DTMO Design

Xporter Vid Tutorial Update and in other news...

2005-09-02T11:05:00.000-07:00

"Where's that damn Xporter vid tutorial?" you ask. I've done many takes, and many different versions. But in the end, the filesize is still way to big. However, I will make an addition to the web tutorial explaining how to get the body particle effect with the built in AE Particle Playground. It's actually pretty easy and the results look very convincing.

In other news, I apparently have 2 months to get a demo reel thrown together. I am super excited (thanks LeAnne). This now changes all priorites for any projects I have on tap. Everything is going to be shifted towards the making of this reel. Now is the time to take everything I've learned this far, and try to seemlessly meld it all together.

As of now, there hasn't been many updates in awhile because of another project I'm finishing up. Odin, the Z is turning out to be enourmously complicated. So much in fact, that my system can barely handle displaying the wireframe. I've been spending most of my free-time working on the model. Once it's done, it should make an excellent item for the demo reel. It's my best work by far (3D wise).

Also, the DTMO website desperately needs to go up since it will be used in conjunction with the demo reel. Argh, so much good stuff to do.

Venus 40 Continued...

2005-08-30T09:06:00.000-07:00

Click on the image or here to view the video. (1.18mb Quicktime)

Above is a small video of the control surfaces rigged to the servos. I decided to make a simple xmitter representation for aesthetic purposes. All the rigging is done with reaction controllers with the xmitter levers as the masters. This also makes the aircraft easier to pose for animations and still shots. Plus, if I decide to export the model out to say, FS2004, the control surfaces will be ready to go. For a while I had a throttle control for the prop and a particle system throwing out smoke from the muffler (raise of throttle = more/faster particles emitted from muffler). I did a test render yesterday (took about 10 hours) and forgot to save the file sequence (shakes head). Bloody hell. Anyways, this pretty much puts the cap on this model. Beano, your Z is up next on the modeling chopping block.

EDIT - Replaced the video with something smaller and using non-crappy screen capture software. Also, the Xporter video tutorial will be posted tomorrow.

I also had to turn on word verification for comments, so make sure you do that otherwise your comments will not be posted. This is to prevent comment spam.

3DS Venus 40

2005-08-29T08:32:00.000-07:00

-Interactive 360 View
-Modeling Slide Show

Note: You'll need Flash to view these. Get it here or click on the icon. To pan around the aircraft, just move your mouse over the picture.

Here's the first real attempt at modeling. The subject was a small RC aircraft owned by a friend of mine(I'm not modeling the wing gaskets though, D). It's a very high-speed kit from Great Planes. Modeling this was pretty straight forward, but I haven't had much experience with complex curved surfaces. I really like the finalRender Car shaders, it made an excellent covering for the Venus. Anyways, the model is still only 95% finished, there are some small details to add.

Now that I have the Venus modeled, it's going to serve as the main test subject for the new 3DS particle system. Besides being able to model exhaust trails/gases and fire effects, I can run realistic fluid dynamic simulations with this new particle system. More to come on this.

Also, I'd added a 360 degree pannable view of the Venus along with a slide show of the modeling process. The links are at the top if you missed them.

I know I keep saying I'm going to make that Xporter tutorial video for those of you wanted a more detailed explanation. Be patient, that's the absolute next thing I am working on. I finally found a good hosting site to store video files, and I finally found a good way to make a custom flash movie player so I don't have to pay for somebody eles ;).

Photon Torpedo Impact Test

2005-08-28T19:53:00.000-07:00

This is just a simple test vid using a new particle system for 3DS. This element will eventually be used in an upcoming movie segment pitting the Excalibur against another ship.

Download the video:

Impact Test - (413Kb, Quicktime)

Thank to www.putfile.com for hosting.

I need one of these...

2005-08-23T00:53:00.000-07:00

Click on image for the full size image or click here

Here's a little try at product design. Actually I was just fooling around with the finalRender shaders and ended up with this.

After Effects Video Wall

2005-08-22T08:11:00.000-07:00

Posting this for a couple of you who have had email correspondence about After Effects opening graphics. This is a really cool effect that I learned from http://www.ayatoweb.com. If your in my immediate circle of friends and family, you will probably see yourself on the video wall somewhere.

