feb06

CGArena

Get Attention in Computer Graphics Community

ISSUE 01 FEBRUARY 2006

Photoshop Change the Mood of the scene Interview with 3DAliens After Effects My Heart Goes Mmmm

Illustrator Tracing the Photo Composition The Rule Of Thirds 3ds Max Making of “A Passage” 3D Challenge Sunlight

contents

Advertiser’s Index iStockphoto................................04

05 Interview with 3dAliens

Daz3d.........................................08

Santiago Redendo & Jesped Pedrosa

Maxon........................................14 Corel......................................20,21

16 Composition

Sony..................................25,33,50

The Rule of Thirds

e-on Software.............................26 VFS............................................27

18 3D Challenge: Sunlight

Gnomon School of VFX............48

Worth $445 Prizes

22 Photoshop

Change the mood of the scene

28 Illustrator

Tracing the Photo

Editor : Ashish Rastogi Email : contact@cgarena.com

30 After Effects

My Heart Goes Mmmmm

34 3ds Max

Making of “A Passage”

There’s something for everyone on the CGArena Forum http://forum.cgarena.com

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Issue 01 February 2006

industry news Disney buys Pixar Walt Disney payed $7.4 billion in stock to acquire Pixar Animation Studios--a deal that puts Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs on Disney’s board of directors.

Prime Focus Plans for Rs117cr Expansion

Prime Focus, one of India’s leading integrated end-to-end post production and visual effects services house, has chalked out an expansion plan involving an investment For the venerable animation giant, the move is a significant of Rs 117.25 crore (Rs 1.17 bilbet on Pixar’s digital approach as the successor to the pen- lion), according to a release. and-ink industry popularized by Walt Disney. Pixar will remain in its San Francisco Bay Area headquarters.

The plan includes setting up of high-end digital studios at Los Angeles, London and Dubai and expanding its domesJobs said Pixar’s main choices came down to selling out to tic operations. To part finance this expansion, the company Disney or working with another studio under a deal like Lu- soon proposes to enter the capital market with a public issue casfilm has with Twentieth Century Fox, in which the larg- of Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) through a 100% book building er studio gets only a distribution fee. The latter option was process. Prime Focus IPO is likely to hit the market at the somewhat attractive, Jobs said, but would still result in an end of February or beginning March. arrangement with “two companies with two separate sets of shareholders and two different agendas.”

Buzzword of the Month Digital Intermediate - The process of shooting on film and finishing in the digital realm has been available to the TVC

production community for many years, but the problems associated with moving massive amounts of data required to finish a feature film the same way has meant that films have tended to only use the process for specific sequences.

That has all changed - breakthroughs in data management and film recording technology have created new opportunities to finish features entirely in digital. The process is called Digital Intermediate, and involves the original camera footage, film or tape - being scanned as data, the images digitally manipulated through colour grading and vfx , then the project recorded back to film negative in HD, 2K or 4K resolution.

Another major advantage is a greater control over colour grading. While optical colour timing allows only basic control of the red, green and blue light sources during the duplication process, digital colour correction can affect aspects like saturation and contrast to an infinite degree. Many different colours within the frame can be isolated at any one time, allowing complex visual colour effects to be created easily.

There are also other benefits, including the protection of the original camera negative. Edits, re-edits, multiple versions and even short promos can all be done without reverting to the original neg. The OCN is scanned once and then stored for safe-keeping, the edit is performed digitally and thus always seamlessly. The digital intermediate path can also be taken for productions shooting on HD or SD tape formats although the overall resolution will only ever be as good as the acquisition format.

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Issue 01 February 2006

interview

AN INTERVIEW WITH 3DALIENS SANTIAGO REDONDO & JESUS PEDROSA

Could you tell us a bit about yourself?

Hi, my name is Santiago Redondo and I am 38 year old, Telecommunication Engineer. I started the 3dAleins Ltd in 2003. I am the programmer of the plugin Glu3d which is used for fluids simulation in 3ds Max and Maya.

Can you tell us from where you got the idea for Glu3d?

