only known for years online.

Facial Blendshapes workflow video for the Autodesk

Just a few days ago a video I was asked to do for Autodesk outlining the workflow for sculpting facial blendshapes in Mudbox for use with facial animation went live on The Area.  It's been very well received so far and goes quite in depth.  I've not had a whole lot of free time this year (or last!) for recording 3d vids so it was nice to get another long video out.

Still to come before the end of the year:

The TV movie/ mini series 'Moonfleet' shown on Sky over xmas that I worked on. I can't say what I did until afterwards though.  So you'll just have to watch and guess until I can.

I asked my Mate Zap Andersson earlier in the year if he minded if I took the song he recorded 'Its Christmas Time' and wrote with his band 'Beat Symphony' and brought it up to date a bit.  So I finished that last night and added in a full orchestra (all parts played by yours truly), new electronic synth parts and a complete re-master and remix.  I also found time to do a nightcore remix as well that probably won't see the light of day as it was just for messing around.  What makes it interesting is that the instruments on the 2013 version were recorded 14 years apart..some by zap the others by myself.  So keep your eyes peeled for either zap or myself uploading that at some point. 

So all in all not a bad year, this doesn't mention the things I'm not allowed to put out publicly including one especially cool one that unfortunately is under a permanent NDA.  But if next year is as good, then I'll be very happy.

Have a great xmas and a fantastic new year.

Wayne...

Video Class on Sculpting Facial Blendshapes for Animation now up on the Area

I was asked a few months back by Autodesk to cover a video on my workflow for setting up blendshapes for facial animation in Mudbox and 3Ds Max.  It went live on the 3rd of December (which I didn't realize till yesterday, what with me being in Vegas working and all lol.)

The link to the full set of videos is both in the description of the above video and I'll also stick it below all this text.  Its a workflow that works equally as well for facial motion capture solutions as well as good old fashioned key framed animation.  The sound may be a bit dodgier than usual in my videos as my kids had ran off with my good mic, and I was reduced to using an old crappy one.

Enjoy

Link to the full video

Vegas went well

one of about 200 photos I took

I had a wonderful time in Las Vegas at Autodesk University / Cave and took part in a live stream lecture for 3 December as well while I was there. There's actually a funny story around that last one. I had spent a week trying to fit a full breakdown of the ripper street 'Phossy Jaw' shot from episode 4  into my 15 min slot.  I managed it the morning of the lecture (which yes was cutting it a wee bit fine!)  Now as I was the least lecturer up to demo , as someone had over ran, Shawn whispers in my ear (with about 3 seconds before I am ready to go on air) 'can you cut it down to 10 mins?' Never one to turn down a challenge I of course said 'sure no problem' and so all script went out the window and if it seemed a bit rushed that was why :)  The video of it is still available on the 3 December section of the Autodesk area site for those interested. (Watch my face and you'll see me probably pretty clearly thinking on my feet lol..)  I was also sure to make sure everyone who had worked on the shot got credit for their work as no man is an island.

Jeff Mottle and Kim Lee

I met many friends both old and new, and it was nice to catch up with Paul Neale, Neil Blevins, Neil Hazzard and Daniel Pero again as well as meeting many others I had either only met online such as Craig Barr, Rick Champagne etc or had never met before such as Kim Lee (Who's life has been scarily close to my own!)  I put a few videos up on YouTube while I was there which I sure you can all hunt out by yourselves without me linking to them.

Me and Craig Barr (I'm not really 4 feet tall, Craig's just really tall lol

My main lecture went well covering a new way for creating digital doubles in no more than 24 hours, and I was happy to have a very receptive audience who didn't mind a few swear words lol.  I also covered a little from the film last days on mars that I worked as 3D Sup on in passing that I wont be able to show probably til about April.

  Now as luck would have it, within ten minutes of walking through my front door I came down with a virus, although lets face it the timing could have been far worse.   At least it means I will not be tempted to work through my rest week like I usually do.

So special thanks to Autodesk and Shawn Hendricks for inviting me over to Vegas and Hopefully we can do it again some time soon.

Autodesk CAVE Las Vegas Lectures

A digital double of my mate  Joe Courtis 

I'll be lecturing in Las Vegas next week at Autodesk Cave (that runs alongside Autodesk University).  I'll be doing both a hour long lecture on a new way to create a film quality digital double in 24 hours that's ready for rigging.  That's bound to have one of two reactions, disbelief or anger. I'll also be doing a shorter talk covering the work I did on the Ripper Street 'Fossy jaw' shot. That was challenging for a number of reasons and covers some pretty advanced stuff from a workflow, pipeline, sculpting an anatomy point of view.

The Ripper Street 'Fossy Jaw' shot from series 2

There will be some stuff included in the main lecture from the film Last Days on Mars (Which opens in cinemas a couple of days afterwards), and will show load of both client and personal doubles I've done over the last couple of years.  I can promise the main lecture will be something special as shows new ways to do something that currently can be a time and money sink in production.  I also knocked up a digital double of Mr Joe Courtis a good mate of mine from over at Screen Scene and a compositor working over there.  Joe thankfully let me do a digital double of him to help demonstrate a lot of the workflow 'things' for the main Vegas lecture.

I probably wont be covering the details of the hows and what fores of this workflow outside of Vegas for a considerable time as to be honest I know it will prompt a lot of questions and queries that I simply do not have time for these days.  The beauty of my way of approaching digital doubles is not only is it very fast but it works with the artist as opposed to against them as other workflows sometimes can. It means any decent sculptor can then knock out a digital double fast.

The bottom line is in these lectures I'm going all out to show just part of what I have spent the last few years doing.  Hopefully I wont get lynched for daring to come up with a new workflow lol (coz lets face it it has happened before lol).

Cave is at the Venetian Hotel complex in Las Vegas and there is a terrific line up of other lecturers and speakers there. I hope to see some of you there.

All albums now Live on spotify and amazon

All 3 of my recent albums are now live on Spotify and Amazon as well as iTunes.  A few of you had asked, so now you know.

On a side note the main site is getting hammered the last few days by a very 1990's style 'mail bomb' attack.  I didn't know anyone still did those.  But as even outside of email I am very easy to contact, its no biggy.  Just bare in mind that until this idiot (whoever they may be, or whatever motivation they think they have) that emails may not arrive as this nut job is filling up the mailbox by sending about 600 emails an hour.

I fly back home this evening from my month and a half here in Dublin, Where I get to spend until the 30th November before heading off to lecture at CAVE in las vegas.  A busy old time.