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.

Waterfalls Scene Final

About as final as you'll get until its in shot

This is about as final as this will get here on my blog now until its used in the Joan of arc short FXPHD are making that these shots are meant for. Not one but two animated waterfalls and neither use water sims, both are old school practical effects. ;)

It may seem very little has changed since the last update but I can assure you it has... drastically... so that everything works in the actual shot and isn't going to take 6 million years to render. In fact it should be less than the average frame time for a TV series shot.

Now for my MOD302 class this is the final result you'll see in the next video covered from top to bottom, There is of course always a chance we'll change or add things slightly for the shot that's actually used..but nothing drastic. Its going to look nice once rendered out and properly graded (as its ungraded at the moment).

There's a combo of Nuke, Vue, Mudbox, Photoshop and Maya in this (maybe one or two other app's I can't remember as its been a busy 48 hours lol).

So for those of you taking my MOD302 course....get a notepad ready as this class is going to up the ante on the complexity front several notches or so. This leaves 2 shots left to do before the end of the course, the desert scene and the cathedral exterior matchmoved very complex shot that will give you nightmares..... as there is not just the cathedral to add.... ;) lets just say I have had an idea I want to run past mike 1st.

More Mattes

No waterfalls yet....(there will be two)

A couple of mattes, the 1st is a late work in progress for my next couple of FXPHD classes. Its been nightmare to do as I'm seriously pushing Vue way beyond what it is designed for. Although people in the class won't need to, as I'm the only bugger who has to be able to load it all into one scene so you guys know what your aiming for lol. The final scene will be split across 3-4 scene files and composite.

This is just begging for a caption lol

and the other a mess around..... its a full 3D matte thats got my old mate Joep Van der Steen in it comped from a photo from EUE lol. See now its either begging for a caption or something added on the left on that sand bank lol.

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. ;)