IanHubert
patreon
Reworking old Dynamo Dream shots
🕑 Added 2020-11-16 00:31:38 +0000 UTCFirst: an apology- I am SO behind on messages.
But yes! I'm still indulging in the decadence of updating old VFX shots, which I know I shouldn't do, release-schedule-wise, but it feels so good; instead of staring at a blank scene and thinking, "okay lets build everything from scratch" I get to pop in and give younger me's work a once-over of that last 10% using stuff I've learned in the past year.
BEFORE
AFTER. Cleaning up the composite, swapped the sun angle to match the edit, and I totally reworked the monorail car. I did a sloppy UV job with some images from RawPixel (check out their public domain stuff here- they have some total gems. I'm excited to play more with some of the paintings/textures they have), and it really brought it to life. There's also a nice mix of greenscreen and photoscanned folks that I think works pretty well.
The public domain stuff is so rich with culture and detail, it's kind of wild how quickly it can bring stuff to life. I want to be careful, though. Just because you can take an image of someone's culture and slap it on a sci-fi monorail car and say, "yes this is mine now" doesn't always mean you should? One of those good lines to walk.
Also quickly tracked the succulent vending machine into the background of the practical Rotten Dragon kiosk I built a couple years ago. Doesn't really "show off" the model, but I think that's AOK. I think I want to have it next to the jellyfish-in-the-jars shot, so the audience gets a sense of, "oh okay I get it they sell weird stuff that's fun".
I've also had enough folks ask if there's going to be an "art book", and while it seems totally self indulgent and cart-before-the-horse to make an art book for the first episode of a webseries before it's even released, I've got so much content for it (a bunch of sketches and test renders and high res renders and BTS thoughts and all that), so I've started assembling one in Lightroom (gotta make this adobe subscription worthwhile somehow). It's fun, in a very self indulgent way. I think I'm going to release the PDF for free, but have an option if anyone wants to buy one for their coffee table?
This used to be the first shot of the episode, but last night I sat down and sketched out an idea for a window on the back wall.
I always loved the idea of drawing concept art, but in general I felt it's even easier to conceptualize stuff by just sliding around cubes in 3d space? Lower stakes and easier to experiment when you're not putting ink/lead to page, I suppose. BUT, I think the process of drawing it out actually forced me to think through things in a way I normally don't (or at the very least forced a period of time when I had to). I want to try to do it more often.
And here's how they look mixed. AND ACTUALLY it's probably a wrong move, in a lot of regards. The bunk room is supposed to be dark and drab, and the window makes it look pretty darn whimsical. But also it's the first shot of the episode, so I think it's alright, because it kind of has this promise of being escapism? Which is really why I've let myself go so over-the-top with this first episode. Even more than the story, I want it to feel like you're visiting this other world for a bit. I blame the quarantine, hahaha!
There's another aspect that's nagging at me, and it's an inclination I've had to make everything just a little bit bigger and wilder. From a storytelling perspective, if everything's fantastical, then nothing is. In the case of this episode, I kind of have built in excuses (the town is a sort of historical preserve, kind of a tourist destination, so even in-world they're playing it up a bit), but I want to keep that in mind as we go to other locations.
Here's another one I gave a rework. Above is the original
And this is the new one. And again you might be looking at them thinking, "huh I prefer the first one actually", and yeah, the first one works better as a still image, but I think the second one works better as a shot. The POV is on a bus, driving past a lot of things, and you can kind of peek the market beyond the obstructions, and it puts you in the perspective of someone on a bus, looking out at the city as you drive by. I think it's hopefully going to make it feel a lot more immersive than a still render I composited steam elements on top of to make it feel "alive". But MOSTLY I just wanted to get rid of those friggin' architectural visualization filler people.
All that to say, hopefully this is just going to be a nice polishing stage, instead of a wild, "let's redo everything and never release anything" stage. We'll see. If there's one thing the HyperBole proved, it's that I can very happily continue to approach almost finishing something without ever actually doing so.
Comments
Easton Oliver
Another vote for an art book mlord
Sebas
Love that window!
I love u Ian
I bet that bunk room would look epic with tons of volumetrics and light casting rays through the spinning fan.
Hi Carter, thanks for the reply, you're a legend. Basically I just to recreate the 1 minute scene in that teaser clip. I have my own green screen footage and want to use the blender project to swap out the green screen footage with my footage. So I was wondering if the actual blender Dynamo scene with the elevator etc is available as a template or project. Cheers 😎
Carter Burr-Kirven
What do you mean by access to the project? There’s this folder on Drive with a few raw greenscreen shots if you’re looking for material to experiment on... https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RkrxGFvjA2uAZIYAe5FLm9QK9tFhXGxb?usp=sharing
Hi Ian, is it possible to get access to the Dynamo dream project to experiment with other greenscreen actions?
give it 3 more weeks and your computer will be trashed ;)
Tony Rizo
I think it is a good idea to sketch things out, as you said it helps to work out potential issues, but I am also in favor of blocking in 3D as well. Fortunately, Blender can give us both at the same time with the grease pencil. I still have to try that!
