OK I can finally announce that I've been asked by FXPHD to give a term of lessons this year for them. The details can be found here: LINK : under MOD 301: Advanced Enviroment Modelling
I will say this is not just Mudbox and will use at least one other app and is not aimed at beginners. It covers the creation of the entire interior of Durham cathedral so it can be matched to a Chroma shot. Durham is unique in some ways because:
- 1. You're not allowed to take photos of video inside so reference collection was a big problem. (One with a patent Wayne solution as usual)
- 2. It has very few repeating elements in the cathedral interior...raging from subtle differences to total changes.
- 3. as its to match a chroma shot the result must be photoreal
So it's fair to say this is something a bit different for me to cover.,...there will be absolutely no orcs, monsters, creepy weird thingies... or usual stuff you'd associate with the things I may be known for doing. As it is a interior of a working religious building it wouldn't be very polite to smother it in monsters.
I'm just back from Holland where I lectured on my short 'Of Gods & Men pt1' at the end user event in Utrecht and then had some one on one training in Mudbox to give someone yesterday. The lectures were both full rooms and went well. The social side of EUE was rather good as well this year. I met many old friends and a few new ones.
I also on the day travelling there managed to get my camera bag with my 550D, sigma 30mm 1.4 lens, 14mm prime and Sankor anamorphic setup stolen at Almere train station. So if you are offered this cheap in Holland there's a damn good chance its mine. It wasn't insured.... and chances of getting it back will probably be zero so as such any work on Of Gods & Men Pt 2 will have to wait until I can afford a few one. That may be a while.
I got so sick of the sight of OGAM by the time I declared pt 1 done that I right now feel like I never want to see the dam thing ever again. It really was project insanity in many ways as the whole thing was not just a step but a massive bounding leap outside my comfort zone. It would have been the easiest thing in the world to have done something crawling with nasty monsters with a night /blue colour grade. but where is the fun in doing that? Although there is both a horror film and a thriller film I have had in my head for ages I would like to make at some point.
I grew to hate the fact that OGAM started taking on a life of its own which added no end of pressure to the situation. So much so that I made a decision that if/ when I do either pt 2 or anything else I will not say a word to anyone outside my family until it is done.
But bottom line is it was made on a budget of £25 and 95% totally on my own.
[EDIT]Ok sorry guys but I'm simply not happy enough with the results to put my name to them, so I've locked down the video and removed the link. What I didn't like is the hype that started all on its own, this is something I certainly didn;t want. But either way simply too many things went wrong in too short a time to put out the quality I could have. Those of you that saw it in the 24 hours that it was up and live hopefully realise how many barriers it broke new ground in. (3.36 billion polygons worth of skeltons without instances on a single machine is pretty revolutionary I think its safe to say) who knows....maybe one day I'll remake it and finish it in a way I'm happy with. To everyone else, sorry but its my name that stuck on this and the buck stops with me no matter what went wrong behind the scenes. Although I remain happy with the shots that were 100% CGI with no plates that no one spotted. ;) [/EDIT]
Everything that could go wrong did..... could list all the things but I doubt anyone would believe all that shit could go wrong in a single 2 month period.
For me the greatest things to come out of it were the apps, tech, plugins and scripts I wrote either to help with it...or that are nearly ready now but weren't while making it. They aren't things I have any plans on selling at any point as to be truthful until I get my life back on track I need every edge over my competitors I can get.
Making it took me to the edge of sanity and back again so I don't have great feelings about the experience.
