Scale it right
Posted by Marius Oberholster on Thursday, December 29, 2016 Under: WIP
Hey all!
This week's vlog!
GOD is so awesome!!!
Arrangement improvements
This week, while I was just relaxing, I took my phone and I listened through the music I already have online, specifically the original arrangements. I came to a conclusion - my arrangements, though okay, definitely can be better and I want them to become better. So, the logical step would be to check out tutorials for arrangements and what some great simple techniques are for achieving great results - I want this short's music to be stunning! Esther's was fine, but music really was not the focus. For this one, I'm going to have to add music that will not only fit the plagues, but also, to some degree, the location and feeling. Not an easy task, but thankfully not a pressing issue (just one that should be considered already, seeing as the environments are taking shape).
Adjustments
Scene size: Probably the biggest change of the week is the overall scene size. Remember last week (previous post), I mentioned that there are all sorts of clipping artefacts because of an incredibly large scene, but the irony is, though scene size reduction helps, it does not remove the proximity problem. In other words, faces that are too close in relation to the view scale, still clip and flicker.
Goats size: While the goats were not the main focus of the scene, nor did their size matter much, I did have to scale them down, to not let the shepherds look like giants. If you think about it, scale can really throw you off... In this case, the shepherds were the main reason the scene had to be scaled.
Building numbers: The buildings, though many, looked far too sparse for a nation that was known for holding, for lack of a better term, the Israelites hostage for 400 years. A rough guess would put their number over a million, because they often only counted the men, multiply that by an average of 2 and you can about a third of that for children (conservatively) and you get well over a million people. I doubt that over a million people would be living in only a rough estimate of 900 small buildings, hahaha. They had to be increased (and their scale size is also higher than initially).
Servants added: A big addition for me, as it enables more fly-through options for openings or scene changes or whatever may be needed.
In addition to the scaling, some other minor adjustments with significant differences, were also added, such as: Reflections, global textures adjustment, normals in reflections removed, etc. You could almost call these things everyday things that you don't notice, but you sure notice when they are not there. For example: "Something is missing..." hahaha.
- Improvements
There are things that I believe can still be improved on, but they are generally nitpick-y things that I will have to wait for leading on (not all though). I still need to add some white buildings for the Egyptians and some veranda (?) like structures that appear in all the references, but pretty much just look like hangout spots for the people that owned them... Of course there were fishermen with boats (obviously, haha) and that still needs to be done as well as more animals. Still plenty to do, but I feel like this would be the point that I would be the most likely to quit. I felt the same way with the king's bedroom in Esther 6. It felt like the details would just not stop, hahaha. It really is amazing how much stuff people really do add to a space to make it look nice. I'm sure if it were all stacked outside you'd think: "There's no way all that is going in there..." hahaha.
- Still on the list
I still have another Nile-side scene to make so the fields can be shown, so that is probably next. That too requires some custom servant animation and so on. I would also like to customize two of the magicians, because of the whole Jannes and Jambres thing, but still not quite at peace about that yet... One piece at a time.
This week's vlog!
GOD is so awesome!!!
Background elements
Quite a near and dear pet project, haha. I want to have my backgrounds appear painterly and while there are many ways to get close to it, I have not had the leading on it that GOD would help me get it in an evening or something. This is more like one of those insanely complex things that need a lot of different facets to be in place for the look to work, so each facet needs time to learn. This week, GOD's focus was on "brush strokes" and beveled edges. The brush strokes are just three procedural textures - one soft, one sharp and a color alteration. Add to that normal influence and imperfections as the surface requires. The beveled edges are simply the laplace filter masked with the material's index, minus the ambient occlusion, to remove lines from the indented areas. It works beautifully!
In addition to that, you can edit normals to get a more rounded look for trees, so they respond more evenly to light (as they would when painted). The other general techniques HE's taught me with these, I still apply, but it is amazing how much of the final effect actually depends on the shader and how much it integrates with compositing.
Quite a near and dear pet project, haha. I want to have my backgrounds appear painterly and while there are many ways to get close to it, I have not had the leading on it that GOD would help me get it in an evening or something. This is more like one of those insanely complex things that need a lot of different facets to be in place for the look to work, so each facet needs time to learn. This week, GOD's focus was on "brush strokes" and beveled edges. The brush strokes are just three procedural textures - one soft, one sharp and a color alteration. Add to that normal influence and imperfections as the surface requires. The beveled edges are simply the laplace filter masked with the material's index, minus the ambient occlusion, to remove lines from the indented areas. It works beautifully!