Download the video here:

From OurMedia.org - Quicktime 1MB - Download
From ConditionZero.org - Quicktime 1MB - Download

Final Verdict on the Trane spot.

2005-08-21T02:48:00.000-07:00

Disappointingly, I am going to have to freeze the Trane project for now. I just don't have the computing power to be able to finish the project in a reasonable time span. I would have to lose a lot of the elements in the scenes to barely come close to a reasonable render time. It will not be a total loss, I am going to keep all the project files and save them for a time when I do have the computing power.

As of right now I putting the new project on priority. The script is almost finished and I am going to start picking people to act in it.

Updizzzzzzzate

2005-08-18T01:02:00.000-07:00

Haven't updated in a while. Still tinkering with the Trane project. Upon further pondering, I am making the trane project an entirely CG thing. I did some compositing tests and was very disappointed on the way they turned out. The camera footage quality is just not good enough to match up with the CG scenes. That's okay though, I expected this and have planned accordingly.

I am starting to work on a new short film that will move more towards the AE arena. It will be a great piece of work, idea wise, and I am looking forward to it's completon.

Lastly, I am working on a video tutorial for the Transporter tutorial. Problem is, I do not have enough space to host it. IF you would like to donate space for it, I would be forever grateful. This vid tutorial will include making thetransporter effect with and without the special plugins.

DTMO Design Website

2005-07-22T14:09:00.000-07:00

Here's the first design.

DTMO Design Website

Pixel2Life Xporter Tutorial Posting

2005-07-16T23:51:00.000-07:00

I noticed a big hit in traffic today, looks like the ST Xporter tutorial got posted to Pixel2Life in the past couple of days. I'm posting another link back to it here just in case:

Star Trek Transporter Tutorial

See it in action here:

Right click on the link, and select Save Target As...
Quicktime 4.09MB - Location One
Quicktime 4.09MB - Location Two

UPDATE - I'm going to update the tutorial to include the usage of the standard AE particle system in case you do not have the Cycore plugins. It'll be re-posted in a couple of days.

I hope you all find that tutorial helpful. I am still thinking of making a video tutorial so you don't have to read through all that junk and so you can see the actual process of how it was made.

Thanks Pixel2Life for hosting my tut, as well as all the other great tuts they host. Whoever did that slicing tutorial is the goddamn man. Anyways, they have so many tuts, it's insane, so check it out. Hopefully with that I can put up a semi-decent website for DTMO now instead of just a blog.

Send comments and/or questions to wizzertz1@gmail.com

BT Atoll v2.00000685

2005-07-13T06:09:00.000-07:00

Now that's some sweet atoll action ri-chere. The shoreline fall-off really adds a nice touch. I scaled Trish(the palm tree) down so the atoll looks a bit bigger.

Things left to do:
-Add sea foam to the shoreline to simulate breaking waves.
-Re-texture the water, and animate deep wave swells that refract off of the atoll
-Re-texture the land mass and add the plant life, adjust lighting

I'll have to run some fluid dynamic simulations to figure out how to make more realistic wave motions. This of course, will be a big hit in render time. It took 90 minutes for the above still to render. Speaking of which, v3 might take some time because of the heavy burden calculating the wave motions and generation of sea foam.

Black Thong Atoll v1

2005-07-12T15:26:00.000-07:00

Here's the first CRAPPY draft of BT Atoll. Right now the whole thing looks like something that fell out from the back of a horse. The sandy texture for the atoll is just a placeholder right now until I figure out how I'm going to do the water. The water has to gradually change colors and foam up as it meets the shore. It's also not refracting and reflecting the way I want it to. The quality in this picture isn't to great, so that makes it look a lot worse than it is, water wise. About the only thing looking good in this draft is that sweet-ass palm tree (I named it Trish, inside joke).

This is far from my goal of near photo-realistic quality, but I've made some good headway since this first draft. Draft 2 is looking so much better, I'll post some pics when I tweak it out a bit more.

Another thing I am going to have a problem with is render time. It's taking a long time just to render the draft (currently 23 minutes per frame). I can't imagine what it will be like with a complete scene. I'm guessing upwards of almost an hour. And there's most likely going to be 2000 frames total. Even with the SkyNet render farm, it might take well over 1-2 months to render all the CG scenes. Tell you what, if you own a 3Ghz Pentium, and only use it for Excel and Word documents and the occasional browsing of internet porn, you need to send that computer to me. You can browse porn just as efficiently with a Pentium 466Mhz.

