robert.magee Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 There is a new case study on sidefx.com profiling Sony Pictures Imageworks use of Houdini for Beowulf.... http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com...1&Itemid=68 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rafal123 Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 (edited) from what I've seen in the trailer, there are many, ughly lighted and rendered with ugly skin shaders on them, characters, whoot you others think? p.s I bet the movie is great show but just wanna know what you think about lighting and rendering(characters) maybe it's just me or maybe it doesn't matter coz eyes can adapt to that kind of rendering through the movie and it's fine, I haven't found any article about it, I mean Zemeckis wanted that kind of final look? p.s 2 FX houses compete with themself, right? So ILM made incredible skin for Pirates and IMO it looks incredible(right everybody know that) but would be cool to hear if company who made that - is that all what they could do? p.s 3 Look at the link Robert put, the character at the top of the page looks like has the same shader for skin and hair, funny Edited November 28, 2007 by Rafal123 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest xionmark Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 Not much detail for a case study ... We all know it wasn't *that* easy to pull off, right? Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andz Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 I haven't watched the movie yet, but from the trailers I noticed the same weird expressions on facial motion capture as Polar Express. http://wardomatic.blogspot.com/2004/12/pol...n-wreck_18.html This link has some good photoshoped images for comparison. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIguel P Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 I saw the movie and I really enjoyed it. Not only the 3d part, but also the story. I think the characters look great (with some exceptions). That sequence in the ship with the rain (the first image in the page) was impressive, really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rafal123 Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 (edited) [quote name='MIguel P Edited December 2, 2007 by Rafal123 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted December 2, 2007 Share Posted December 2, 2007 Trailers are categorically not good enough to judge a movie by. You're welcome to judge the movie as much as you want, but only after you've seen it... IMHO anyway. I think the facial stuff has come a long way since Polar Express... it's still got a long way to go, but I think if you see the movie then you'll be pleasantly surprised. M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
photex Posted December 3, 2007 Share Posted December 3, 2007 ...but I think if you see the movie then you'll be pleasantly surprised. I happily fell into this category. It's been a while since I had such a good time at a movie. The only thing I didn't care for was the story but that's just a personal preference thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rafal123 Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 check it out LA houdniks: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=59&t=567883 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el_diablo Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 Anyone know if any Houdini fluid stuff was used in the movie? I see fire, water etc... Or was it just DOPs that was used? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 No, the H9 fluid tools weren't used for Beowulf. Depending on what we're talking about we either used a custom in house solver (in Houdini), Maya fluids or a custom tool to fake water ripples/splashes etc. M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el_diablo Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 Thanks for the info, Marc. I guess the speed was the issue? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 No, the real issue was that H9 was still in alpha, and the production decided to stick with known tools since the deadline was pretty short. Plus all the fire tools had been written for Ghost Rider, so it wasn't feasible to rewrite those for Beowulf. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el_diablo Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 Yes, I forgot about the timeframe... So generaly if one needed a more specialized and faster fluid tools there is no problem to do it as custom OPs? I'm thinking in terms of Jos Stam papers (realtime one and others). Custom viewport display is also a possibility? What I miss in Houdini is more interactive tools (which is of course linked to speed of execution, and display feedback and custom controls). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 Well, it's not 'no problem' to write custom solver ... but they definitely have the advantage of being specifically tailored to the job at hand. Of course, having the person who coded it sitting down the hall doesn't hurt either. But that's also the flaw in custom tools, being that they're tailored specifically to the current needs of the show, and they require either a lot of planning beforehand or a lot of work after the fact to make them into a more general solution that can apply to other shows. No fluid system is perfect yet, in my experience you're always juggling the pros and cons of each one based on the needs of the production. In my opinion Houdini's dynamics system is very nearly the best of the lot, especially with the integration of the rigid bodies, soft bodies and fluid/smoke systems... now all they need to do is to bash on the speed and stability of it all (especially cloth) and we'll have a winner. M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rafal123 Posted December 7, 2007 Share Posted December 7, 2007 one more Beowulf article: http://www.tomsgames.com/us/2007/11/21/beowulf_3d/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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