Yes. The idea of making fluids with particles by applying the SPH formalism was initially coded and applied in a Spanish company called REM Infografica in 1997, the Company that developed well known plugins for 3dsmax like metaReyes, clothReyes, NPR, etc. First test and source code were made there, in REM Infográfica under the management of Javier Reyes Moreno. The team leader, I and other people from REM Infografica leaved the company in 1998 to found a new company called NEXT LIMIT S.L. This company continued the fluid project and named it RealFlow. However every founder of the company did not have the copyright of the program: although I contributed in RealFlow program with a 33% , I had no rights on it, because it was registered by the other two co-founders. After three years of continuous development, I was fired from there. I lost all my rights on the Company and the program and after a period of mobbing actions, I had to sell my Company stocks for nothing.

After a year, I decided to start a new fluid project from scratch. I called it Glu3D. It was in the early 2002. Every single line of source code added to Glu3D was new. Nothing was taken from the old project RealFlow. A new concept of fluid simulator integrated in 3dsmax and Maya was in mind; based on the SPH formalism as RealFlow, but with a new user interface, completely integrated in the 3D platform.

As soon as they came to know that I founded a new company, Next Limit decided to sue me, arguing that I used the same realflow sources. After three years in the Court, and after comparing every source line of both programs, the conclusion of the Court was that Glu3D is a completely new program with no comparison with RealFlow.

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interview contd.

AN INTERVIEW WITH 3DALIENS SANTIAGO REDONDO & JESUS PEDROSA

Can you give us an overview of the core technology being used in Glu3d?

Glu3D uses a CFD method called SPH - Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics, to calculate inter-particle interactions. Lots of references about this model can be found by searching in ‘Google’. SPH is a method that uses particles to sample 3D space with some fluid properties, as density, pressure and more. Fluid properties in any 3D point can be interpolated from those particle sample values.

Once animation is calculated, a surface polymesh can be added to visualization purposes. The original algorithm purposed by SPH authors, has been simplified and adapted to the 3D problem. These improvements continue in each Glu3D version.

What has been the biggest challenge in the Glu3d so far?

The aim of Glu3D developers is to bring a high level algorithm to the 3D community by simplifying the complex physical model to adapt it to the 3D animation requirements. Other commercial approaches run outside the main 3D package (3dsmax, Maya) and make it difficult to adapt current scene to a proprietary environment. People prefer to cook at home: Users love to run simulations inside its 3D package. We try to make it easier to the users.

What’s coming next in glu3d, you are also planning a plug-in for Softimage and Houdini?

We have plans to provide with ports to other packages. XSI is in our list. Some useful functions will be available outside glu3D; for example PWrapper: a particle envelope plug-in.

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Issue 01 February 2006

interview contd.

AN INTERVIEW WITH 3DALIENS SANTIAGO REDONDO & JESUS PEDROSA

Can you tell us about the team working on the Glu3d? How many people are working on it and from what backgrounds does everyone comes?

For Now, only two people are working on this project: Jesus Pedrosa and me. Other people collaborated in this project. We are already in the 3D business for a long time. In future we will add more people to the team.

How do you rate your plug-in on the scale of 10? hmmm, 9 Would you like to say anything to CGArena E-Zine readers?

Hello to all CGArena E-Zine readers. I hope glu3D will help you in your work.

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Issue 01 February 2006

interview contd.

AN INTERVIEW WITH 3DALIENS SANTIAGO REDONDO & JESUS PEDROSA

Could you tell us a bit about yourself & family?

Tough one, I usually don’t like to talk about myself :) I am a 30 year (sigh) guy from Galicia, a region in NW Spain. My fist contact with computer graphics was at a very early age with a Spectrum +2 in the 8 bit era. I started doing videotext adventures with graphics, later I moved to the pc, where I was blown away with 3d studio and Animator Pro. Then came windows, 3dsmax and many others.

