October 8, 2015 : Ambient Occlusion And Animations Don’t Mix (At Least In Lightwave)

My quest to achieve an acceptable Ambient Occlusion Render seems to have ended… and not how I would have liked. I have learned a great deal about the topic, but I am at an impasse.

Over the past few weeks, I have tried many different techniques and iterations for the effect… oh boy have I tried many. This includes Lightwave’s build-in shader, the DP Dome plug-in, the DP Kit plug-in, the DP Filter effect, a Final Gather render (via Urbanexile.net), a Monte Carlo render, and even a Backdrop Only render.

On their, most of the renders looked nice. They would all be viable options for a static image. However, for an animated clip, there were issues with the shadow pixels ‘jumping’ or ‘flickering’. This occurred when the character was stationary but became more noticeable when he moved, and was even worse when the camera zoomed in.

At this point, I have concluded that Lightwave cannot produce a sufficient animated sequence with Ambient Occlusion (or any type of Global Illumination for that matter). In the meantime, I have already figured out a method that should get what I want. I will save this for another post, but the topic is Multi-Pass Rendering with Area Lights.

posted by Pi Visuals at 1:39 am

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September 9, 2015 : New (Long Term) Lightwave Goals

I have been using Lightwave for over 11 years (!?). Most of my projects are in a particular style; and while I try to learn a new technique with each one, they still fit within a certain genre and thus are somewhat limited. Since Lightwave has so much capability that I pretty much ignore, I’ve set two goals to add to my arsenal:

  1. Occlusion Rendering and Compositing
  2. Understanding/ Utilizing DP Kit

Most of my projects tend to be cel-shaded, and so I have had little need for realistic renders. However, cartoon-like shows can’t still have refined renders (see just about any 3D animated movie or TV show these days). Being able to create a solid Ambient Occlusion render and compositing it (via After Effects) would be a cool technique to possess.

As for DP Kit, I stumbled across this free plug-in a few weeks back (although I have yet to install it on my machine). It is a collection of additional nodes for the Node Editor; and from the videos I’ve seen, it can help in creating some cool animated effects and motion graphics in Layout. Below is an example of some of its power:

Understanding and utilizing DP Kit will actually help me in two ways. First, it can allow me to create some cool effects and animations, but it will also force me to get a better understanding of the Node Editor – which is something I don’t know nearly as well as I should.

Both of these goals are longer term, and neither of them are for any specific upcoming projects. My hope is to improve and expand my abilities in Lightwave. This means work on them might take a back seat at times, but I’m okay with that.

posted by Pi Visuals at 11:55 pm

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February 5, 2015 : Maya Switching To A Subscription Based Model

Autodesk is taking a page from Adobe’s playbook and converting their programs to a subscription-only model starting early next year. This will include Maya and 3ds Max. Obviously they are putting a positive spin on the change, claiming it will create many improvements for users, but I remain skeptical.

I haven’t been a fan of Adobe’s pricing structure for years. Even before they became subscription based, I felt they released new software versions way too frequently. The previous versions would become obsolete (and incompatible with newer ones), requiring people to purchase the latest release.

Picture “South Park’s budget will go through the roof.” ‘converting their programs’ Sadly, it’s probably the start of a growing trend.

It does sound like Autodesk is trying to distinguish themselves from Adobe. While the article doesn’t identify Adobe by name, Autodesk does say they don’t like how ‘other companies’ handle the subscription based model; and they intend on doing it better for the benefit of its customers. Proponents of this system claim that it reduces the number of cracked versions, which increases sales from legitimate licenses, which will drive the overall price down for the software. While the argument makes sense, I just don’t see a company lowering their prices (and profits) once a certain pricing structure has been set.

Lightwave is my main 3D program so this news doesn’t affect me at the moment. However, part of me is worried that Newtek will eventually make a similar transition. Having only bought three licences over the past 12 years, a yearly subscription would most certainly force me to pay more than I historically have on the program.

posted by Pi Visuals at 7:59 pm

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January 20, 2015 : First Batch Of Character Rigs

This past week, I spent time in Lightwave working on the models/ rigs for the characters that had previous sketches made. After several adjustments, I’ve reached a solid first pass for the characters. As such, I decided to pose them in the same fashion as my design sketch.

There may be additional tweaks to these models/ rigs, but I’m happy with where they are right now. Many aspects of the rigs will be re-used for the other characters in the short (and there are many left to do). Therefore, I want to identify any potential issues with this batch of characters since it will cut down on time spent with future revisions.

posted by Pi Visuals at 10:58 pm

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January 14, 2015 : Design Sketches For New Short

Over the last month or two, I’ve been working on an idea for a new short. It’s still in pre-production – the script is written and most of the dialogue has been recorded. The next big hurdle is character design. Below is a sketch for some of the main players.

The designs are meant to be simple, but there will be a need for fairly intense animation (via fight scenes and such). This will be the first short for me using Lightwave 2015, and there have been added rigging capabilities since my previous version. It will require some research and testing, but I am excited to see what changes have been made.

posted by Pi Visuals at 12:43 pm

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December 18, 2014 : DBZ Style Disappearing Effect

For the past month, I’ve wanted to reproduce the ‘vanishing’ effect often used in DragonBall Z fight scenes. I always thought it was cool and wanted to figure out a way to create it. DBZ just started replaying on Adult Swim from the first episode, and I just purchased the upgrade to Lightwave 2015. Those were reasons enough. Below is the final product.

I went with two characters from Ninjas Tales because… well, they’re ninjas. It was fun to revisit those models. The animation done in Lightwave was pretty minimal – it was basically a kick. Most of the work was done in After Effects, which was used to create the actual ‘disappearing’ effect. Throw in a few sound effects, and this short took less than a week to crank out.

posted by Pi Visuals at 11:53 pm

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December 11, 2014 : Lightwave 2015 – Up And Running

A few weeks back, Newtek released its latest version of Lightwave – Lightwave 2015. I have only purchased two previous versions/ upgrades of the 3D software, and the last time was about 8 years ago. As such, it was definitely time for me to get my software current.

It’s now installed, and I even created a few files to test things out. Below is a screen shot:

From first glance, Lightwave 2015 is similar to my previous version (LW 9.6), but there are obvious differences. Since there have been several versions since my last previous purchase, I will need to familiarize myself with the various improvements and changes. Fortunately, Newtek provided a 2300 page manual to help as a reference. Between that and their forums, I can’t wait to get up to speed with Lightwave 2015.

posted by Pi Visuals at 11:57 pm

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