wallpaper

had this one laying around for some time now. While RnDing I came up with this sim. Nice random result..

to do list for mon 18th august

Ben: Finish shot 9 (pan up)
Make interior shot 7 (van gogh dissolve)
Finish shot 5 (first fx shot)
Retouch shot 6 (pan across multiple flats)


Coen: Finish shot 11 (flats in background)
Finish shot 8 (basketball court)
Make Particle sim last shot

If that's done this week we have 5 days for tuning everything in place. Important since it pulls everything together. I'd like to spend some more time on the soundtrack as well.

That's it,

Cheers Coen

been a while

So far so busy. After the mid term crits we started to work on our shots and at this point we seem to be mid way. I'm (Coen) Applying the main fx (dissolve + extrusion techniques) and Ben is doing the interior design / comp jobs. Seems to be working out okay.

I've got two quick comp jobs to give an impression on where we're heading at the moment. One involves a dissolve based on a van Gogh painting and the basketball court uses an other color based technique. No interiors have been applied yet. I noticed that the painting based technique can give really good, organic results. This seems to work well for close up shots. I decided to use the impressionist paintings as a starting point for color, and although van Gogh isn't an impressionist his use of strokes and tones seem to match in most cases. Here's a quick example of how the modified picture (for the dissolve) looks like:



And the two quick comps:

shot9_test

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nTFjVm9sTQ&feature=related

temporary edit

So here's our edit. Backplates have been cleaned and color correction is applied

Here's what to do per shot:

Shot 5: Dissolve windows guided by music. Inside extrusions in y axis till it bursts out the roof.

Shot 6: Dissolve of the 3 center buildings leaving only sidebars. Extrude to new form. Should already be in progress the moment we see the shot.

Shot 7: Fast dissolve based on van Gogh painting. Inside = Weird staircase.

Shot 8: Dissolve playground around the lines. Extrusions inside to different levels based on various bright colors.

Shot 9: Dissolve the block in the lower part of the shot revealing new colors. The actual building dissolves in selections revealing wired interior. This should be a facade based on depth.

Shot 10: Reveal the yellow > grey to yellow.

Shot 11: Buildings in the background should be made into forming cubical shapes.

Shot 12: Make entire shot grey, reveal the yellow in the middle row. Place new structure in the visible block > wire based would be nice.


That's it, Cheers Coen

cameramatches done

All 9 shots have been matched. Time for dummy geo

target list week 4

An edit has been made + soundtrack. Might be a bit long but so far it's doable. The shots that needed to be match moved have been tracked as well. So for this week:

Coen:
Dummy Geo + Asset Creation (rounding up) and some per shot research

Ben:
BackPlate cleaning and initial color correction, Dummy Geo and some per shot research

That's all!

dissolve with wave extrusion

While capturing I started to look at different ways to let the geometry come up before it cuts loose in it's extruded form. I ended up with a wave like shape, easy adjustable and fast in processing. It's also possible to let it come up but not go down. So that it reaches it's final hight at the top of the extrusion. For some reason I liked this one better, more organic with a better flow. See example below (wow, it rhymes)

A small selection - Bratislava

Bratislava and Target List week 3

We're back and it has to be said, Bratislava was amazing! For both the backplates and the nightlife it was more then we could have hoped for.

After wondering around for five days I'm convinced we have the right footage for our project. The communist housing district on the other side of the river was something I've never seen before. Both beautiful and challenging in it's own ways. And that's exactly what we were looking for. I'd like to thank Simon for his company on this trip. You helped us out tremendously! Hopefully you're footage turns out to be perfect.

For now: this week's target list is the edit (coen and ben), the soundtrack (coen and ben) and some more concept art (ben) / system development (coen). All of it should be done (or progressed (system development)) by monday.

Next to that we're thinking of making two projects. One with the emphasis on the effects and one more on the general feel, creating a short movie.

We'll post some pictures of the shoot as soon as possible, stills and some taken by Ben's SLR.

