This short film from Patrick Jean and One More Production was originally listed at Daily Motion I think. I caught site of it at Motionographer. This is one of those concepts that is so original in its design and execution that you can watch it over and over and not really tire of it (at least from the perspective of a curious artist). It incorporates both video (obviously) and motion graphics / 3D to create a barrage of 1980s and 1990s video game “bits” that convert to pixels a modern city an ultimately the planet. Fantastic stuff! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Well it appears that this has been a work in progress for many months (maybe years), and that our 3D guru Alex Roman actually uses a pseudonym for publishing public works. There is quite a nice interview, complete with screen caps of his model wireframes and finished renders, and some explanation of how he created this amazing work, at autodesk.com.
But probably the biggest point of interest for 3D artists who want to follow in Alex’ footsteps, is that if you use Cinema 4D (which is generally a much more friendly application than 3DS Max), you can take advantage of the amazing Vray rendering technology just as 3DS and Maya users can. There is a plugin called VrayforC4D that is available for C4D R11, and R10.x. The latest is version 1.1, and it is a little pricey (over $1000US) but the plugin has been tightly integrated with the Cinema UI and makes it very easy to use in your workflow. Version 1.2, which will be the version that supports C4D R11.5, should be out in the near future I’m hoping. Gotta start saving some pennies for this as architectural photography is a big part of what I do.
Remember the name Alex Roman… I know nothing about this guy on a personal level, but you’ll want to remember. Because he is about the closest thing to a Renaissance man in the digital age that I have seen yet. His movie, called “The Third & The Seventh“, is probably the single most inspiring piece of 3D animation and compositing I’ve ever seen.
Watch it in full-screen HD if you can.
The most amazing thing about this project is that he evidently completed the entire project by himself! That’s 12 minutes worth of animated models, dynamic lighting, photo-real textures, compositing and post-production… even the freakin music production! I fully intend to track this guy down somehow (I’m sure he’s got 47 job offers and 4700 pieces of fan mail sitting in his inbox) and interview him if I can, to bring you the skinny on how he did it.
For those who are lucky enough to have found a career in the creative arts, it’s often difficult to find the time to expand our educational horizons. “Going back to school” or taking evening courses at the local arts college, even when affordable, can be very time consuming or downright inconvenient. However, those looking for a full-time learning experience in the world of motion graphics and video production, there is a fantastic (and very affordable) alternative to college enrollment.
FXPHD is a one-of-a-kind “online school” that has a rotating schedule of classes focused on all the latest video technologies from Apple, Adobe, Autodesk and Maxon, as well as traditional cinematography topics like filming and direction. Rather than just teaching software functions, FXPHD instructors -many of whom work on feature films, TV shows and other Hollywood productions- focus on real problem solving workflows used in the industry. Each 10 week term offers a new “catalog” of courses that you can sign up for. The cost is under $400 for the standard setup, which gets you their Background Fundamentals course plus three electives that you choose, based on the types of workflows and software you want to learn.
Each week you download a new video and set of working materials from your “class schedule” page, which allows you to work on the lessons when you have time, and to follow along creating things as you go. This is a pretty time-intensive approach compared to traditional video tutorial products, however it’s much preferable to spending the time and money on even a part-time college course load IMHO. Once you’re 10 week session is up you can keep all the video lessons, and then have a look at the new courses being offered for the next 10 weeks. While a few popular courses are given every term, most are different each term so that you can branch out and learn new software and workflows as you develop your skills. For those with a little more time on their hands (that means you, part-time undergrads!) For Cinema 4D training Tim Clapham handles all of the courses there (last I checked); that alone should give you an idea of the quality. I definitely recommend you check it out.
For users of programs like Maya, Max and C4D it’s often the case that when you need to create realistic, natural scenes, you have to go to another program to get that done, because it is a pretty specialized task. The tools you use for sculpting land mass objects, working with liquids and vapors / atmospherics, and other natural phenomenon are different. Even the way these types of scenes are rendered is different than your typical scene with shiny bouncing spheres and particles. Enter e-On Software’s Vue family of products. Vue is to natural 3D landscapes (think Pirates of the Caribbean) what Photoshop is to digital images or what Cinema 4D is to complex particle animations.
As it happens I was checking out a book this morning on Vue 7 at the local book shop, and it got me revved up to jump into some 3D landscape work, potentially as part of a new book I’m authoring. So what do I find with my first web search but the fact that a brand new version -Vue 8- was released this past week and offers a pretty huge array of improvements to terrain modeling workflows in particular and also atmospherics. It’s worth reading up on the different versions of Vue though, because there are about 6 or 7 of them, each tailored to a particular audience so the workflow is as simple as possible for that group (which is pretty cool if a bit confusing at first).
In the near future I hope to provide some integrated Cinema 4D – Vue 8 tutorials, because you can export your Vue scenes out directly as C4D object files, which is pretty sweet. That should mean we can tag said objects with Rigid Body dynamics and really make things work together with MoGraph or other animated projects.
3rd & 7th Update
Well it appears that this has been a work in progress for many months (maybe years), and that our 3D guru Alex Roman actually uses a pseudonym for publishing public works. There is quite a nice interview, complete with screen caps of his model wireframes and finished renders, and some explanation of how he created this amazing work, at autodesk.com.
But probably the biggest point of interest for 3D artists who want to follow in Alex’ footsteps, is that if you use Cinema 4D (which is generally a much more friendly application than 3DS Max), you can take advantage of the amazing Vray rendering technology just as 3DS and Maya users can. There is a plugin called VrayforC4D that is available for C4D R11, and R10.x. The latest is version 1.1, and it is a little pricey (over $1000US) but the plugin has been tightly integrated with the Cinema UI and makes it very easy to use in your workflow. Version 1.2, which will be the version that supports C4D R11.5, should be out in the near future I’m hoping. Gotta start saving some pennies for this as architectural photography is a big part of what I do.