3D Nature shots

This summer we had an interesting opportunity at work to create some nature scenes. Check the movie at the end of the article

The type of nature we were looking for is the karstic jurassic scenes of Jura (not sure about the geological correctness of it). We created 3 sets of shots, a blueish one, another yellowish, and finally a night shot. In the end we edited them nicely so we do not feel too much the differences.

We used those shots as background and integrated the images and footages provided by the client. Here are few examples of end result (using open movies content as placeholders).

We managed to create a nice 2 minutes movie of nature background and front content from the client. As usual the trick to manage all those shots in only a few days, was to create a small library of assets that we could reuse. Those included stones, rocks, trees, pine trees, leaves, plants and flowers (all plants were just 2d planes) and more low-res rocks

The movie was used internally so we can not show the company’s content, but instead I made a small edit of just the 3D Scenes, including a small “behind the scenes” sequence.

Here is the result (Edit of only the 3D scenes)

 

 

Create a sci-fi image in one hour, and why I could do it.

This week I was browsing the web when I fell on an image that struck me. As usual the image was downloaded and put in my “inspiration” folder, a place where there are all sort of stuff that must be checked back later , either to analyze, study from, get inspired or maybe try to recreate a similar atmosphere or effect depicted in that image. The image can be found here : www.connector3d.com (made by moth3r.com)

So yesterday I had some free time and I wanted to redo this strong contrasted image, of a pure white light illuminating a kind of spaceship dock or bay. Here is the image that took me around one hour to create (not counting rendering 20mins)

As you can see this is fairly detailed and that is the point I want to focus on today :reusing pre-modeled greebles freely available.

Here is the quick process creating this image :

First I block some basic shapes (very classic in itself, the aim of exercise was more of lighting). I could have gone more hexagonal, or with stronger silhouette.

Then I remembered having seen some pretty good greeble blend swap file.  Here is the file (http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/45973), and once again it is done by Kuhnindustries, who is an amazing modeler!

I do believe those kind of blendswaps are the most useful ones. Small elements that you can reuse and assemble in a bigger set/model/scene, just like Lego bricks. If you know of some other ones feel free to comment below, I will add them here

So again thanks Kuhnindustries for all your models! If you ever meet me, you get a few free drinks 🙂

p.s. Someone on Twitter rightfully mentionned that this image has no real Point of Interest. In fact the original image had some text in the center, so here is an updated version, with something to look at 🙂

A journey through Architecture and Openworked Creations

Finally there is some interesting commercial project worth mentioning on the blog : “A journey through Architecture and Openworked Creations” , for swiss watch manufacturer Vacheron Constantin .

Openworked technique known in french as “skeleton” , is the art of opening the watch movement so that one can see through it.

here is the movie :

We had to create 3 different 3D universes, each inspired by one of the watch models. Elements of inspiration include shapes, curves and the gravure patterns.

Rendered in cycles (600 samples) on 2 PC. One with Nvidia GTX 690 and the other with GTX 660. Each frame took an average of 15 minutes to render with a maximum of 31 minutes ( when the train passes very close and generates lot of motion blur on the first scene (train station)).

Golden smoke particles are Particular in after effects, we also used Bartek Skorupa’s awesome script for importing blender cameras inside AE . Thanks man! This movie was made at RGBprod.

here is a gallery of some making-of images  :

train and locomotive based on great CC models by  KuhnIndustries and seavenois. Thanks guys

Nearly a year + 5min tutorial

Oh yes…. I thought I’d post something just before nov 17th… So nobody can blame me for not writing on this blog for over a year…
Still it’s very lame from me… but I have excuses …
And no there is absolutely no excuses for letting a blog die !!
Nevertheless we had the pleasure to have a second cool baby (A warm Hello to the handsome Louis that will maybe read me in 10 years from the future !) and thus did a bit less 3D work, more 2D , editing etc…

But now I’m back on track. And it starts with a new 5 minutes tutorial.

I love the 5 min tutorial format. It’s fast and effective… It is also more suited for intermediate/upper users, as it does not allow the time to explain all operations in detail, but draft out general ideas of a specific technique or trick. Fell free to ask for help in the comments.

And lastly, I am working on a nice 3d animation project at RGBprod studio… more to be unveiled at end of january.

Thanks