After doing work as a freelancer I started to work for Pyro Studios (Commandos developer) in 1998. Unfortunately the team I was working on was a totally management disaster (the project, called “Cimmeria” was totally renewed from scratch every 6 months or so) so I became tired of the Spanish videogame industry pretty soon (“Cimmeria” became “Praetorians”… 4 years later!). We are the 4th videogames buyer country in the world, but our production industry is in the lowest part on the list, so you can imagine how the videogame companies here are…

After that, I started working at Next Limit, the makers of RealFlow. At first we were just 4 guys, the 3 coders and me. I did beta testing, promotional stuff, web design, tutorials, customer support, etc.

It was a very cool job. I wasn’t well paid at all but I was very happy working with creative freedom and a tight team in a very familiar environment. I met Santi Redondo at that time, but some months later the other company partners kicked him out, giving me very few explanations about that move.

After some time Next Limit got financial aid and the company started to grow. That was a good time, at last the company got the resources we need to go further in the development and CG production.

Unfortunately we had to do some boring stuff like architectural previz and stuff like that but it was a good time, I learned a lot and met a lot of cool guys there. But you know… that good things don’t last much time.

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Issue 01 February 2006

interview contd.

AN INTERVIEW WITH 3DALIENS SANTIAGO REDONDO & JESUS PEDROSA

The problem with the company was the new Marketing guy. It is understandable that there are always some frictions between the production and marketing teams, but this guy… goes beyond imagination.

He had (and still has) problems with almost everyone there except the company owners. I was the production team manager at that time, and tired of stupidities, bad treat and hoax marketing maneuvers I explained the situation as unacceptable to the company owners. Result= I got illegally fired… typical Spanish After that I sued the company and as I had conversations recorded where the company owners recognized illegalities and shameful behavior they preferred to pay before entering court (maybe I’ll publish that some day, hehe) Regarding Next Limit, I think now people can see their policies with the Maxwell render product: hoax marketing, an almost unusable product that doesn’t match the expectative, buyers that ask their money back and get denials from the marketing team, etc…

I feel sorrow for the people working there (coders, CG artists and even marketing people), as all of this isn’t their fault. People should ask Oscar Monzón Fabregat (who changed his name to Oscar “Mon” to avoid being exposed from many people he cheated all over the years. Believe me; the list goes veryvery long). After him, they can ask Victor Gonzalez and Ignacio Vargas, the company owners and one of the most coward people I ever met in my whole life.

Once I was out Next Limit I realized that I was on the “dark side” so I contacted Santi and started to help him in the Glu3D development. We’ve been working together for 2 years now, and I’m happy with the results. I think Glu3D is a good product, it could be much better, but we are just 2 guys trying to fight our way in this monsters industry without any financial help.

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Issue 01 February 2006

interview contd.

AN INTERVIEW WITH 3DALIENS SANTIAGO REDONDO & JESUS PEDROSA

Explain the role of a Plug-in Designer - what do you do?

As I was the main beta tester of Realflow since version 1 I’ve spent many years working with fluids on a daily basis. I was perfectly aware of what is a good idea and what it is not regarding a fluids tool, so I started to feed Santi with all the ideas I had in mind for years but Next Limit people refused to accept.

My main goal was that the tool should be easy to use. I was very used to RealFlow workflow after many years working with it, but it was perfectly clear that RealFlow is a hell of a tool to learn and make good use. So at 3Daliens we always had in mind an idea “Make it good and powerful… but keep it simple!”. That is and will always be our motto.

In which movies Glu3d used, till today?

Although 3Daliens is a modest company, the quality of Glu3D convinced some great studios like Blur, Troublemaker, CafeFx, Sony, etc We already know that Glu3D has been used in Sin City by Troublemaker Studios and CafeFx (both tried RealFlow and turned it down after trying Glu3D), “Sharkboy and Lavagirl”

by CafeFx and works from Blur Studios (they turned down RealFlow too).

latest Starforce, FlexLm, C-Dilla, ... hackers will always There is more movies where Glu3D has been used but we are crack it sooner than later, and you will be wasting your not aware of the titles, as some big studios doesn’t like to pro- time and annoying your legal customers with complex limote little companies and they just tell “we used Maya” in the censing stuff. interviews (but for real production they buy all kind of software tools). Glu3D is being used by Weta Digital, Digital Dimen- We think that there is a much more important thing that sion, Encore Hollywood, Frantic Films and many other Film can’t be cracked or downloaded from Emule or BitTorrent: GOOD SUPPORT. and TV companies from many countries around the world.

