Here are some of my final projects I have been working on for CG school.
Matte painting (photoshop) Brooklyn being destroyed (with lasers)
Brookyln destroyed (no lasers)
Original background image:
Full CG: Built, rigged, textured and animated robot. CG talk: IK skeleton with softbind on neck, IK legs, head is aim constrained to an invisible target so it follows target. Textured with photoshop, used UV unwrapping and pelting tools (thank God for that), mapped color, specular, bump, glow, incandescent maps onto robot. Animated image sequences are from videos I edited for this project. This is just a test shot, so I will be working on a complete CG film soon. Light fog and glows, shading networks include procedural and texture shaders, a lot of layered shaders and environment reflection maps. Most of the surfaces were done with Blinn with a very high diffuse value. The light scattered all across the surface. My goal was photoreal, but was only able to achieve 50% of that goal because I am using only Maya Software renderer, next year will start a class on advanced Mental ray which will give me great potential to achieve photorealism through HDRI, final gather and global illumination. Caustics too. DOF was achieved through connection a measure tool from camera to a focal point. Completely dynamic.
Two video sequencse I edited for the project. They are entitled, "memories of an immortal" if you look at the CG scene above, you can see some of the panels are showing these clips.
Clips taken from Ray and Sarah's wedding as well as trip back to Taiwan
Dynamics and Particles Tests: - 2D fluids, debris instancer with expressions to control random rotation and scale, parented radial fields to feet so they make indentations in the ground, softbody ground has zero conserve, expression driven light intensity based on laser light emitter rate, smoke puff collision events, dynamic hair curve with attached curve flow, ocean shader, animated texture time of water shader, 3D tracked snake onto bg plate, animated texture time on surface texture emission (clouds) with softbody "canvas", plasma ball done with custom shaders and paint fx, instancer robot army and flaming arrows, a lot more but didn't include in this reel because they suck
Been real busy in life. It's nice being young and having lots of energy. Focusing on particles and dynamics for visual effects, here are just a few things been working on. everything is animated and has motion to it:
This water snake (obviously inspired by Abyss) moves like a real snake and the water texture flows realistically!! The plasma ball has animated lightning and a soft shell that jiggles like water. Unforunately I haven't figured out how to make the lightning interact with the outer shell like a real plasma ball. It looks neat at least.
Particles emit from the dark areas in this ghastly looking smoky effect.
Well, what can I say? From the early brewings of an idea almost a year
ago (August 2005) till clicking the "RENDER MOVIE" button of my
non-linear editing software today...it's been a tremendous learning
experience to produce my latest short film: a 35 minute gangster saga
about loyalty, betrayal and of course, ninjas.
I remember I was in NYC for an open house at NYU when I discussed this
short film idea I had with dad at some Chinese restaurant. Three
months later, I had a rough script and with the help of Ray and other
friends, I set out to begin bringing the pieces of a grass-roots film
production together. Asking friends, putting in cast and crew
calls on websites, researching do-it-yourself equipment, visiting Loews
and Home Depot to buy odd items; sawing, drilling, hammering, sanding;
calling, hoping, discussing; praying, despairing, more praying; and finally,
breakthroughs on all fronts: people committing, film equipment (however
shoddy) being put together, actors memorizing their lines, friends
opening up their houses for us to shoot in...and finally, the first day
of production begins.
The beginnings of a new adventure is always filled with such a mixture
of emotions: excitement, worry, fun, frustration...snow storms pummeled
at us during the shoot, freezing cold temperatures hampered our
progress, broken props equipment, flaky actors giving everyone a hard
time, restless nights of stress, a few small triumphs but quickly
interrupted by more stress, why do I do this?
Any artist will attest to the joy and thrill of creating something
wonderful, something that is yours and above all, having an audience
who will appreciate the beautiful creation forged through countless
hours of blood, tears and sweat. There is no other feeling in my
life that has been able to match that. And so I strive to create
constantly, because that is what I was born to do.
Bullet of Life is my biggest film project to date. Spanning a
runtime of just under 35 minutes, it features an ensemble cast of
mostly my friends, and friends of friends, and one professional
actor. We used entirely plastic beebee guns (Ray so generously
contributed), Sally's basement, Ray's apartment, my basement and shot
guerilla style on the streets of DC, VA and other places...begging strangers for charity and to be a part of my
ambitious vision.
I spent several weeks in my basement
researching, designing and assembling a home-made dolly, steadicam, a
35mm adapter (which I never used), cheap light stands that fell over
and various thingamajigs that I used (to some extent) on the set.
The rest of the time was spent figuring out how to coordinate people's
schedules and how to transport things to and fro to locations and back,
driving there, setting up, shooting and trying to finish within a
reasonable hour, feeding people, then tearing down, cleaning up, thank
everyone, come home, collapse exhausted and then wake up to do it all
over again. Actual filming itself lasted 10 days over the month
of December 2005. The cold and the snow didn't make things any
easier.
Looking back, would I trade this experience for something else?
Absolutely not. Everything and anything went wrong during the
production, but filmmaking is a mini-life, a small adventure, almost a
metaphor for life in general...and it is all so sweet.
After filming, I spent the next 8+ months in post-production, not
constantly, as I had school and a job, but many hours nonetheless, and
this stage was perhaps the most tedious and frustrating of all.
All my weaknesses as an artist bubbled to the surface, all my mistakes
and shortcomings, lack of foresight, lack of skill, lack of anything
and everything all became magnified on my computer screen and I
witnessed first hand how limited I was, how narrow-minded my world-view
was, how silly and insignificant were my previously held confidences as
an artist, and how miraculous the sovereignty of God had helped me
emerge through the whole process with enough material to complete a
rudimentary independent film that I could be remotely proud of.
I was greatly humbled, I held my head down low, I acknowledged my need
to learn, I prayed for wisdom, I asked for forgiveness.
Forgiveness? Yes, for all the years I wasted, not being more
passionate to attend to my duties. Many times, I was ashamed of
my creation, ambitious and impressive as it was, I still held it up,
examined it with disgust, focusing on its flaws...wondering how on
earth did I ever create something of such low caliber. But I did
not forget all the times when grace was granted to so unworthy a
craftsman and I looked up and thanked him.
Perhaps I am being too hard on myself, but on the lighter side of
things, I am content with my discontent, and now i hunger all the more
to create increasingly better art, my weaknesses exposed in the
limelight, I have been rudely awakened, convictions shaken and passions
renewed, and now...I shall continue to strive towards greatness with
the almighty at my side, and pray that one day, I shall stand before
the great throne hearing the words, "well done, good and faithful
servant."
Bullet of Life is complete. Amen, and it is just the beginning.
