So, this week in Advanced Visual Effects, we're working on particles.

We started off with making these random particles that act as if they're in car wind:

The next one we did was supposed to simulate a flame stream and look good at a distance:

The last one we did, we used instancing with bee models to make it look like they were flying in a random path:

So yesterday, we had a little time to get into the green screen room to shoot some test footege for our rough compisitions (slap comps). We all worked together and ended up learning a lot and having quite a bit of fun...

Bob is wearing a SWAT costume for someone else's reel. He had way too much fun running around school and scaring everyone, haha:

He had fun posing with my Toy (Moishe):

A little justaposition:

He Just saved Moishe from the apocolipse:

I'll be posting my slap comped animatic soon so stay tuned!

One step closer to taking over Canada!

I now have universal Health Care...Woot!

...aren't you jealous? ;-)

My spot in the Antfarm!

So here is where I'm scentenced to spend the next 6 months. I got lucky and got a corner seat, so nobody can come by and stare at my screen or bug me without making some serious effort. I also got a window seat, although that doesn't matter that much due to the fact that we have blackout curtains which must remain closed at ALL TIMES!. The room is normally pitch black with nothing but the glow of the monitors anc a few scattered desk lamps to keep us from tripping over our own feet, but I was lucky enough to get these puics while they were cleaning so, for once, I could actually see well enough to give you guys an idea of where I am all day.

Here is my station:

A closeup of a few of my decorations:

My very own high powered PC: *my MacBook Pro is just off screen ;-)

And the toy im making for my final reel:

So that's it! Hopefully I'll be able to post a video soon of life in the Antfarm. It's pretty cool in here. I hope this was at least mildly interesting.

What I'm working on today:

Today I'm working on motion tracking and creating an enhanced explosion in NukeX. I'm using PFTrack to do my tracking (muchh MUCH better than match mover) and working out the logistics on a test plate for my spider assignment. The (infamous) Spider Assignment is where we have to incorporate a cg spider into a live plate. Here is my spider all textured and ready to go:

What's left is that I have to shoot my final plate, track it, animate the spider, and composite it all together in Nuke.

The Explosion is an assuignment for our Advanced Compositing class where we have to take a really shitty live explosion and enhance it. So far, I've replaced the blown out center of the explosion with fire, incorporated debris, and enhanced the smoke. It's still a work in progress, but I'll post the final when it's done.

End of Term 3, Beginning of Term 4 Update

Now, since then I've term 3, we are now working on our final reels! We had to make anamatics for a HUGE presentation and here is mine. Our animatic are just a shot by shot loose plan of what we are doing for our final reels. We had to include shot numbers, color coding (Green=Live Plate, Blue=CG, Yellow=Undecided). We also needed to include reference and plans. It was a big deal and the feedback was valuable. I would like to note that the mentors LOVED it, said I shouldn't change anything, and that they couldn't wait to see more from me. Not bragging...just facts :-P

So, now that this is done, I've moved into Term 4. We are in the Antfarm which is kind of a big deal. The Antfarm is a HUGE studio where we all have our own high powered PCs with duel monitors for the next 6 months. It's where we will finish our final reels. We have also now split off into streams. I am now only taking classes that pertain to Visual Effects. It's really exciting. We are almost through our first week and the classes, thus far, have been INCREDIBLE! I've already learned so much! I can't wait to keep attending them and getting more information. All of our teachers have TONS of industry experience (District 9, Sucker Punch, Fast and the Furious 5, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Night at the Museum, and The Incredible Hulk, just to name a few) and they really know their shit. Work is intense now, but we knew that going into Term 4. It's all very exciting. I'll be posting pictures of the Antfarm and my station in it soon. I'll also continue to be posting my work. Yay!

This got left out of my Term 2 Presentation because it wasn't finished in time (it wasn't due until a few days later), but I found it worth posting for shits and giggles. My teacher really seemed to like it. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

Term 2 Final Presentation

At the end of each 2 month term, we have to submit a final presentation for the class and all of the professors. It has to include almost all of our work from the whole term and needs to look cool, haha. It's not graded, but it has to be nice or you look stupid in the competitive class full of nice work.

Term 2 Cherry Darling Sculpt

Here is some of my work from term 2:

We had to do a Super Hero Sculpt for Modeling and I chose Cherry Darling from Grindhouse.