Cathedral : DONE!!

Finally it's done! There's a polycount in the tens of millions and brought not one but 2 PC's to their knees and me to the edge of insanity over the last 2 weeks of it. I've had dying machines to contend with, epic powercuts, both kids at home for 2 months due to crazy stuff by the local education authority who seem to see a simple move of schools as worthy of international debate...but I digress. The bottom line is its done.

Although modelling, texturing, lighting and rendering out the shots for both the Durham cathedral interior from last year and the exterior this year have been fun, I'd a little glad to be able to move onto something organic for a while. The above shot is a style frame from the actual shot done as part of the MOD302 class that's just wound up after 10 weeks spread over 3 months. Things can and do change before final composite although that could take quite a while before I see it. (The stuff from MOD 301 finished last October has only just came into my hands ..and there are still a few shots not rendered out and composited yet.) I'm sort of hoping I'm not the last dude to have it rendered out as be sort of a bitch if the guy who created it does not get to put it on a reel till after everyone else lol.

EDIT: Here's a quick reel of some of the shots I have got a hold of from MOD301 so far.

So no more Norman architecture for a while for Wayney boy! Its been full on 18 hours minimum a day the last few weeks and for most of this year in fact. So in one way its nice to have some more 'me' time and time for the wife and kids.

Its back to organics for a while and prepping for Anomaly in Vancouver for my lecture and demo at the end of this month. I can promise something special as you do not go to what could be called the 3d sculpting capital of the world unprepared ;) Not only is there the lecture but also 6 hours where I'll be demoing and available for questions and practical stuff as well.

I've not made an antique kids bike before to original specs...groovy.

Also I just did a quick logo for Danny John Jules film 'Bucky'. Very fast turnaround on this pone as a favour to Danny. I'd urge you to donate if you can as I'm probably one of the few people to have even a rough overview of what it's about (Danny has been purposely keeping it very secret). I can say it's going to be damn good.... I normally don't pimp other peoples stuff in my blog, but :

A - I count Danny as a mate

B - Its a very cool idea and story line

C - If I didn't he might get the thumbscrews out again...lol

So here is the LINK

So it's back to organics for me for a while so next week or so I'll be getting back up to speed after a year of mostly environment stuff. Expect monsters, expect creatures as it's been a bloody age since I did any. So no more banging on about the cathedral unless its to show you animated comped shots ;) ...mainly as of right now...my books are empty so back to freelance work searching for me.

Durham Cathedral: Modelling Finished!!

Trust me there is a LOT of detail behind those shadows!

After what feels like 6 life times (in truth less than 1 1/2 weeks) I'm finally calling the modelling stage of the Durham Cathedral complex for my FXPHD class MOD302 done. I feel like I know this cathedral better than the people who bloody built it afer starring at it for a week and a half lol 18 hrs a day.

So many areas are detailed I can't get them all into a single still

Now this was not just a modelling 'challenge' for me (it being without doubt the most complex model I've ever done...especaily if you count the interior I did last year for MOD302), but also a software one. in the end I had to use 3d max 2012 for this for one simple reason...it was the only software with any chance of being able to have the ammount of polygons in the viewport at the sametime without crashing like a bitch all over the place.

Its gives me migraine just thinking about ever doing this again LOL

We're talking tens of thousands of seperate parts and a polycount that technically should 'break' 3d max, its viewport ....as 3d max has a theoretical poly limit of 10 million for a single scene (without proxies etc). This model breaks that by a fair old bit. In fact its between 12-15 million..with no instances or proxies used. There is detail thats not visible even in a 1080p frame lol. (in fact even trhe sanctuary knocker is modelled even though it takes up about 3 pixels.) So every part of the cathedral complex is capable of supporting a close up.

Now I MUST give props to Neil Hazzard and the nitrous team who handle the 3d max viewport progamming. Any other app would have not only crashed but certainly not have such a nice viewport as respresentative of the final render. In fact below at the bottom is the viewport grab of the scene to compare with the 1st image in this post. Not bloody far away I think you'll agree!

The model will stand up to a close up on any tiny part of the entire complex.

So lets remember that when 3d tech works well...god damn its impressive...and this does. So hats off to Neil and his crew. (I promise to buy him several drinks next time I see him.)


But....

Now comes the hard part...texturing the entire cathedral complex ,setting shaders up and getting it ready to create the entire 3d scene it will go in. But 1st I'm taking a damn day off as a week and a half 18 hours a day working on this has me on the verge of running round with an axe.

insane polycount in the viewport of 3d max....

Levelling up

For those of you that may be interested there's an article in the new issue of 3D artist magazine I wrote (there's another next month as well). This month covers 'easy texturing in Mudbox' of a tree stump. You can buy it from www.3dartistonline.com or 'all good book stores' as they always say on the adverts.

A test frame from MY version of the cathedral animation

I'm also at the moment sorting out a couple of full 3d mattes / scenes for the Joan of Arc short being made by FXPHD as part of my MOD302 course. One of these is an absolute doozy of a shot, that will mix both practical effects and digital 3d mattes. In fact I have a timing shot with low res geo rendering out as I type this.