Jared Soto
I'll buy 20 of your art books
Carter Burr-Kirven
Pretty sure they're the "Low Poly Crowd Figures" from a few months ago—a bunch of people scanned (relatively) quickly with a drone in orbit mode! You can download them if you're in the assets tier: https://www.patreon.com/posts/asset-33-low-39998570
Anthony Delasanta
HOW DID YOU MAKE THE CROWD GOD DAMN!
Lukas Sprehn
I want that art book! And yeah, it's true about the not finishing things. Like the original series. Just kidding - 'cause I know that one day you will. I can't wait to watch either! It's going to be crazy. You are a busy man and we all get that. We're just happy you're finally on that social media grind, which as a result has gotten you noticed big time :D
I love it! I'm sure at least one watch-through of the finished pilot is going to be just inspecting each and every shot to check out all the cool little details. I love seeing the re-worked shots, although I totally understand the feeling of not wanting to fall into perfectionism and get the pilot out the door!
This! I just got a new PC and I'm doing a much better job organizing my commercial and personal work/naming everything going forward, but I'd love to see what it's like on Ian's Hard drives lol, or if it's a chaotic mess.
Erich Stenzel
Count me in for a coffee table art book!
Chromfell
Objectively improved everything. Your lighting game really leveled up in the last two years, I can totally see it.
Zachary Macintyre
1- Personally, I set my message expectations low because realistically you've got a lot of stuff going on and responding to 3.5 thousand people is a bit cooked, and you're already providing a great amount of content with the posts themselves. Don't panic about messages too much. 2-This episode is going to blow peoples' socks and possibly feet off, and the updates are very cool to see (especially what you improve and how you take things a little further, they're good things to be shown and keep in mind when finishing artwork) 3- I would definitely buy an art book. I would buy a coffee table specifically for this art book. (a pdf would be great as well.)
Milkyway Studio
quick question... when will Dynamo Dream finished its production process ?
Hey Ian, I love this post but it's brought up a question I ask myself frequently when I watch your videos. "How does this dude's file management work?!!" Do you make master folders per scene, do you pack textures into the .blend files every time (or is there a better way?), how do you name different versions, how many backups have you got of everything and what/where are they (like hard drives or cloud storage), how do you keep them all updated when you change something, create new assets, download new textures, etc etc?? You have so much stuff but you seem to be able to stay on top of things. I'd love a walk-through of your file system, even if it's just a crazy half-mess like most people's ;) BUT, obviously you're a busy man so I understand if you have other stuff to do! Thanks anyway
Jack Woodward
This would be a cool idea!
Dude, can't wait to see this in action. So good.
Wow awesome ian 😮😮😦
Harry Robins
If there’s anything the HyperBole proved it’s that you don’t understand hyperbole. All your exaggerated statements should be taken literally!
Ian Hubert
I probably should talk a bit more about texturing in general, yeah! It really does mostly come down to to bump and roughness, but there's a lot of caveats, for sure. A lot of it comes down to lighting; the part that really showcases the "texture" of an object is the reflective highlight that's really catching the light. Placing a light specifically to create that highlight can do a lot, or sometimes I'll specifically slide around roughness maps to catch a highlight in just the right place. I'll usually do an initial texture pass, then set really try to dial in the lighting before finalizing the textures, since the lighting often dictates how the textures REALLY look. But yeah! I'll try to talk a bit more about textures soon here! :D
Max
Hey Ian! Can you tell us more about your texturing method? How do you make the model more realistic, besides bump and other things
Mornarion
A printed version of the book would be awesome, I want one if you feel like really doing that. Oh, and the bunk room picture has immediately become my desktop wallpaper. I can't express how much I love it @_@
Ian Hubert
It's SO TRICKY! Because you can always make stuff better, but you probably shouldn't do that FOREVER? But also sometimes updating old half-baked stuff can be a really quick process, so it still feels efficient... But also- that's rad! How long's post been? VFX for a feature can be crazy overwhelming.
Ian Hubert
I hope so!! My biggest goal is to have this be something I'm pleased to watch a few years from now, instead of embarrassed :D.
Whoa! Great post and always amazing work! Love seeing the updates, progress, and your process. Can’t wait to see this book and eventually this first episode. 😆
WOW this post is so inspiring! It's such an interesting insight into how you improve your work!
Mike L. Taylor
Oh brother do I feel your pain... started learning 3D to finish the vfx on the second half of my feature and am now several months into redoing the entire first half I already had done... Hahahaha! Meanwhile I still have no idea how you get so much world building so fast. One of these shots would take me a week or more to build. And yes I would get that coffee table book.
Dyrgrip FX
*Speechless* Very well done!
This is amazing 👏
Ian Hubert
Someone stop meeeeee
Mario Taylor
Ooo, a coffee table book would be super awesome!!
Can't wait! I know every extra amount of effort you put into these shots will pay off.
sofia
Ha, I knew you’d give in to temptation eventually
