Marble Decomposition

[DocWhite]

Hello people from odforce. I am starting this topic because I would like to see progression in my project meanwhile I can have the chance to get some advice from you for working efficiently. I will tell you about the project I am working on.

Me and my friend are working in a short-film called Self-Seeker. Is about the loss of childhood primary values, such as innocence, simplicity and creativity. We defend that pinnacles as essential for the development of the adulthood stage. The film is about a guy that forgot what I mentioned. Then he, all of a sudden, starts having apparitions of the child he was and he forgot... OK that might not matter to you but it is just an overall view. If you want it you can see a provisional TRAILER, but it is not finished yet, so please don't consider it.

The short-film has some visual effects, but very simple (I started doing something serious this September, so I am quite newbie). In the most important scene the adult finds a child he had been seeking, and he suddenly decomposes into marbles (glass balls) that fall to the ground and start bouncing. I thought the best way was to do it in Houdini, so I had such a great challenge, because I am quite lost with it. However. I think I found an initial direction at least, I consider it a nice way. I had some help as well by one of our demonstrators.

So far I got the footage, and a Houdini file. Firstly I want to shot you the footage. What I did was to tell the actor to enter his position and then leaving it WITHOUT stopping recording. So that I could mask him out easily and add the CG part. Then I would model a mesh approximating its shape to the real actor's silhouette. I would fill that mesh volume with particles and then add the forces for simulation.

This kind of storyboard is the idea I want to get. What are the most challenging issues for me? Shading and simulating mainly... I will attach my node graph I created in Houdini and a flipbook I exported. The one in the right is the internal part of the popnet1 node. This is what my nodes look like:

And HERE the flipbook preview. The mesh is provisional, I was just tweaking with the animation. Then the problem I see is that I cannot get randomisation when they are falling, I don't know where to put the noise, and which noise is better. Any idea about the best way to do it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1ddP3mTFr8

Many thanks, I will update it as long as I do new improvements.

Edited November 25, 2013 by DocWhite

[DocWhite]

I cannot delete THIS post. So I will have to stick with it...

Edited November 25, 2013 by DocWhite

[rafaelfs]

I cannot delete THIS post. So I will have to stick with it...

Cool idea. I would try to decrease the bounciness as well, so that the marbles start rolling sooner.

In your graph I would put the noise affecting velocity right before the collision POP. Start with low values and increase slowly.

I would also put an expression on the collision POP to randomize the gain tangent and normal. Something based on $ID, like fit01(rand($ID), 0.25, 0.75).

Keep us posted!

[DocWhite]

Cool idea. I would try to decrease the bounciness as well, so that the marbles start rolling sooner.

In your graph I would put the noise affecting velocity right before the collision POP. Start with low values and increase slowly.

I would also put an expression on the collision POP to randomize the gain tangent and normal. Something based on $ID, like fit01(rand($ID), 0.25, 0.75).

Keep us posted!

Thanks for the advice rafaelfs! I will let you know mate!