Also the lads over at Breitbild VFX in Germany are kindly letting me use their ender farm in between using it themselves to render out a load of stuff. So as well as some stuff you've not seen, there will also be my own personal version of the cathedral shots (with a few of my own added), some photoreal full 3 external environments and a bit of character stuff as well.

I've also been giving the cathedral a few tweaks as it was finished back at the end of September last year and so wanted to give everything a once over before adding it to a reel as even though the animation hasn't been seen yet, it's an old model ironically. So there are changes I've made to my own personal version that are different to the one covered in MOD301.

In case you hadn't guessed this is for a new reel, mainly as my non environment reel is seriously showing its age now after a year. It also gives me an excuse to show clients some more impressive stuff in actual shots. Now there is no way in hell I would be able to render this stuff out without a render farm...and even then some are having to be seriously optimised to not blow up the Breitbild VFX farm lol. So big thanks to the lads.

Also I'm amazed at the reaction to the free videos... I hope you found them useful and I'll up more once things calm down in a week or two.

MOD301 & MOD302 about to Start at FXPHD

I have two courses you can take part in this term at FXPHD. In case you missed it last time MOD301 Advanced environment modelling is being shown again, and yes this means I will be answering any questions you may have during the 10 weeks on that in the fxphd forum. Also I'm doing a brand new course MOD302 3D Digital Environments. So lets have a quick breakdown of what each course is about:


MOD301 : Advanced Enviroment modelling






This 10 week course covers from start to final renders the creation of a full cathedral interior based on Durham cathedral for use as background to some green screen shots. The final asset is photoreal and looks rather nice even if I do say so myself. The courses uses 3d Max and Mudbox although many followed along well with Maya and / or Zbrush (as there are a few extra videos covering both. It is not a beginners course and is hard, but as anyone who has taken the course will tell you 'you will learn stuff'.


MOD302 : 3D Digital Environments



Lets 1st get out of the way that this is not a one shot course. It is also a hard course to put it mildly and covers the creation of a number of photoreal full 3D digital environments. That means no camera projection, no 2.5D cards... so basically it means no cheating. We are living as artists in an increasing stereoscopic environment where both TV and films have made the step into it. As such many of the old tricks either no longer work anymore, or look terrible if used. The only solution is a full 3D environment in most cases.


This course will be using a combination of Vue 10, Mudbox 2012 and Maya 2012 and will be using real production examples from the 'Joan of Arc' short film being made by FXPHD. Some stills you can see on the main part of my site (www.dashdotslash.net) while others you can't because...well the script isn't locked down yet. The last 2-3 lessons will cover the creation of the external shot to accompany the interior shots made during MOD301. (Although both courses have been designed to be stand alone.)

The shot we have to match the cathedral, set dressing and any environment changes to is a complex long shot taken by Mike Seymour on the Red in New Zealand. This will work the initial reveal of the cathedral, in fact I would strongly urge watching the O day video over at FXPHD to get an idea of exactly what that will entail. We will be using suppplied tracking data and not only creating the assets for the final shot but compositing them as well in Nuke so we have a final shot.



This has been a widely anticipated course since it was annouced about a week back and I will outline again this is not a beginners course and is the highest level that FXPHD run (the other levels being 100 and 200 level courses). Again this course features a series of hardcore practical examples from a high end short actually in production.

I've also been told that an interview with me is in the latest 3D Artist magazine, I've not seen it myself yet, but keep your eyes open for it. You may also want to keep your eye on the next issue as well. ;)

Cathedral:: Done

A small selection of the 15-18 shots I've been working on for this.

Thats it....

...all classes for FXPHD class MOD301 recorded and uploaded

... ready for rendering out, compositing, adding tracking data and color grading.



Its the most fun I've had in ages and the course has covered 3Dmax, Maya, Mudbox, Zbrush, Mental ray, renderman, enviroment modelling and sculpting, organic modelling (for another shot) and sculpting, texturing, lighting, shader set up, render setup, some tips and tricks and a shit load else.

The references were a lot of spy photos I took like James fucking Bond (as photography is not allowed at all in Durham Cathedral) and a shit load of on site pencil drawings I did. The only parts not put into this from Durham were the 9 altars area and the back altar screen 's lol). One day I may tell about a major event that went on in my life while I was making this that I've not mentioned...that is on top of my dad's emergancy triple bypass.

Which I dont think is too shabby for 10 x 45min weekly course videos. The final animation will look diffferent to this once the proper post and tracking data and live action elements are added. But its a good guide. So now for the 1st time in 6 months I have not a thing on....so after a few days rest its back to hunting down some more freelance gigs.

Its been a pleasure to work on this course with Mike , John and the guys at FXPHD and hopefully the end result comes across with some of the enjoyment I've had doing it. Its also been nice to show I can do more than just monsters and hideous creatures.