As you know, Online Piracy poses a major threat for all Freelancers and Companies working seriously want a good support, so we are always there to answer questions, fix companies, what you are doing to save Glu3d from this? bugs to meet the deadline, etc …day or night. I think that’s We belive that if the software is good enough and it have a one of our most valuable work, and letters from our cusgood price the people that use it to make profit will buy it. We tomers prove it... know that piracy is unstopable, it doesn’t matter if you put the

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Issue 01 February 2006

interview contd.

AN INTERVIEW WITH 3DALIENS SANTIAGO REDONDO & JESUS PEDROSA

“I have no plans at all to use (or continue to use) Real Flow for any fluid simulations. From what I have seen, I believe that Glu3D is better suited to our needs than Real Flow. It seems to be every bit as capable as Real Flow, but has the advantage of running inside of Max (something we have asked Next Limit to do for YEARS!). Also, the level of customer service that we receive from you simply cannot be topped. It is very clear to us that you have a genuine desire to make Glu3D a great product, and you are always willing to hear suggestions of how to make it better. It is really great to use a product that has such enthusiasm behind it.

I’m sure we would probably have used at least PWrapper on about 9 out of the last 10 projects that we have done (it’s really great for blood splatters and stuff like that). PWrapper is absolutely AWESOME and extremely fast compared to any other type of metaballs that we have.

I really hope things work out for your company. It’s very frustrating to know that you have a better product than your competitor, but not have the resources or the opportunity to prove it. It would really be a shame to not have Glu3D continue in development.”

Kirby Miller Blur Studios

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Issue 01 February 2006

interview contd.

AN INTERVIEW WITH 3DALIENS SANTIAGO REDONDO & JESUS PEDROSA

What are your hobbies?

I like films a lot. I really mean it, my BenQ hi-res projector is possible the best buy I did in many many years. I spent a lot of time watching good films from all times (undubbed versions, of course ;) , getting HD versions and freaky stuff like that. A quick brief list of my favorite movies will be: Blade Runner, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Alien, Donnie Darko, Oldboy, The Fellowship of The Ring (extended), Usual Suspects, The Incredibles, Yojimbo, Annie Hall, Apocalypse Now and Fight Club.

I also studied Film and TV production, as I was much more interested in the whole process than just the fx part. Right now I’m in the process of making a short film with some friends, although I reckon that everybody does that these days. I am a computer freak too, I go to demoscene parties and I am always checking the new and latest software versions, playing games, etc. I like to read a lot too, mainly fictional books but classical too (greek, chinese, etc).

I can assure is that when we will have more resources from a bigger company Glu3D will be much better, and we will make more CG tools based on the same I would love to keep on working in software design and fx produc- “powerful and easy” philosophy. tion, but frankly I am becoming less and less interested in the fx part of movies. I would like to be involved in film production, but in a Would you like to give any message to CGArena more creative way.

Members?

Where you see yourself after 5 years?

Start working with Glu3D! we don’t care if you don’t have money to buy it, the demo version is FULLY FUNCIONAL, and we will always give free licenses Anybody can reach me at the Glu3D user forums (http:// to people that shows good results using our tool, as www.3daliens.com/glu3D/forum2), my personal contact details are simple as that. If you can make an fx movie test or there (email, msn, icq and yahoo) illustration using Glu3D that can call the community attention you’ll have a Glu3D free license granted How do you rate your plug-in on the scale of 10? so… hands on mates!

How anyone can contact you and ask for support or help?

Being honest, I will rate it with 8. Glu3D is easy to use and cheap.

