Last Days On Mars : Mini Breakdowns

A few animated  Gifs showing breakdowns of a small selection of the shots from the film Last Days on Mars that I was 3D Supervisor for here at Screen Scene, Dublin have surfaced over on www.edwardbruce.com. For any clarification feel free to get in touch with Ed on twitter @EdBruceVFX.  Although as 3D supervisor all 3D shots always had to go through me, I'll only mention things I directly had a hand in (there is far more cool stuff from this to come in April BTW).

Lead VFX Supervisor Adam McInnes, Peter Hartless VFX Coordinator, Keith Mason VFX Editor. Sarah Mooney, VFX Producer, Amy James & Nicholas Murphy, VFX Coordinators and Kenneth Coyne, VFX Production Assistant. 

The main 3D Team I was lucky enough to have were:

John O' Connell

Garloff Langenbeck

Daniel Rath

Giacomo Cavaletti

Martin Naydenski

Yanko Slavov

Glen Southern

Also lots of credit should also go to the matte painters and Comp Department run by Grainne Freeman

So without further ado here's some images all from Ed's site I cant go into too much detail about what and how things were done but I can post a word or two:

Lighting, placement etc

The main rover R and D Shot that everyone worked on at one time or another....  

Martins epic dust storm

1st shot I was responsible for lighting

lighting, placement etc by me, dust storm by Martin

Martins epic dust storm again , (I just did a few sculpted mountains for collisions on this)

digital doubles are mine done in 1 day each, lighting and Rover animation by John O'Connell

Digital doubles, lighting

Lighting, dust etc by Garloff Langenbeck

'The Pit' one side sculpted by Myself, One side by Glen Southern, Lighting by me

'The Pit' one side sculpted by Myself, One side by Glen Southern, final pass and lightingby me

Lighting wheel dust by Daniel Rath, 3d tracking by Yanko Slavov

Lighting, placement by me, matte painting by Lino Khay

Lighting by Giacomo Cavalettie

99% of the wheel dust was done by Garloff, and most of the 3D tracking by Yanko. Rover model by Daniel Rath

Those of you heading to CAVE in Vegas in December will notice a few of the load of digital doubles I did in the above shots.  At Cave I'll be outlining the next step on form the workflow I used on Last Days on Mars to create digital doubles fast and to a high quality.

Main Site Changes

You may have noticed that the main site front page has a few minor changes and links to some of the other things that I do.  Over the years I have repeatedly been advised not to have anything other than my 3D stuff on my website.  The reasons have ranged from 'people might get confused', to 'it makes me angry to come to a 3D site and see non 3D stuff, there fore I must shout at you'.

So after a long hard think, and the fact that many people only know of one section of what I do I decided to say basically 'screw it' and put all the things that I do onto one site.  Now I'm sure people are actually intelligent enough to only look at the things I do that interest them without their brains exploding.  I like to credit people who are either clients or just interested and enjoy my art with enough common sense for it to be a non issue for them.

Now this is stage one of the site changes, there will be more a little further down the road and probably a full redesign and extra art content added. I have also linked to all the videos I have for free on MudboxLIVE.com as well.  My guess is that anyone who does have a problem, probably has bigger problems with me than just what is on my bloody website for whatever reason.

So hopefully many of you appreciate that for once it'd be nice to show all the things I do in a lot of often unconnected areas.  At the end of day day when you get right down to it, DashDotSlash isn't a site about 3D...its about me and I am more than just 3D models.

It worried me slightly that there are now people who know me for one thing, but have no idea of the other things, so there can be people who use my plugins, scripts and apps that have no idea I am a freelance professional artist.  In the same way there are people who like listening to the music I make who have no idea I am a 3D guy.

Mudbox Plug-in Release: 'BlendWiz'

I'm releasing 'BlendWiz' as of ...well the moment I post this really....yep yet again it's a freebie.  It is a cut down version of a very small (but important) part of my MASK facial mocap system.  It does one very, very simple job, and even if I do say so myself, it does it rather well.

Let me explain with a bit of background...

When you are using any Blendshape facial mocap workflow Mudbox is the one case where to be honest it makes the most sense.  Mainly as you can sculpt your blendshapes on different layers and then send to your host app and have your morpher system  / Blendshape system already automatically set up for you.   That part is very fast and a big time saver, however it has one great big time sink that eats up time.... making and giving correct names to every layer so that in your host app it is all setup for you.  Making between 70 and 300 layers that conform to a given naming system can take a looooong time.

Try it.... go on I'll wait....

Ok so 99% of you didn't try it.... but if you had it would have taken you a long time and you probably had to correct names a couple of times at least.  The larger the amount of layers, the longer that time takes and the more mistakes creep in. BlendWiz does a very simple job of creating the layers you need in less than a second, thus freeing you up to sculpt your blendshapes and vastly speed up the workflow.

While the version I have for use with my MASK system has its own special requirements, I've spent a little time expanding BlendWiz so it is far more useful for everyone else as let's face it...the only person with MASK is me until such time as the patent goes through..which could take an ice age lol. (If I hadn't it would have been the worlds most useless plug-in!)  So it ships out of the box with layer presets for FACs (facial animation coding system) based facial animation  / mocap, the Preston Blair Phoneme set, and even little old Faceshift that some people like to toy with. 

