Festival of light

Huddersfield hosted its festival of light event on Friday in the town centre. Around 5000 people turned out to watch the aerobatics spectacle, here are a few snaps.

New Moon!

Good news from Pikcells UK, our director Steve and his wife Vicky had a beautiful little baby girl a few weeks ago, Annabelle Rose Mooney.

Have some of this, evil!

A few of us took a bit of a break from rendering excellence on Friday to do a bit of pumpkin wittling. We hope this is a warning to all the evil spirits which might put gremlins in our render farm or give us the blue screen of death the night before a deadline.

Left to right; Rich – Boosh skull, Ant – Tim Burton’s Jack frost?!, Deano – Your man Jack’ O ‘Lantern.

 

Venus Lectures

I went down to London with a couple of friends a few weeks back to see Jacque Fresco and Roxanne Meadows talk about and discuss their radical plans for society named The Venus Project.

The lectures were at the City University London and were a bit of an introduction to the movement. Being  a bit of a nerd on this subject, I was disappointed there wasn’t more in the any of new ideas but it was interesting to see the now 90+ Fresco discussing his ideas and [Sort of] answering some of the many questions.

They have some very progressive ideas on how we should be living which includes the complete redesign of society along with utilising the most up to date materials, architectural design and technology as opposed to sticking with established and outdated methods.

Fresco claims all this can be created with today’s knowledge and technology and if it still seems too  sci-fi then this paraphrasing from Arthur C Clarke [Also used by the Venus Project] may help a little.

Like all revolutionary new ideas, the subject has to pass through three stages, summed up by these reactions:

1 ‘It’s crazy, don’t waste my time. ‘

2 ‘It’s possible, but it’s not worth doing.’

3 ‘I always said it was a good idea.’”

You can check out their ideas here; http://www.thevenusproject.com/

Mental Ray test renders

A while ago we had some models left over from a project and thought we would produce some conceptual images of an office environment then have a play around with the Mental Ray rendering engine. Here is the result;

We used the Mr photographic exposure controls and some of the camera effects. All the set is designed by us from scratch.

Dim Sum, Urbis and free wine!

The 4 of us trotted over to Manchester on Friday to give Dan a bit of a send off before he goes of to Perth on a wreccie. We stopped in at Tai Wu on Oxford St to sample some of the superb dim sum buffet and Tsing Tao. After realising that Honey Comb Beef is actually tripe… we could only “stomach” 10 mins of chewing so we ventured over to Urbis to check out the latest exhibitions.

Andrew Brooks Photography sample

If anyone gets chance to go to Urbis there are some fantastic images there by Andrew Brooks Photography [see sample above] who present a series called “Reality Hack: Hidden Manchester”. Anybody who appreciates stunning visual imagery will love this exhibition but particularly if you have an interst in digital photography and image manipulation and are looking for something original to inspire you. For all the computer games nerds out there [Us] they also have a computer games exhibition on called “Videogame Nation” featuring the development of the industry and all the designs. Id love to be able to wax lyrical about it but we spent too long eating dim sum and it was shut when we got there!

Creative arts building

The University of Huddersfield Final Year Degree Show was also on Friday so we jumped back on the train to check out the Digital Media Design and Product Design rooms. As always the new Creative Arts Building makes the perfet setting for this kind of event and the free wine sails down meaning everyone was pretty well oiled by the time we got there. The downside was that it also meant Dan could release his inner Product Designer and start offering tips to the students on how they can improve, amongst other things, kettle ergonomics!

Having had an insight into the background work which the students were likely to create it was a bit disappointing to see how each project was presented. They were allocated a few boards on the wall and everyone gets a space on the digital portfolios shown on the IMacs in the middle of the room. The downside is that you dont get a good feel for the history of the project and how it evolved which lets the students down. The methods used at Leeds Met would have been good here, they have lecture rooms which the students used to give presentations about each project giving you a better insight into the person and the project.