It could be more powerful, and we are always working on improvements, optimizations and new features, but remember that we are just a 2 guys company that lack financial help for everything. What

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INTERVIEW: CGARENA

Issue 01 February 2006

www.cgarena.com CGArena brings you latest news and happenings 24 hours a day.

Plus, join in our interactive forums to showcase your work, and get attention in the computer graphics community

Email: contact@cgarena.com

composition

The Rule Of Thirds There are times when you need to place your subject in the centre of the frame, you can create more interesting, balanced and powerful compositions by placing the subject off-centre in your photograph. A technique that can help you visualize your shots is the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds means to view your shot through a grid made up of three equal parts, both vertically and horizontally.

This immediately cause the viewer’s eye to move around the image – centrally placed subjects tend to focus attention in the middle of the image and leave it there, making pictures feel flat as a result. If you’re trying to create an abstract or graphic representation of reality, this might be exactly the technique you’re looking for. This rule is a basic principal often used in photography, video and film.

One of the most frequently used ways of directing the viewer’s eye to the centre of interest in a picture is by following the rule of thirds. Infact, there are lenses you can buy for cameras that makes this rule visible through viewfinder and allows you to visualize where to place your characters and subjects.

Visualizing your shots in thirds is like adding graph paper over your camera lens, allowing you to align and balance subjects. In order to know if you are using the rule of thirds properly, think of sight lines or readings. When you are presented with a new image, for example, the eye goes to the most prominent shape in the frame, which is called the first read. Then the eye wanders to a secondary shape, the second read, and so on. Keep practicing it, and the rule of thirds will start to work itself into each of your shots.

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Issue 01 February 2006

Source: Morgue File

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Issue 01 February 2006

challenge CGArena is proud to present the Sunlight Challenge (3D Challenge), 09 Feb - 12 Mar 2006, sponsored by Corel, iStockphoto and Daz3D. We want lots of different ideas and approaches in a more creative way.

Photographed By: Arlene Gee

Your Mission Create an image which shows Sunlight in a creative way. This Challenge is a Work-In-Progress Challenge -- all contestants are required to post their work-in-progress images for community to critique/comment in order to qualify.

How the Challenge will be Run This challenge will be a WIP (Work in Progress) Challenge. Each challenger is required to submit Work In Progress (WIP) images, from the initial concept sketch to the final render. The purpose is that everyone can learn from each other, offer feedback and critiques.

1. Enter the Challenge by registering yourself on CGArena forum.

2. Submit your work in progress images in forum on a regular basis.

3. Participate in the community by critiquing other challengers works in the respective forums.

4. Submit your final entry till 12th March 2006.

Note: You are required to submit work in progress images, obtain feedback and give feedback to other challengers in the WIP challenge. This is a requirement of the challenge and failure to do so may result in penalties during final judging. Community interaction is a must!

Rules 1. All CGArena members may enter the CG Challenge. Membership is free of charge.

2. Employees of Corel, iStockphoto, Daz3D and CGArena are not allowed to enter this challenge.

3. The Challenge starts 09 February 2006 and will run until 12 March 2006 Midnight GMT. 4. There will be 2 winners in this 3D Challenge and CGArena, Sponsers and Judges decision will be final.

5. Winners have to submit a tutorial within 10 days and answer the few interview questions for eligible to prizes.

Final Image Size - Your final image dimensions should be print resolution. Do not send in a low-resolution placeholder and ask us to get back to you, as we won’t.

- A guideline is 2657 pixels wide and/or 3636 high, JPG, 300 DPI.

First Prize CorelDRAW X3 Graphics Suite - $399USD With this comprehensive graphics suite, you can confidently tackle a wide variety of projects - from logo creation and Web graphics, to multi-page marketing brochures, or eye-catching signs.

From new bitmap-to-vector tracing in Corel PowerTRACE, new photo-editing features in PHOTO-PAINT, new suite-wide learning tools, and enhancements in illustration and page layout, this suite combines design capabilities, ease-of-use, and affordability that cannot be matched by any other graphics software.