Cathedral opening shot 99.9% final

Well for the establishing shot this is almost done (barring adding the pulpit and swapping out the other column designs that I forgot to do for the renders last night I noticed today). There's about 10 million poluygons in the viewport for this shot, which is one of about 6-8 I'll be doing (although probably only 1 or two will be used next term for fxphd courses on tracking etc...). The rest are for my reel. The polycount on absolute final version will double with the use or proxys, although to eb fair those wont all be visisble in any one single shot.

So where the wireframe wayne boy I hear you shout? So here it is, the wireframe from hell.... Enjoy

"nah son, thats not a wierframe....THIS is a wireframe" lol

Cathedral model and renders copywrite FXPHD

The end is close

Work in progress style guide (missing a few models and textures)

I'm putting the finishing touches to week 8's lesson for my fxphd class, but like all good tutors obviously I'm a bit further forward than that. The above is a quick render using only the normal map versions for Mike as a rough style guide for approval on the lighting and overall 'look'. Its often hard for non 3d types to 'see'in advance what you mean, especially when there are only minimal guides as to what is needed. So I produced 6 stills from the opening shot along with 2 video version of the complete shot (faked using just some not so clever camera transforms in after fx, quick, dirty and perfec tfor approvals). One video version (which I'm sorry i can't show yet) is half speed as I thought it mad the shot more emotional. Although this is technically steppping on Mikes toes a wee bit, I think he realised a while back I spit ideas out like a canon and he's free to dump any he dislikes, or all of them. Mikes a real pro and a very nice guy and understand I dont take any crits in a work enviroment to heart and storm off crying in my coffee.

The style was approved inside of an hour,so I'msafe to continue in this vein, although the half speed is still open to debate.

This of course is where the 'magic' of our creativity comes in along with always knowing what an assset will look like before you hit render. In a similar way that i alwasy know what effect a brush will give while sculpting. So I'm hoping to have the class version ready and final in 3dmx pretty soonish (this week) before staring on the entire maya /Renderman version. This of course assumes that I dont manage to screw up renderman as the scene is currently very heavy (10 million polys in the viewport) and funnily enough apps dont usualy like that sort of thing. The use of poxies wont save alot as things need to be lined up so precisly that I find the only reliable way is by eye. (Lining up by eye gets a bum rap sometimes but I find it often just as accurate , as welll as more versatile than other methods. Plus it also helps to add a nice human element to the art.)

The tombs are missing for the shot above, is the altar screen and the gargoyles (Those I probably will use as proxys before I blow up 3d max and maya with over work as those will double the polys in the viewport just about). Also a few bits at the back dont have their textures yet as the sharp eyed will have noticed...why? because I couldn't be arsed to redo those bits after being on at it for a few hours.

So its hopefuly got a quite stylistic almost old style matte painting look to it. Bright lighting while it would make the cathedral look nicee, would also not fit the shot or its content too well. As I've said many times, ad no doubt will many more. Its not about making our models looks as nice as possible, its about fitting the shot. There is no 'I' in team, but there is however a 'stop being an egotistical bastard only concerned with there own work' in it lol.

Anyways, I'm of to try and forget that I'm waiting like a kid at xmas for my rails set up (matte box arrrived on saturday) to arrive for my DSLR rig upgrade. Wife is starting to get a wee bit sick of a house full of camera equipment, chroma key rigs , massive reflectors and car camera rigs (which is ironic as I dont drive lol) and a shit load of other things. Just do me a favour and dont mentin tripods as they have taken over every cupboard and shelf.

Even more cathedral WIP

Before

'After' (hint: the person is real)

Copywrite FXPHD All rights reserved

No I have not finished the cathedral yet before you ask. Mainly as due to finishing the videos before the break on the FXPHD course I'm giving on advanced environment modelling early I had 2 weeks off before I needed to do the next one. Plus as the last session was a gargoyle that was a winged lion (and I've already done enough lions this year) I skipped posting that one.

So the next 3 weeks I have to texture every item in the cathedral model at least 3 times, so I have different texture sets I can swap out for different elements (trust me this does save time later !) I then have to set the final shaders lighting and render up in 3d max using Metal Ray and then do the whole materials, lights and final render setup in Maya using Renderman. So it'll be a busy 3 weeks for me. At the momnt this is a test using only normal maps although final renderman versin will be packed to the gills with displacement

But that won't be the end of the cathedral once the course finishes as I'll keep going right up till the hand over deadline improving it as I go. What you see above is some of the elements textured so far using 1 of the 3 textures sets I'm on creating. Shaders are stand-ins.

For shits and giggles I set up the render as if it was a real practical set on a chroma rig....yes I do have a weird sense of humour, but as the kids have just went back to school from their 7 bloody week holiday I'm probably not the only parent a bit odd at the moment lol. I also comped in the character from the series of shots its from

I have a feeling the final animation with the chroma footage may turn out pretty ok. Uv mapping every damn element in the cathedral has not been fun....and if I ever see UV mapping again for a week it'll be too soon.

Also for those interested:


I'm offloading some more camera gear on ebay that I don't need for those interested:

Manfrotto modosteady http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/330610960634?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

canon 100-300mm lens EF 4.5-5.6 lens: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/330610961867?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Konig tripod head: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/330610962900?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649