However...

It also ships with the ability to use a custom layer set...and also edit any layer set, even the presets on the fly while Mudbox is running. (Thus meaning that you don't need to restart it.)  So if you do plan on doing any blendshapes based facial animation whether it by motion capture based or old fashioned key frame animation based this simple plug-in will save you a lot of time.  Wether it be at a pro or hobby level.  While not an especially complex plug-in to write, it is a bloody useful one.    It means that a production can lock down all Blendshape names without fear of anyone inserting a typo by mistake and screwing something up further down the pipeline.

If you don't ever plan on messing with any facial animation, then chances are you won't need it .  The Mac version was supposed to ship at the same time as the PC version, but that's been put to one side until such time as a workaround can be found for a nasty little bug with the Mudbox SDK on the Mac.  It also would have shipped a Linux version but my laptop with Linux installed sort of blew up... as it was a ancient relic lol.  But they will come as soon as I can. 

Coming not long after this (unless I get a sudden slew of  intense work!) will be MudWalkerX2 which will have one totally unique feature that was slated for MudWalkers very first version, but I needed the ability to test it in a hardcore pipeline environment before I could confidently add it.  I did from September  last year to March this year while working on the film Last Days on Mars and it has passed every test thrown at it.

BlendWiz can be downloaded at my code site www.PsychoCore.com for Mudbox 2014 (PC version at the moment)

Black Rhino Turntable

The GI samples were a bit low on this one, but wanted to get this render out.  But you get the idea.  Bit of a change for the apps used in this one... Mudbox and Maya, as Maya was requested by the client.

Autodesk CAVE Video Interview

Here's an interview I was asked to do with Shawn Hendricks of Autodesk about what I will be covering at the CAVE conference in Las Vegas in December.  For more details about the extensive line up of lectures and other nice thingies visit here:  www.autodeskcave.com/ its on between the 1st and 3rd of December at the Venetian hotel Las Vegas.

The bloopers from this were pretty hilarious, and I have to admit we both had a great time before and especially afterwards.  At CAVE its going to be nice to catch up with people I've had the pleasure knowing already such as Neil Blevins, Terryl Whitlatch, Paul Neale & Craig Barr.  But also genuine industry legends such as Scott Robertson & Syd Mead, and of course those who need no introduction such as John Cleese & Neil Gaiman.   

I'm covering my own personal digital doubles workflow that I have been refining now for the last 2-3 years that enable me to get a digital double out in 1 day, fully textured, sculpted, with shaders set up and even lit... basically ready for rigging, animation and putting in a shot.   It a proven workflow that I've used on everything from TV shows &  movies to even the stuff I did for the London Olympics opening ceremony.  

The lecture will be application agnostic and should be able to be applied by anyone with knowledge of their favorite 3D apps.  So this is not a 'Mudbox' class, this is far more and something that is (even if I do say so myself) far more important than simply sculpting something that looks cool.  What I cover people will be able to take away and immediately apply to their own projects.

On a side note, I've been somewhat quiet online wise outside of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for a few years now.... a couple of things are pending release that I've been programming on the side, so don't expect that to continue that much longer. ;)

Odds and Sods

Character from next episode of 'Monsters!' that's also being used for upcoming demo by HDR Light Studio

Model created for HDRI Light Studio demo

Few new images this time, the two above are assets I'm creating for the guys at HDRI Light studio for a upcoming demo they have to give.  Now the green guy is the character from the next episode of my series of shorts 'Monsters!' who is getting a little run out early for some facial MOCAP stuff for them to use to demo the HDRI lighting that comes out of HDRI light studio.  The facial mocap is done as usual in my app MASK.
In this case in one helluva hurry due to a very short deadline for these assets.   So the facial stuff consists of a few bits of face pulling, which is whats happening in the frame above (although he does look rather constipated)  lol.

Whacked a texture set on this guy as I had a few mins spare.

While I was at it I found a few mins to stick a texture on this guy.  Originally he was going to be put on the back of the rhino with a old cane... but I realized he doesn't actually fit as a rhino is a wee bit too wide... that's why the rhino has a saddle and no rider BTW.

...and  the Rhino lit to a back plate with no HDRI, to show making one from scratch in HDRI Light Studio (slap comp) 

US Trailer - The Last Days on Mars

A fair few different shots in the US trailer.  Still not allowed to go into details about it yet.   I standby what we did with a tiny team on this.

oh and here's the poster.....

Trailer: Last Days on Mars

Well here it is at last the trailer for Last Days on Mars, the film I worked as 3D Supervisor for while at Screen Scene Dublin for 7 months.   There are a lot of my personal shots in there, fair few of the other guys on my team as well.

Don't think I can say what exactly was done, whats 3D , whats not etc just yet...but I'll add a proper break down of the core 3d dept I was lucky enough to have as soon as I am allowed along with the names of the core team (which was very tiny).  So I am looking forward to seeing it on the big screen.

