September 17, 2015 : Ambient Occlusion Testing

Over the past week, I’ve had some time to work on one of my recently set Lightwave goals – Ambient Occlusion Rendering. I’m still in the early phases, but progress has been made.

Most of my time has been spent researching techniques for Ambient Occlusion. I want to find a method where quality meets practicality. I have found a few promising ones; but while doing so, I realized that I will need a render that will satisfy animations (as opposed to still shots).

As such, I am creating a short animated sequence (on the order of three or four seconds) that includes an object moving as well as a camera zoom. Below is a screenshot of who I will be using as my test object:

As if there was any doubt that I was going to use a ninja! Actually, I originally set up a file with one of the characters from Taking Shape, but then I found it to be a poor choice due to the rather simplistic/ orthogonal geometry.

I am still working on the animated sequence, but I have done a few preliminary test renders for one AO technique. Below is a render with settings that I was happy with:

I haven’t put anything into After Effects for compositing. I intend on working through a few AO methods in LW before I export the renders. I believe this will be the best way for me to do a side-by-side comparison of the end results.

posted by Pi Visuals at 12:22 am

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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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October 31, 2012 : Halloween: Street Fighter Style

After taking a year off, I got back into the Halloween spirit this past weekend and dressed up as the infamous Ken Masters from Street Fighter (yeah, I didn’t know his last name either until I googled it). It was sorta last minute, which is why Moridin and I were unable to find anybody else to join in on the theme.

Many people recognized the costumes, which isn’t always the case with our choices. As a side note, the ‘Hadouken’ fireball was created in After Effects. I ended up using a technique similar to the flamethrower effect from the 12th and final episode of Ninja Tales.

posted by Pi Visuals at 9:19 pm

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August 25, 2012 : Ninja Tales Group Action Shot

In addition to creating a silhouette of Ninja Tales, I spent some time working on a group shot with all four of them. I like how it turned out.

Just another day in the office.

I didn’t want any of the ninjas in a static pose, and I had each action shot correspond to their respective personalities. I pulled the 3D render into Photoshop to do a little more sprucing up to create the final image. This includes the shadows, the fried chicken, the bucket, the blood, and the twine between the nunchucks.

posted by Pi Visuals at 9:27 pm

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August 23, 2012 : Squa In The Nuts

While no new episodes of Ninja Tales are planned for now, I had to work on creating a comedic still shot of a our favorite sub-par ninjas. Below is a first pass of this painful pic.

In case you didn’t notice, Quick Stab and Cold Steel don’t have any facial expressions. The reason for this is because I am taking the render and turning it into a silhouette – thus they are not necessary. Below is the end result (for this version).

Another tidbit, the nunchucks in Cold Steel’s left hand did not have any chains/twine connecting them in the Lightwave render. This was added afterwards in After Effects… hey, now I get the title of that program. While I still need to tweak a few things, I like the posing and can almost feel Quick Stab’s need to vomit and pass out.

posted by Pi Visuals at 1:25 am

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July 19, 2012 : Freak Out Over Ninja Tales Episode 12

The twelfth episode of Ninja Tales is complete, thus wrapping up this batch of episodes. It is called “The Overkill-erator” and is below:

Just about everything associated with The Overkill-erator was done in Lightwave 3D. The obvious exception being the fire – that was done in After Effects. I also spent a good amount of time adding in sound effects to better sell the actions of the weapon.

Now that all 12 episodes are done, it’s time to reflect on the project as a whole. I plan on watching them consecutively. May I suggest you do the same? Oh, okay… nevermind.

posted by Pi Visuals at 2:18 pm

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July 12, 2012 : Relish Episode 11 Of Ninja Tales

Episode number eleven of Ninja Tales is up, online, and ready for your viewing pleasure. The second to last short is called “Mission Is A Glow” and can be seen below.

I used a semi-opaque blue mask to create the sense of the blacklight. The glowing of the chest and glow sticks were added in post (in After Effects). It took several attempts to get the desired look, but I am happy with how it turned out.

posted by Pi Visuals at 11:37 am

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July 7, 2012 : Ninja Tales In The Can (Almost)

The last short of Ninja Tales is done… and with nearly two weeks to spare. Actually, the final episode took a bit longer than expected due to various conflicts. However, between completing most of the other shorts ahead of schedule and making sure I allotted more than enough time at the start of the whole production process, I was never worried about finishing the final short in time.

Bottom line, the 12th short of Ninja Tales was never rushed, and I am incredibly pleased with how it turned out. In fact, even though it won’t be put online for another 12 days, below is a really cool pic from the episode that I love.

Technically, this doesn’t mean I’m completely done with production on the last two shorts. A few days before I put up an episode, I review the short to see if there are any last minutes changes I need to make prior to putting it online. These tend to be small changes I know would bother me if I left them as is – trimming a few frames, moving a facial feature slightly up the timeline, adding a small sound effect, etc. Usually, these tweaks are minor, but there is still a little work to be done with our favorite ninjas.

posted by Pi Visuals at 1:42 am

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July 5, 2012 : Take In Episode 10 Of Ninja Tales

The tenth episode of Ninja Tales is waiting for you to view it… several times in fact. This short is titled “Dress Code”.

The sweater required a separate model for Quick Stab, along with some detailed texture mapping to get the hideous pattern. The only other option would have been to add the sweater after the fact in After Effects, however I was worried that would have limited Quick Stab’s movements too much to pull off.

posted by Pi Visuals at 3:14 pm

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June 28, 2012 : Savor The Flavor Of Ninja Tales Episode 9

Episode number nine of Ninja Tales is now perusing the interwebs. Follow the series of tubes and enjoy it for all it’s worth. This episode is called ‘Throwing The Blame’ and can be viewed below.

This short had more weapons than any of the previous ones. Even though there were daggers and blow darts, the ninja stars held the prominent role in the scene. They were modeled by Moridin – unfortunately, there weren’t any close shots to fully appreciate them. Still, the design was very sleek.

posted by Pi Visuals at 2:47 pm

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