Photographed By: Victor Kapas

Second Prize DAZ3D - $25 Gift Voucher DAZ strives to bring 3D art directly to the masses by delivering the highest quality digital 3D content and software at the most affordable prices. DAZ also offers premier 3D software programs such as Bryce 5 (a 3D environment package), Mimic Pro (a 3D lip-sync program), and DAZ|Studio (a 3D posing application) all at rockbottom prices.

and iStockphoto - $20 Gift Voucher iStockphoto is the world’s fastest growing collection of royalty-free images, at the world’s best prices. Just the best Stock Photography, Vector illustrations, and Flash files online, at prices for everyone.

This 3D Challenge is proudly sponsored by:

photoshop

1) Open the Salma Hayek Image and duplicate the existing layer.

Change the mood of the scene Valentine’s Day is near, so why don’t change the girlfriend image in a more romantic mood.

So in this issue we will change the mood of the existing photo in Photoshop.

2) To create a romantic mood, ‘warm up the image’. To do this, create a Image > Adjustments> Photo Filter. In this dialog box select “Warm Filter 85” and set the density to 60%.

photoshop 5)

3) Apply Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Set the blur to 10 pixels. Experiment with the value according to your image requirement.

4) Change the layer mode to multiply and adjust the opacity slider according to requir ement. In my image keep to 75%.

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Adjust the levels in the “Red” channel.

6) Duplicate the second layer and change the mode back to normal. Apply Filters > Distort> Diffuse Glow and choose the settings as Graininess = 4, Glow Amount =1 and Clear Amount = 20 and reduce the opacity of the layer according to requirements.

7) Apply some touchup color on the cheeks and lips. Flatten the image and use the Levels command again. If required use the Image > Adjustment > Brightness & Contrast. If you done everything correct then your girlfriend will be definitely happy otherwise #&$%@

Issue 01 February 2006

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Pro Musicals, 25 Casa Major Road, Egmore, Chennai-08 | Email: promusic@vsnl.com | Web: www.promusicals.com

from

mice to

men

Digital Character Animation at VFS

Vancouver Film School is the place to be for everything you see, hear, and experience in entertainment – and that definitely includes Digital Character Animation.

At VFS, your classroom is a production studio. Your creativity is the lesson plan. Let our faculty of industry professionals help bring your best ideas to life. VFS covers all aspects of Computer Character Animation with a focus on Technique, 3D Modeling, Cinematography, and Acting Fundamentals. Students achieve creative proficiency on MAYA software, an essential tool for all aspects of 3D rendering.

Every program at VFS is designed to prepare the next generation of talent for specific careers in the most exciting and creative industry in the world. How? Every student graduates with a demo reel or a portfolio of original work – the ultimate calling card.

For more information, contact:

Vancouver Film School Where Results Matter Dorothy Mathias International Admissions Advisor Mumbai, India +91 22 2604 3770 dorothy@vfs.com

www.vfs.com

illustrator

Tracing the Photo

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Adobe stopped upgrading its vector conversion application Streamline some time ago, and the Trace Tool included in Illustrator has always been sadly lacking.

That is, until now! With the new CS2 version, Illustrator users finally have a great trace tool.

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Issue 01 February 2006

What are Raster Images?

Raster images—use a grid of small squares known as pixels to represent images. Each pixel is assigned a specific location and color value. Raster Images or Bitmap Images are the most common electronic medium for continuous-tone images, such as photographs or digital paintings, because they can represent subtle gradations of shades and color.

What are Vector Images?

Vector graphics are made up of lines and curves defined by mathematical objects called vectors. Vectors describe an image according to its geometric characteristics. Vector graphics are resolution-independent—that is, they can be scaled to any size and printed at any resolution without losing detail or clarity. As a result, vector graphics are the best choice for representing graphics that must retain crisp lines when scaled to various sizes—for example, logos.

1) Create a new document and to place a image in Illustrator, use the File > Place command.

2) After Placing a image in the Illustrator, Live Trace button appears in the top control pallette or you can also use the Object > Live Trace Menu. Choose a preset from the dropdown Preset menu, which is accessed from the small arrow to the right of the Live Trace button.