Human Skeleton Anatomy Reference and Model

I think that diet went a bit to far!

I've had this knocking around for a while and as Modo have started the human body project I thought it as good a time as any to share this for reference purposes to you all.  I've put a 720p Turntable up as well as an OBJ, and FBX and a Modo LXO scene file.  Hopefully it'll be of use to some of you.  Now this is NOT UV mapped (as I have to leave some stuff for you all to do yourselves),  This is base poly modelling only

. 

I also would have also uploaded the 3Ds Max scene file but the rigging I did back then is bloody shocking! :)  Once I can track them down on my backups I'll also be uploading a high resolution scan I did of a human skull and one or two alternative human skeleton models of mine.

Download Links:


Human Skeleton OBJ format

Human Skeleton Modo LXO format

Human Skeleton Autodesk FBX format

These aren't to be used for any commercial use....

3D World : My 3Ds Max 2014 Review

There were so many tempting captions I could have put alongside that image of bigfoot lol

I just got word on twitter today that the review I was asked to do for 3D World magazine of 3Ds Max 2014 is in the issue just out.  I made sure this is a balanced review as possible and covers it from angles of everything from Film, Games, arch vis and advertising.   Give it a read and see if you agree.

Mudbox + Modo

Eat something you skinny old bastard!

I spent last night finishing this guy off from a month of two back in Mudbox and then trying to replicate my usual 3Ds Max scene file and shader set up in Modo.  I managed it pretty easily although I do want to add a bit more subsurface to the shader setup next time I use it.  Modo runs on my Macbook better than Maya does, As 3Ds max doesn't run naively on a mac I thought I'd use Modo on it as it as its always nice to expand your skill set.   

On other news I'm on re-adding some features I added to MudWalker while I was working at screen scene for the next release.  So there will be a release for Mudbox 2014 soon (ish), if I have time I may add the 1st mac version as well.  It will have one feature that no one else has that was always intended to be included but couldn't as it was impossible to test at the time.  Suddenly it will make the whole 'one click' workflow thing make a whole lot more sense.  I fully expect everyone and his dog to then rip the idea off wholesale lol. 

Kit Bashing in Modo

I decided to do a little kit bashing in Modo for half an hour just to see what would pop out with the default install.  Nothing amazing or serious.....  But I do like Modo for this sort of thing and its poly tool set.  Ideally I'd like to be using my own kit bash set rather than a default install one.

Wayne's Crazy Album Challenge: succeeded

I managed it, all be it with some drama last night at the last minute when the software I am using (which is Ableton LIVE for those interested, mostly stock install with only one or two plugins used for the production side) decided the very last day was a really good time to deactivate the license. Now I didn't notice this until I had done the final mix of the last song (most of which was recorded before I went to London for a few days). It also saw fit to make my plugins disappear as well, so I had to master it the more pain in the arse way for one.

 The actual time taken was 10 days (I had 4 days off) and spent the 7.30-11pm each night so 10 x 3 1/2 hours. If your maths isn't to hot that's 35 hours all in. I realize many come here and my youtube channel etc for the 3D stuff but its important to remember that my music predates my art by at least 20 years.

 For once it was something not done for or to help others but rather just for me. Its also safe to say I am going to have a short while away from recording 'proper' stuff after hot housing myself for 2 weeks every night. So here's the playlist of all 15 songs, and below it a video that explains what they each mean.




Enjoy...

Waynes Crazy 'Create an Album in 14 days' challenge: Only One more to go!

I've had a productive weekend that's seen 5 songs wrote and recorded, this brings me up to 14 in 9 days working on 7.30 - 11pm at night on it.   For once I've wanted to do something just for me, not to help others, not to give things away, something just for myself and as a challenge to see if I could to it myself.  To me its very attractive that as opposed to my art, where people will always have expectations of both quality and content due to me being around 3D quite a long time.  With my music,which  have been doing since I started playing guitar aged 8, it doesn't come with any of that baggage.  So I can mix a few electronic songs, some electric ska, some classical, some rock even some thrash metal and dub step and no one bats an eyelid and says 'Oh noes!! You cant do that!!'

People who have known me very well since I was young stared to realize a couple of days ago that one or two of these songs have titles that reflect things from my own life.  Yep, guilty as charged.  Actually every title has a meaning of some sort, some I'll explain once the last song is done, others I'll leave private.  I have tll the 31st of This month to finish the last song, so I'm going o take my time with it and try and make it something special.... a l;east that's the plan.

Although as I am away on Wednesday and Thursday this doesn't give me a whole lot of time lol.  So here are the 5 tunes from over the weekend starting with the earliest to the last one.




This next one is NOT safe for work!

Waynes Crazy 'Create an Album in 14 days' challenge: More Songs

No I've not been slacking off..... here's the songs wrote and recorded so far for my crazy 'make an album in 14 days' challenge'


...and tonights one...

Thats nine songs in 7 days so far..... although I have a week left I only have a handful of evening to complete the as I will be away for a couple of days at some point next week.