In addition to that, you can edit normals to get a more rounded look for trees, so they respond more evenly to light (as they would when painted). The other general techniques HE's taught me with these, I still apply, but it is amazing how much of the final effect actually depends on the shader and how much it integrates with compositing.
Arrangement improvements
This week, while I was just relaxing, I took my phone and I listened through the music I already have online, specifically the original arrangements. I came to a conclusion - my arrangements, though okay, definitely can be better and I want them to become better. So, the logical step would be to check out tutorials for arrangements and what some great simple techniques are for achieving great results - I want this short's music to be stunning! Esther's was fine, but music really was not the focus. For this one, I'm going to have to add music that will not only fit the plagues, but also, to some degree, the location and feeling. Not an easy task, but thankfully not a pressing issue (just one that should be considered already, seeing as the environments are taking shape).
Adjustments
Scene size: Probably the biggest change of the week is the overall scene size. Remember last week (previous post), I mentioned that there are all sorts of clipping artefacts because of an incredibly large scene, but the irony is, though scene size reduction helps, it does not remove the proximity problem. In other words, faces that are too close in relation to the view scale, still clip and flicker.
Goats size: While the goats were not the main focus of the scene, nor did their size matter much, I did have to scale them down, to not let the shepherds look like giants. If you think about it, scale can really throw you off... In this case, the shepherds were the main reason the scene had to be scaled.
Building numbers: The buildings, though many, looked far too sparse for a nation that was known for holding, for lack of a better term, the Israelites hostage for 400 years. A rough guess would put their number over a million, because they often only counted the men, multiply that by an average of 2 and you can about a third of that for children (conservatively) and you get well over a million people. I doubt that over a million people would be living in only a rough estimate of 900 small buildings, hahaha. They had to be increased (and their scale size is also higher than initially).
Servants added: A big addition for me, as it enables more fly-through options for openings or scene changes or whatever may be needed.
In addition to the scaling, some other minor adjustments with significant differences, were also added, such as: Reflections, global textures adjustment, normals in reflections removed, etc. You could almost call these things everyday things that you don't notice, but you sure notice when they are not there. For example: "Something is missing..." hahaha.
- Improvements
There are things that I believe can still be improved on, but they are generally nitpick-y things that I will have to wait for leading on (not all though). I still need to add some white buildings for the Egyptians and some veranda (?) like structures that appear in all the references, but pretty much just look like hangout spots for the people that owned them... Of course there were fishermen with boats (obviously, haha) and that still needs to be done as well as more animals. Still plenty to do, but I feel like this would be the point that I would be the most likely to quit. I felt the same way with the king's bedroom in Esther 6. It felt like the details would just not stop, hahaha. It really is amazing how much stuff people really do add to a space to make it look nice. I'm sure if it were all stacked outside you'd think: "There's no way all that is going in there..." hahaha.
- Still on the list
I still have another Nile-side scene to make so the fields can be shown, so that is probably next. That too requires some custom servant animation and so on. I would also like to customize two of the magicians, because of the whole Jannes and Jambres thing, but still not quite at peace about that yet... One piece at a time.
Well, that is it for this week's work! I really hope you guys enjoy the progress on the project as it goes on!
Do you know JESUS yet?
http://www.crossallegiance.org/knowJesus.html
May you find inspiration and may GOD use you in a unique way to get HIS Word to people in 2017!! A blessed new year to you all!!
GOD bless you!
Do you know JESUS yet?
http://www.crossallegiance.org/knowJesus.html
May you find inspiration and may GOD use you in a unique way to get HIS Word to people in 2017!! A blessed new year to you all!!
GOD bless you!
In : WIP
Tags: god jesus holy spirit blender anime exodus 7-12 kjv goats servants adjustment scale
Hey all! I've been doing CG work full-time since 2011. GOD has been with me, supported me and taught me all the way. HE tells us to do all things as unto the LORD and that is my goal. I do whatever I believe the HOLY SPIRIT is leading me to do and it's not always easy, but it's always worth it to be obedient!
JESUS is awesome!! If you don't know HIM yet, follow the link above!