3) After clicking the Live Trace button, you will have many more options on the control palette. Next to the Presets is a button that opens many more options. From this dialog, you can control the number of colors, the preset, the minimum size that will be traced, and even choose to output to a swatches file.

This is one of the best new features in Illustrator CS2. With this tool you will be able to trace logos, sketches, scans, and many other bitmap images that were time-consuming and difficult to reproduce.

after effects

My Heart Goes Mmmmmmmm

In this tutorial we will use the Adobe After Effects and Trapcode Particular plug-in to create this heart.

1) Create New Composition, size = 640 x 480, Frame Rate = 25fps or 30fps, Duration = 5 sec.

New Features in AE 7 1. Newly Designed User Interface.

2. Animation Presets for everything.

3. HDR Color Support 4. Timewarp - Can be used in place of Time Remapping for accurate results.

5. Accurate Lens Blue Effects.

6. Freeze Frame 7. Dynamic Link

New Keyboard Shorcuts in AE 7 1. Remove Title Bar - Ctrl + Backspace(\) 2. Maximize any window - Tilde (~) 2) Create New Solid layer (Ctrl + Y) Layer > New > Solid. Choose any color and press button Make Comp Size.

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Issue 01 February 2006

after effects

3)

Apply Trapcode Particular Plug-in on the solid layer. Effect > Trapcode > Particular.

4)

Set the key frame on 0sec for Emitter – Particles/sec and leave the value to 100

5) Go to 1 sec and change the value to 400, set another key frame on 4sec with same value, set value 300 on 4:10 sec, set value 0 on 4:20sec 6)

We also need to change the Position XY settings but we talk about that later.

7)

Set Direction to Directional, velocity to 10.0, Velocity Random to 100.0 and Velocity from motion to 5.0

8) Particle Life[sec] to 5.0, Particle Type to Smokelet, Size over life and Opacity over life as in the following image, Opacity of Particles to 40 and set the color of particles of your choice, if you want a random colors in the heart then also

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Issue 01 February 2006

after effects

change the setting of Color Random[%] 9)

Now, talk about the Position XY settings. There are three ways to do this…

a) Move the position anchor point at different places according to the shape desire at regular intervals but required lot of tweaking. b) Create a mask in the AE or Illustrator and copy the vertices then paste those vertices in the Position XY. c) Or create any shape in Photoshop and save with alpha channel. And use Layer> Auto Trace feature, this will also create a mask then once again copy and paste the vertices in the Position XY. If the image don’t have alpha channel then still you can use Auto Trace and select the channel in the dialog box as desire like R-G-B channel or Luminance channel.

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Pro Musicals, 25 Casa Major Road, Egmore, Chennai-08 | Email: promusic@vsnl.com | Web: www.promusicals.com

3ds max

Making of “A Passage” All the modeling in the scene was done using 3ds max 6. For texturing I used around 20-25 medium resolution pictures and combined them in Photoshop. Light Tracer was used for the rendering.

My intention was to create a work that depicts my love for art. This is not very detailed scene and modeling wise it takes only few hours to get the stage set. But, lighting and texturing is very important to convey the meaning of the image. I was inspired by a painting I saw in book few months back. I was so moved by it that I drew a sketch in my drawing pad later that evening. It ended up something like the one I attached below.

That painting depicts a lonely corridor running in between two walls, staying neglected for ages and stood guarded by two dampen walls.

A staircase at the end of the corridor also serves a special meaning. The scene ends there but it gives kind of suspense feeling as to what lies after that. In this sense the scene makes someone to think a lot.

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3ds max Modelling Modeling this scene involved very little time. But to get the concept and idea to the drawing board took longer than actual modeling.

I started with a box and converted it to poly and made the two main walls on the right side. These are the walls where most of the drama will take place. I was very particular in the height and their joining angle. I used a camera from the beginning to determine the exact placement, since; the angle will play a major role. As you can see in the picture below the placement of the walls and how the camera is placed. I also added a ground.