Anyway, after a bit of samba dancing in the SU and some pontificating [ironically enough in a bar called dogma] we retired to dream of tripe and fish eye lenses. Here are some links;

http://www.urbis.org.uk/

http://www.andrewbrooksphotography.com/

http://finalyear.me.uk/

[for the gastronomers] http://www.nhad.co.uk/nhad/TaiWu/

Using Photographs from a Compact Digital Cameras In 3D Photo Montages

Creating a photo montage from a photograph taken using a good quality digital SLR is relatively straight forward.

You take the picture, note where you were standing and note down the focal length used at the time (which is also recorded in the image properties). Then along with an accurate 3D model, copy the SLR camera settings (mainly the lens focal length) to the 3D camera (which is based upon a SLR camera), and hey presto, a photo montage with pretty accurate results.

But if the image was taken with a compact digital camera, then things are little more complicated. Compact cameras use a different way of measuring focal lengths, so if you take a photograph with a compact camera, chances are you aren’t going to be able to copy the focal length into your 3D camera and get the correct result.

We used this photograph in a recent project -

This was taken with a 6mm focal length on a compact Sony DSC-H1 camera.

Just to demonstrate how different the focal lengths vary, I have set-up my 3D camera inside 3DS Max using a 6mm focal length.

As you can see, it’s way off. We would guess it should have a focal length between 30mm and 40mm, but we need to be accurate, so guessing is out of the question.

But there is a dead simple way of converting a compact focal length to a SLR focal length (often called 35mm focal length).

If we go to this site http://www.digified.net/focallength/ it will perform the maths for us. All we need to know is the focal length of the compact camera (which we already found is 6mm) and the sensor size of the compact camera. The sensor size refers to the compact cameras sensor, and this can be found on the Sony website http://www.sony.co.uk/product/dsc-h-series/dsc-h1#pageType=TechnicalSpecs . This camera has a sensor size of 1/2.5 “.

So all we do now is put all these figures into the digified website, click calculate, and hey presto, we have a new focal length of 36mm, which is what I predicted earlier, but atleast now I’m confident I have the correct focal length.

If I go back to 3DS Max, and try 36mm, (plus loads of other adjustments and tweeking) this is what I get -

Pretty dam close, even if I do say so myself!

Here is how the final image turned out once rendered and composited -

Camera Matching Final Image

Hope this quick guide was useful!

Dean

Architectural 3D Awards 2009

We needed to post some updates on the blog so I thought id go through the CG Architect 2009 Architectural 3D award submissions and assess how much the industry standard has moved on since last year.

One thing to note before you attempt this is there are far too many images, some filtering is definitely required next time so that the chosen ones get a fair review. I love reviewing other artists work but this was painful after an hour or so!

After nearly 6 years in the industry I feel qualified enough to try and give an objective review of the stand out animation pieces and a general overview of the type and standard of work assessing them based on the factors we take into consideration here such as; appeal to the target audience, relevance / purpose, communication, visual appeal, originality and production quality/execution. Hopefully anyone starting out in the industry can take this as some constructive criticism on how to approach an animation when visualising designs.

Here we go first with a bit of cultural commentary. The main thing which does stand out when you look at all these together is the massive variation in how different cultures tackle visual communication briefs and the stylistic interpretations they employ. The European work has a certain progressive, cohesive and relevant style to it which appeals a lot to me [surprisingly] featuring graphics and well thought out camera work with flowing transitions between shots. The American collective seem to be slightly more heavier handed with focus on aesthetic realism and integration of effects such as green screening. This is then skilfully wrapped up in a slickly rendered world with lots of piano music.  The Asian entries though seem to take an entirely different approach were pretty much every animation wanted to be an apocalyptic film trailer. If the brief was “create an overly dramatic self indulgent technical masterpiece that no one understands” then they are on to a winner as only a few actually made sense and the majority just looked amazingly detailed with one even featuring a dragon chasing a sports car! Amidst the cloth and fluid simulations, particles and huge sets the tactful gentleness of previous winners, BHAA seems to have disappeared in place of repeating variations of the same theme. It comes across as showboating skill sets rather than working towards something effective for the client. Not much individual flair and you cant really tell the studios apart.

This leads onto another general observation that quite a lot of the films seem to tenuously relate to the target market. They focus on the material aesthetic qualities without exploring deeper concepts behind the development. Rarely will an architect or developer simply tackle the visual surface implications of the building or space they are designing, there is usually some cool technology or “place making” to consider. I think clients can see past this now and need more substance with their floating rose petals.

