Back to work
January 11, 2018
Hey all!
This week's vlog!
GOD is beyond words!!! Just wow!!
- No vlog last week
Thankfully I was able to let you guys know there wasn't going to be a vlog, but at the same time I hate that there wasn't. Thankfully it is not for lack of productivity, hahaha. Some of this week did go into upgrading and improving the shaders as well (not yet available as v2, haha). GOD willing, soon!
- Toon shaders for Eevee
As you all know, Wasili and I recently released a set of toon shaders for the Eevee render engine. Of course, there are many reasons this engine is being built, but I believe for most people it will be a means to faster render times. For example, to render a music video would take only an evening. Whereas now, it takes a few days. A week vs a few hours, something to think about, hahaha. I'm not just pulling this out of the air. The music video for it came upon the midnight clear rendered at between 2-4seconds per frame. Usually that would be between 1-4mins per frame. You could say that is somewhere between 30x-60x faster - who wouldn't want that!?
Of course, this does come with a few catches, but no matter which way you slice it, it is worth it, imo, because of the practicality it brings. Most people can't leave their PC rendering for a lifetime to finish a single project, haha.
Some Benefits:
- Much more realistic graphics become practical (with things like SSS, reflections, light beams, fire, smoke, large particle systems, etc.)
- Visual FX can be seen applied in (almost) realtime - depending on the situation
- Super fast rendering (even for complex environment lighting)
Some Downsides:
- Reflection range is limited
- Sharp shadows can be blocky
- If not managed well enough, the overall look can feel like a game
Why create toon shaders in the first place?
Well, the reason is that the current trend for game engines and render engines is to produce realistic results. You'll hear it refered to as PBR (Physically Based Rendering). While it is certainly not a bad thing, not everyone wants to do things in a realistic way. For example, Exodus is done in an NPR (Non-Photo Real) way. Call it cartoon or cell shading, it is extremely difficult to produce a flat shaded look in a PBR environment, but GOD has graced us to make them and they are functional - Moses agrees:
Moses - Dressed in brand new blinn based toon shaders - Eevee
To be honest though, I was hoping that Esther 6 would've been my last project rendering the old-fashioned way, but nope! hahaha. In fact, I was hoping I could render Esther 6 through some sort of realtime engine in the first place, haha
Soon though!
For more on the toon shaders and to get the updated shaders (GOD willing soon) you can bookmark here:
(official info here)
HE was also gracious enough to give us request for a post on the BNPR website:
These will probably show up in future vlogs and blogs as well, but at this stage, I don't have peace about switching mid-production.
- Cantillation
Not something I want to talk about tbh, but I said I would e-mail and let you all know. I got a response, but was neither denied nor given express permission. It was so vague, I cannot be safely sure either way.
I contacted Pocket Torah to hear if they know of any public domain recordings of the chants (within the range I'm looking for). Still waiting to hear back.
- Frog progress
On the frog, I made absolutely no animation progress. I worked for the first few days of the week on the reference material. While house sitting, I got to film a small frog (while keeping the dogs from attempting to eat it...). The footage was horribly shaky, but I will absolutely present the findings within the frog animation - might be beneficial to others.
There is a catch though. With the reference video as blurry as it is (very low light - at night - outside), the motion blur hides a lot of the fine movement (they are shockingly fast!). This means that for the landing motion, there is some guess work involved. For example, when the frog hops, he hops in a bow curve. That curve means that he has to land hands first. That's fine, but from the angle I have (almost directly behind - say 20'-30' off) I can see very little of the back legs' landing movement - thus guess work is born! hahaha.
I believe GOD will lead me right on it. In the motion blur, it does look like the legs come forward as the arms go out to land, so we'll start there and see how it looks, haha. Might be needed to film myself hopping like a frog, hahaha!
- Next shot done
How good it is to be back to work on Exodus! I cannot even express it! Yes, it's huge, but it fits. It's what GOD has given me to do and I love it!
For the next shot, we enter with Moses being revealed in the throne room as GOD tells him to go in and tell Pharaoh to let the people go or he will have frogs throughout Egypt. We see Pharaoh very small compared to Moses (GOD is KING and Moses therefore has more authority overall), but still in earthly authority (also GOD given - see Rom 13:1), which is shown with Pharaoh to Moses' right.
For Pharaoh and Moses to talk, I have to show the throne room or pond, but I believe it's the throne room (can't be dogmatic about it though):
"And the LORD spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me. And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs: And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneadingtroughs: And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants."
Exodus 8:1-4, KJV
See why I can't be dogmatic about it: "Go unto Pharaoh" is all we have to go on. We can't depend on the next part, because we don't know. There is no indication of time, not even a clear indication of sequence except for logic (Pharaoh has to be rebellious for the frogs to be a punishment as GOD stated through Moses):
"And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt."
Exodus 8:5, KJV
Still fascinating! I throughly depend on the HOLY SPIRIT to lead me right in this, and I do believe HE does. In this case, I believe that Moses knew where Pharaoh would be. Afterall, GOD tells him to go to Pharaoh. The most likely place to find Pharaoh would be the palace. Of course, it depends on the time of day and year and whether he is out hunting or whatever, but the most likely place to find Pharaoh is in the palace. It's both work and home. If you were to go looking for the royal family, you wouldn't go to the supermarket or the communal pool - you'd go to Buckingham Palace (despite their busy iteniraries). Same logic here.
You can also argue that they may have looked for him by the river (might have been bath day plus the plague could happen there directly as a starting point), but before even kicking off this scene I was shown the throne room. Additionally, Moses is told to say: "over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds,", which means that the stretching out the hands has focus over the waters of Egypt that would contain frogs, not a single spot. In other words, he could simply have turned around in the throne room towards the door and stretched out his hand. Of course, I'm much more literal, so I would rather him stand by a river or pond and do it, but GOD is not going to expect Aaron to walk throughout the length and breadth of Egypt, looking for any semblance of frog habitat to stretch his hands over - that's being silly. I believe it was a sweeping move (like with the blood plague), because it is a single command. Plus it would've taken him a lot more than 7 days to go through all the land of Egypt to turn everything into blood that way, haha.
GOD is a lot more powerful than people give HIM credit for. HE made the universe and everything in it in 6 days (not millions of years, 6 literal days). I can't even make a proper full A3 canvas painting in 1 day, let alone all land animals. Just try wrapping your brain around ecosystems, life cycles, food chains, weather, etc. then try to harmonize everything so it can continue to exist without falling apart the minute something steps out of place... Just wow!
- GOD speaks
Naturally, GOD told Moses to go to Pharaoh. Unfortunately, I recorded it a touch too fast (I'm generally a very fast speaker, so it takes some serious concious thought not to do that). Thankfully, we have been given tools that can slow things down without changing pitch. When you slow speech down, you can easily sound slurred, but not in this case (soooo grateful! Thank YOU LORD!!!). It just required a 15% speed adjustment and it was perfect.
What a set of weeks indeed!
And on that extremely high point I am so thankful to everyone who reads, comments and watches! Thank you!
Biggest thanx to GOD for helping me with this. Without HIM, none of this would be possible! :D
Know JESUS yet?
To find out more, you can check out this link:
http://www.crossallegiance.org/knowJesus.html
It gives you access to free Bible translations, free teaching videos and more. Remember, this is a decision with eternal consequence, choose life, choose JESUS. :D
Have a great one!!!
Thank YOU!!!!!!
Posted by Marius Oberholster. Posted In : WIP
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!