Then I modeled the top portion of the wall using same poly modeling method. I also used Tessellate command and noise modifier to make the edge more random. The picture below shows the close up.

Then I turned my attention to the wall on the left side that will make it impossible to see the other side of the scene. Although very small part of this wall is actually seen from the camera angle but it serves as a barrier between the passage and the light source.

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3ds max

I had to add light source at this point to determine the exact light and shadow angle and made adjustment to the height and orientation of the wall.

Thefollowing picture shows how the wall is actually placed and the light source behind it.

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3ds max Next I was concentrating on making the backdrop. The backdrop has to be interesting enough to catch the attention and at the same time should convey the basic meaning the image in proper synchronization. I did lots of experiment before coming to make this object. The wall is placed in such way so that it shows the two windows from the camera angle. This picture shows the walls of a building positioned in the scene.

The next picture shows a close up of the window with shutters like we have in old buildings built around the first quarter of 20th century.

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3ds max Next I added the staircase at the end of the corridor. The edge is again made random and rounded to showcase the weathering and aging.

When I was almost satisfied with the scene setup I added some pot with plants and wooden planks near the wall. The picture below shows a close up of the pots, one broken partly.

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3ds max Texturing Texturing was a challenge in this particular scene. I used Unwarp UVW in most cases. For the wall first I added an Unwarp UVW and then took the map into the Photoshop and placed several layers of texture maps on the base. The picture below shows how base layer containing the Unwarp UVW grid is placed.

I used around 20-25 medium resolution maps for the entire texturing procedure. The process went like this way; I took a base texture for the wall from my collection and placed on top of the Unwarp UVW layer. Then I added moss layer, stain layer and water mark layer accordingly.

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3ds max Once this major texturing is done I added some special layers that contain a tic-tac-toe and graffiti sign. I used various layer blending method to seamlessly match the layers with the base layer, for example Multiply, Screen and Overlay.

The backdrop is given a blue colored wall. I was trying with different color and found blue color quite appealing for this scene. For the window and shutter I used an aged wood texture with lots of variation in color.

Lighting I used one target light and one omni light as fill light in the scene. The picture shows the placement of the lights.

I placed a sky light to used with Light Tracer. There was something more with the light setup. I needed to create a nice shadow in the foreground area. That was achieved using a light blocker in front of the light path. As shown here a box is placed so that to cast a good shadow in the corridor.

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3ds max Post Processing Rendering process involved some tweaking with the light and shaders to get the proper mood in the scene. I tested with various light settings and shaders for couple of hours before coming to a satisfactory level.

I used Light Tracer of Scanline renderer with Bounce value 2. Then I took the raw render image in Photoshop and did some color correction. I mainly work with Curve, HSL and Channel Mixer to correct the contrast level. Beside these I also had to manually use Dodge and Burn tool for perfection.

I hope this article will be interesting to read and also be informative for you. Thank you for your time. Feel free to comment on this and send me your queries at my email address.

Pradipta Seth

pradiptaseth@yahoo.co.in http://pra-seth.3dup.net [Personal Site] http://www.3dallusions.com/forums [I am moderator at this site]

For discussion on this tutorial please click here

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VLAD THE IMPALOR Harshdeep Borah, Canada harshdesign@gmail.com Maya

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ALL ROAD Neil Maccormack, Geneva, Switzerland Neil.Maccormack@mccann.ch Lightwave 3d

ANDO - CHURCH OF LIGHT Karunakaran, India karun@cnt-semac.com 3ds Max

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PICASSO TOWER Juan Carlos, Spain jcjimenez@render3d.net 3ds Max

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FRODO Vishal Pawar, India vishalpower@yahoo.com Photoshop

For Detailed Tutorial on Making of Frodo Click Here

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SPIDER & TANKLOW Marco Antonio Delgado, Spain webmaster@pixeltale.com Softimage XSI

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A PASSAGE Pradipta Seth India pradiptaseth@hotmail.com 3ds Max

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submission

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