Something which we are getting to grips with and which is appearing more often in arch viz is the use of motion graphics. Thankfully there are a lot more films featuring this element making it easier to understand and adding richness to some of the productions. Some of the best work here is by Squint / Opera who have some still most original and most in tune with what I think presenting architecture and design is all about. The Velux film was very cool. Multi faceted with depth to it, original and well communicated you always feel you fully understand the schemes intentions when you watch one of their films.

To conclude, overall there was some very good work by the usuals; The Neighbourhood, Squint /Opera, Uniform, Neoscape, Redvertex and the 7^th Art and also from some companies I’ve never heard of such as Code932 and SkylineInk. I think the quality margin is getting smaller but the differences in interpretation are getting bigger and as people never tend to vote for the best stuff as a whole and only go for the most 3D intensive with the best lighting etc, then I think it’s between the Aqua Rosa and the Belek golf club films to win.

Event: Innovation North Student Showcase 09

Innovation North Leeds University James Graham Building

I went down to the beautiful Headingly campus on Tuesday for the  of Leeds Metropolitan Universities Innovation North student showcase. The showcase took place a the central James Graham buildings Ghandi, Jubilee, Acre rooms and various lecture theaters. After listening to the Deans introductory speech I ventured over to a couple of the “Media” students presentations in the lecture theaters. Here are the best projects from each of the Music, Media and Computing departments providing background information on their projects and the processes and technologies they used. As an employer I thought this was a nice touch and something which I enjoyed as it gives you a better insight into the person as well as the portfolio, allowing their personalities to shine through.

One thing which did seem odd when talking to various people was that the hand in date wasn’t until the week after the show and 3 out of the 5 groups I spoke to hadn’t completed their work and were waiting for parts or additional help. This didn’t look too cracking, students need to be prepared for the realities of industry and the accompanying immovable deadlines which come with it.

Generally though the show was very well presented and the students seemed approachable and informative with some nice pieces of work on display in the main Gandhi room. From the few students I saw in the presentations and spoke to around the Ghandi room there were maybe half a dozen quality projects / students which stood out for me. Here are a couple of links.

www.definingbeauty.ning.com

www.vimeo.com/4603410

Review: Owen Demers, Texturing & Painting

Review

Review by Dean Punchard

Briefly

Within this book you will be introduced to different techniques of how to collate textures from the world around us as an interesting alternative to looking over the internet. Within the first section of the book you will be shown texture creation and in the second, how to apply the textures effectively to your 3D models.

Chapter 1

Chapter one, The Fine Art of Seeing and Dissecting, starts with looking and analysing what we see. Owen firstly suggests extending your interest into the real world and taking a closer look at textures around us. This could be achieved by taking an active roll in art class’s, painting and/or photography. However just looking at textures isn’t enough for Owen as he often imagines what it would be like to be that object, for example, a fire hydrant. Although this may sound a little strange, by doing this you think a lot more in-depth about the texture you are trying to re-create. A lot of the time we create visualisations of buildings that tend to be new and unused; however we can still apply Owens methodology. In order to apply this theory we have to imagine what the building will function as when it is completed. For example, a semi detached house may be used as a family home, or even a new office block that could potentially be used as a corporate base for a multi-million pound company.

One of Owens many interesting methods he uses, is to stare at textures. He allows his vision to go blurry enabling him to see the colours of the object without the finer detail. This method may also be useful when we composite images. Being able to distinguish just colour from an image will enable you to grasp a better idea of how best to balance your image.

Another useful but slightly more difficult method Owen uses to digest an objects colour and lighting, is to paint it. Although more time consuming than other methods within this book, painting your object engages you further into its texture and gives you the added bonus of a direct colour reference to take back to the office. It is apparent after reading this book that Owen is a big fan of getting his paint set out and directly creating textures on to paper instead of the computer screen.

