How Your Face Changes In Different Lighting

This was shared by Stephen Brooks, of Rubber Onion Animation on Facebook.

http://pixelbark.com/8664/how-your-face-changes-in-different-lighting

A short video showing how different lighting changes the expressions and overall appearance of the face. A really cool video.

ERASMUS PROGRAM - COMING SOON

Hey, all! I recently went to Lithuania with an Erasmus Intensive Program for Augmented Reality.
The last two weeks have been crazy for me, so I've not been able to sit down and work on blogging about it, but rest assured, I will be! Check back here later for it!

RayFire test

EDIT: http://youtu.be/1eAB4ZecrVY
The above link shows the awesome power of RayFire

I got my grubby mitts on a trial copy of RayFire. I did this test to try it out.

The Plane is a Static Object, the Ball is a solid object and the box is fractured. When it collides with the other objects, it shatters.

Modelling a Tank top

For my Simulation project, clothes will be simulated in 3Ds Max.To make the clothing, you use the Line Tool and draw out the panels and stitch them together, like you would in real life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMOjtxk8AaQ
The video above is a tutorial for making a tank top.

First attempt:

To make the vest, I used this image to draw the base of the shape.

First attempt. The shoulder straps connected fine, but the side seams would not. To fix this, I just need to extend the sides out a little further.

I found that if you simulate so far, then remove the "Use Seams" option, then simulate local again, it removes the seam lines and replaces them with edges, filling in the gaps.

I decided to test it on the Muscle Man rig, or "Goliath" as I call him. I have a lot to fix with this vest, but it's getting underway nicely.

**SIDE NOTE**

Once the clothes are simulated, it's possible to export it as an .obj and use a modeling program, like Zbrush or Sculptress to add more detail to it. Although I wont be doing that in this project, it's something to bear in mind!

Hair Simulation

I made a Mohawk and a mustache for the model. I also added stubble to the head, where the head has been shaved, leaving the hawk.

I want to add a vest to the model, but I'm having a little trouble with the Garment Editor at the moment. I'll be looking at fixing this, however.

This will be a test for my Simulation final piece. I am looking at simulating a model in a long coat swinging through a window, then kicking another model with a Mohawk. I'm debating whether the Mohawk character will ragdoll down, or have him hurl the character in the coat through another window, ragdolling him.

The simulation elements would be, Cloth, Hair, Breakable object using Voronoi Frature, and Ragdoll. 

Voronoi Fracture Script for 3Ds Max

http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/fracture-voronoi

The website has a whole heap of scripts for Max to use. Linked is the Voronoi Fracture script.

I have also made a tutorial for how to use the Voronoi Script

https://mega.co.nz/#!lZYmDSQJ!QyaG5IWmIs55MFEeFqF3PYANQnWcGFu-TBCyVC8ZG0c

Lighting and Camera Settings

All of my renders are set the same way. 3-point lighting and a 50mm Camera.

Keylight - Intensity Setting 1.0. This replicates the main source of light, i.e the sun or a lamp

Fill Light added - Intensity Setting 0.1. The Fill light softens the shadows.

Back Light Added. Intensity Setting - 1.0. This light sharpens the back lines of the character.

The Camera Setting I use is a 50mm lens. Why do I use that? It is a ‘normal’ or ‘standard lens’: Don’t let the words normal standard mislead you. By normal it means perspective rendered by the 50mm matches the human eye. So it gives a natural look to the images.

The Renders are all Rendered out to Quicktime .mov and uncompressed. I import them to After Effects to add sound in the case of the Lip Sync, or to "stitch" together the multi angle shots, or repeat the sequence a few times for ease of viewing.

When I Render them from AE, I render them with a H.264 video codec for the final uploads, or Uncompressed to put on Youtube, as Youtube compresses to H.246 anway. Any audio is rendered out as .AAC 48Hz