More Test Renders

Better test renders! I did some tweaking on the particle debris by copy-stamping some geometry onto them, and did some test renders with the textures, displacements, and lighting. I tried caching out a version of the fracture that had smaller fracture pieces, but Houdini kept crashing... Not sure what I'm going to do about that yet but hopefully I can find a solution to that soon.

Hand Crumble Test Render

First test render of the crumbling hands! I definitely need to make the particle debris larger, since it's very difficult to see here. Also have some kinks to work out with the normals. But given it's a simple test render I put together in about 5 minutes, I'm pretty happy with it. Lots of work left do though.

This is a flipbook of what the FX animation will look like. Thanks to Cat McDonnell for the character animation in this shot! Looks pretty sweet!

Tree Branch Test

Now that my crumble sim works, I've got more time to work on my tree model and rig. Here's a short test I did with a twisty tree branch moving along a flow path in Maya.

Hand Crumble

Finally got my crumbling hand simulation working! Been having trouble getting the fracture to stick with the deforming geometry, but I finally figured that out (after 3 weeks of intense google searches and a lot of fiddling around), and here are the results! Still have some small tweaking to do, and I have to add the debris back in, but it's ready just in time for render tests!

My Character Is Naked No Longer

Hurray for clothes! I'd been waiting for months for SVA to get Marvelous Designer for the computer labs, and two weeks ago they finally did! I spent a half a day playing around to learn the interface, and it's such a great program. Since I already know how to sew and make clothing patterns, it was so easy to make the garments I had imagined! After exporting it from MD, I retopo-ed it using Maya and ZBrush so I can do cloth simulations later on. Next up I have to do sculpt in some clothing details in ZBrush for my normal map and start texturing them. What I have in mind is really cool, I can't wait to show you!

Announcing My New Website, ElanaLederman.com!

So this is unrelated to my thesis, but I just want to plug my new website where you can see all of my work! You can find my demo reel, resume, CG work, fine arts work, and photography all in one great place! Just go to ElanaLederman.com to view my work. Thanks!

Environment Images

So I realized that I never actually posted any images of my environments. The interior models are courtesy of the talented Arnald Andujar, while I have been modeling the outdoors (which is not complete yet and will have a cool overgrown garden). I'm starting the textures this week so pretty soon these will come to life!

Ash Particle Test Render

Just started doing test renders for my ash effect. I think I'm going to copy some geometry on there to add variation, but it's starting to really look like ash. Next I'm going to add volume to my character to make it seem like more than a shell.

Flow Test Render

Here's the first (of many) test renders of my flow effects! I want it to look like a mix between particle fire and liquid gold. I'll definitely have to keep playing around with the colors and the glow, but I think it's pretty cool for the first one!

Adding Wispy Particles

Starting to layer my particle systems! Still a WIP, of course, but getting closer.

More Wrinkles!

I finished the wrinkles on the old woman's face! She's looking nice and ancient now, but not too scary, which is what I was aiming for. Can't wait to start texturing her (and adding hair) to maker her really shine.

Flow Improvements!

Flipbook video

Pscale variation test render

Finally made some big improvements on my flow animation! I was having trouble with my previous technique when I went to test it with the curve force in my moving tree branch, so I had to research new methods. I stumbled upon this nifty method when looking at Houdini's curve force pop sample scene. It takes the particles from a flip fluid and runs them through a curve force pop, then adds some curl noise into the mix with pop force. I started playing around with this set-up using my own curves and parameters, and it's so much closer to what I've been looking for, and it can be comped under my tree branch much more easily. I'm really excited about how this is turning out now!

Particle Layers

Starting to layer more particles into my shatter simulation! I advected particles from a smoke simulation I did, and later I'm going to time shift them to start when the shatter hits the floor. Should look pretty cool!

My particle flow simulation is really starting to come together! I've got two particle simulations inside the tube here, and it's really starting to get that slithering feel that I want. Still more to do in terms of getting little swirls in there, but this is a big improvement already.

Making My Lady Look Ancient

Just started going into ZBrush to add wrinkles and texture to my character's face. I'm not sure how far I'm going to push the wrinkles, since I'm not doing a photo realistic style and I still want my old lady to be sweet looking. She's starting to look less cartoon-y though, which I really like.

All We Are Is Dust In The Wind

Particle WIP! At the end of my story, my character turns to ash and dust in the wind, so I created this simulation as a proof of concept. Particles are birthed from the surface of my character based on an animated color noise, and the faces of my character are deleted when the red color value gets above a certain point. I added in a POP wind node with some swirl and turbulence just to add some movement. It's a decent start, I think. I need to continue exploring how the character's surface is eliminated, possibly with a clip SOP, and also need to add in some layered particles to make it look like my character is really made of ash and dust before blowing away. But definitely a good start.

Crumble WIP

Here's a WIP i've been working on of my crumble animation! As my character moves, her body falls apart on her, like a rock under stress. With this simulation, I tested out ways to trigger the shattering effect so that only the parts I want to shatter will be triggered. Though you can't see it, there is an expanding box in the scene that triggers the animation whenever a piece enters its volume. Debris particles are birthed when the shatter effect happens too. Now that I know I can trigger the animation when I want to, I can start fine-tuning it, working on smoke effects and art directing what the fractures will look like. Should be fun!

Particles, particles, everywhere!

I've been slowly working on my flow animation for thesis, messing around with different particle effects to get the swirling, slithering particles that flow beneath the surface of my tree. I came up with some cool stuff, and had a lot of fun doing it. Definitely learned a lot too. All of these were made in Houdini.

Character Design

Here is the design for the main character in my thesis project. The design was made by the talented Courtney Scriven! She's going to look amazing once I've modeled and textured her.

Welcome!

Welcome to the blog for my short film / thesis project, tentatively titled "The Gardener"! The story is about a frail old woman at the end of her life who uses all of her talents - gardening, tinkering, and even a little mysticism and magic - for one last desperate attempt at rejuvenation and immortality. I'll be posting about my progress here over the next year, so I hope you'll follow and enjoy! Thanks!