That's it,

Cheers Coen

first test comp

Hmm, so heres my first test comp. From the amount of time I spent on it the results are far from satisfactory. (its probably too small to appreciate). The main problems I had was trying to get a sense of substance to the dissolving surface. As the particles peeled away the underlying texture doesn't have any depth to it resulting in a fake look. Obviously extruding would have helped but due to the cooking time I didn't want to attempt this (was already pretty heavy). Also i think we should steer away from having the internal structure reforming into the original surface, will be hard to get it looking right. As far as coens system is concerned its all looking pretty sweet. The particles peel away nicely and look great as they go past the camera. The motion blur does wonders. I think this backplate really shows why we should keep away from any foliage, apart from dictating the colour palette, the effect of the wind on the plants jars against the movement of the particles. But we knew this anyway :) I'm going to move on the the wide shot and hopefully have better luck with creating some nice looking internal structures. Need to have at least one example ready before the tutorial on Thursday with Phil.

Going to stay with my brother on the Thursday night, ready for an early start on the Friday to catch the plane. It's a good 3 hours drive so i think its best we cut this as best as possible. Cameras all booked and done, was nice and easy. The only thing I have left to do is to arrange the long stay car park, but need to decide exactly when we will arrive and depart on the friday and tuesday.

that is all


Ben

hostel booked

Okay, hostel's booked. We're staying in the red star hostel situated in the town center of Bratislava. Had to pay a deposit of 15 pounds but we'll split the rest of the expenses when we get there.

From the airport (Letisko)

Take bus number 61 in the direction of ‘Hlavna Stanica’ (Main railway station) and get off at the 16th stop called ‘Trnavske myto’. Then go to the tram stop and take the tram number 1 in the direction of ‘Dubravka, Pri krizi’. Get off at the 8th stop called ‘Botanicka Zahrada’. The whole thing will take 44 minutes and the price of the ticket is 44SKK.

http://www.hostelredstar.com/index.php?action=inside

More Advanced Dissolve

Trying to make a more accurate color driven dissolve system. Sorting of the primitives based on it's value and position. Also working on a way to use groups in patterns. Here's a test from yesterday.

Influential Architecture

I'm going to use this post as a place to upload any particular images that really suggest the direction in which I want the look of the recreated interiors to go. I'll be looking primarily at Architects/Artists that use interesting structures but also at how they use light, reflections and colour in relation to the primary forms.

Most of these were suggested by Coens friend Martijn, so thanks for that.



TADAO/ANDO







Beckmann-N'Thepe




James Turell



What I think is most important from these images is the use of simple shapes to create ideas of depth and complexity. Something I really plan on developing into the revealed structures.

I'll update this post as I go

Ben

dissolving waveform

Cause it looks cool


Next to that we went for a testshoot in Bournemouth today. To get some buildings for testing purposes. Found some good ones, results should be in end of this week.

Bratislava it is

After considering various options to shoot our backplate, the cheapest and best one is Bratislava.
A beautiful town center surrounded by 40 years of communist concrete.

We will be flying the 4th of juli from stansted and will return the 8th.

Exact times are:
depart: friday 4th of juli: depart 9:50 and arrive 13:00 (local time)
return: tuesday 8th juli: depart 22:30 and arrive 23:45 (local time)

We can bring along 3 pieces of hand luggage and 2 cases. We need to check in at the airport some time in advance. We'll fly from stansted and land in bratislava.

Would be cool to do some research on forehand, where to shoot and where to drink. Next to that a cheap hostel has to be booked...

Gonna be some good times

procedural melting box test

To kick the testing off I've made a particle driven extrude system to open and close specific spaces
inside a room. It's unlikely that we'll use it in the end but you've got to start somewhere.

Week 1 target list

Both:
Decide where to shoot backplate > Katowice Poland or Bratislava Slovakia

Set date and book tickets

Film random building in Bournemouth for first system and look development tests

Ben:
Research various forms of Architecture and start / complete first look development tests.

Coen:
Research various dissolve systems, including extrusion and apply these to the videofootage.

Research eventual procedural modelling techniques according to ben's research.

Presentation + Dissolve Tests