Chapter 2

Chapter two, Reference Materials, Textures and Practical Stuff, concentrates more on physically collating resources from your surroundings. This section should come in handy as a detailed referencing tool as Owen showcases some of his own quality examples of textures he has collected. In this section, Owen also looks at photographs of different locations around the world and helps you understand that a lot of different factors affect how images appear. His example shows photographs of both Venice and New York, taken at the same time of day. The images show a clear difference in colour and light as a direct influence of the different environments.

Chapter 3

Chapter three, Colour Theory, is almost certainly the most interesting chapter of this book and is definitely a recommended chapter to read. Simply, it explains the interesting difference between additive and subtractive colour mixtures.

Additive colour mixtures appear when equal intensities of primary colours (red, green, and blue) of light are mixed and as a direct influence produce white light.

Subtractive colour mixtures appear when equal intensities of primary colours (red, yellow, and blue) are mixed and as a direct influence produce black.

Further reading unveils a brief explanation of Hue, saturation, and brightness along with an explanation of complementary colours and the colour wheel.

Another interesting section to read within this book is the theory on the psychology and physiology of colour. It is said that different colours provoke different responses, thus as we create images for a brief, maybe the brief should be affected more by the colours we use?

Chapter 4

Chapter four, Paintings. Within this chapter, Owen essentially looks at paintings from a wide variety of different artists and styles. Each painting is studied in depth and broken down into sections in turn helping you understand how each artist In particular thinks. One of the best examples of this is situated on page 136. The photograph is of a landscape of fields and at first glance looks very much like a photograph. In actual fact the piece is a stylised painting. With a second look, it is apparent that this painting is incredible; many different parts stand out but in particular the colours and use of depth within the painting is extraordinary.

Chapter 5 & 6

Chapter five and six look at more project specific work flows. It is an excellent idea before starting any project to ask your self questions, such as; what style do you have in mind for the final images, who is the target market, throw around ideas to enhance the images to their full potential, what medium are the images intended for, are you going to use any special effects that could lend themselves to your image, etc.

Owen also looks at the use of pre-vis resources, image usage, media problems (such as colour space for the web or TV) and other limitations.

Chapters 7 to 14

Chapters seven to fourteen follow Owens work flow in creating the textures for Axel and his car. Although the actual processes he uses to generate the textures aren’t exactly ground breaking, they are quite useful to see the variation in mediums that he uses and that you could apply to your own texture process. From my experience some of the methods used in this section seem to be executed in the wrong order. For example, when Owen textures the fin of the car, Instead of adjusting the UV coordinates of the fin, he actually chooses to stretch and manipulate the texture map to fit the model and not the other way around.

The chapter on the car body is probably the best chapter to see how he layers and adds detail to the model. In terms of seeing how Owen successfully layers and adds detailing to the model, this chapter on the car body is probably the finest.

Overall, the actual model of Axel is in our opinion is a little poor and more surprisingly the textures aren’t much better. It would have been a lot more beneficial to see him work on something more detailed. Although maybe Owen was trying to simply introduce people to the idea of creating their own textures and how they could apply simplistic techniques to their own work flows.

Conclusion

Overall this book seemed to be more about looking at Owens actual work flow rather than how to technically achieve good results. It is however interesting to see the varied approaches he takes in order to achieve his textures and maybe this is something that can be taken from this book and possibly put to use in your own projects.

As a collective at Pikcells, we would all certainly suggest that chapters one to four are a definite must read. They explain a lot of very useful information including the section on colour theory. Not only does this book improve your personal understanding of many different types of theory, it also enables you to start thinking about your own images and how you can apply what you have learnt from Owens theories.

Some things to look at in the future

At Pikcells, we rely on scanning images, taking photographs and occasionally creating a texture inside Photoshop but maybe we could include the use of other mediums in texture creation when needed.

We could all personally be more active in collecting resources, whether textures to use in projects, or photographs and paintings to use as references.

We should maybe improve our other skills beyond computer based activities, such as drawing, painting and photography. As a result this may make you analyse the real world in a new light, in turn helping to create more convincing and better quality CG work.

Owen also uses Right Hemispheres – Deep Paint 3D to paint directly onto 3D models, maybe it would be an idea to look into using this, or similar software, to achieve more realistic textures. It may even speed up your work flow, especially on objects that require dirt, and organic textures.

Link, Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735709181/creatnetcreat-20