Anyways, more to come...

Great...

2005-07-11T16:36:00.000-07:00

As you can see, all the images are not working. It's a provider issue, and I'll get to the bottom of it shortly.

EDIT - Okay, I notified the people at IQuest and their great cust support fixed the prob. Images are linking correctly again. Time for soup.

EDIT - Jumped the gun, it was fixed for a few hours, but now, all the images are gone once again. Investigating...

Another One for the Toolbox

2005-07-09T16:56:00.000-07:00

Top: Standard rendered scene
Bottom: Final Toon rendered scene

Decided to post this little interesting tidbit for all you 3DS people out there. Got to play around with Final Toon recently, a plugin for 3DS. It seems to be a great tool and I can't wait till I have more regular access to it so that I can use it in a future project. Basically the plugin will take your regular 3-D scenes and render them out to 2D hand drawn cartoony like pictures. Makes me wonder now how many TV/movie cartoons are actually still hand drawn. Check out www.cebas.com for more detailed info.

EDIT- Apparently you can do this type of thing in max without the finalToon plugin using the Ink/Paint material. I hadn't got far in the Max reference yet :P. It's pretty basic, but fT expands this out even further.

Is it that hard to stop a Trane? It just so happens that I have a Tactical Nuke.

2005-07-03T01:36:00.000-07:00

First off, the following project is inspired by a certain string of local commcercials by an HVAC company here in town. It's a nice change of pace from the usual local commercials albeit, they do border on hoky, but it does add to the funniness at times.

I decided to throw in my two cents with a little ad spot of my own making. This will be a perfect chance to help further the skill set in all the video FX software and to craft a more structured piece of work. This will be more of a really short film than a commercial per say, and you won't see it on TV, but you will see it here.

The film is set at a place called BlackThong Atoll. There is currently a secret test underway. On the atoll, near the shoreline, sits a lone Trane A/C unit with a small nuclear device duct taped to the top of it. On a small island a several miles away, an impatient General and his staff slowly await the countdown. There is a blinding flash, followed by a huge mushroom cloud. The debris finally settle, and on the atoll the landscape is flattened. The only thing standing is the Trane. The Trane sprouts legs and stomps off towards the U.S. coastline. Okay, so I'm still debating that last part. I thought about Godzilla as I was typing this.

Pretty simple story really. A friend and I had a lot of wacky ideas, but due to constraints, primarily computer power, I've had to slim it down. As it is, most of this will be composed of CG scenes, with exception of the live actors. I already forsee an ungodly amount of render time happening. I wouldn't be surprised if it took two weeks or more JUST for that alone.

I will be posting progress as the project develops further, in case your interested. I finished the first draft of the Trane A/C unit, which took about 6 hours at one sitting. The nuke-splosion was made in about two hours. There's still a lot of tweaking that needs to be done to these two models as well. After this, I will proceed with modeling the atoll. I still have to recruit some people for the live action part, and also do some test green/blue screening to see how well that turns out. Storyboarding has been a continual process, and probably will be until all the 3D stuff is worked out. Speaking of which, here are the first products of said work.

Propane! Re-hash

2005-06-28T10:53:00.000-07:00

This was originally posted at my personal blog site before I had DTMO up. This was my first project working with After Effects. Enjoy the pretty explosions.

Special shout-outs to Prof. Odin and friends who helped make this one possible. Perhaps Thermite on top of a cannister next time?

Propane!
------------------
Windows Media Format 6.0MB
Quicktime Format 6.25MB, mirror
Mpeg-4 Format 5.82MB(Mpeg-4 codec can be downloaded here, play with Windows Media Player)

Quantum Singularity Vac II

2005-06-26T18:43:00.000-07:00

The universe's most powerful vacuum. Stay tuned...

Planetary Collision

2005-06-16T12:05:00.000-07:00

Here's a nice little proof of concept effects shot. This was created with the help of Peter Draper's When Worlds Collide Tutorial(great tutorial btw). I deviated from the tutorial a bit. First off, the shockwave was totally re-done. Although I liked how the original shockwave was implemented, it just didn't look right. Lastly, the planet textured were changed. The background music was made using ACID with loops from Electronic Point Blank.

Download the video:
(right click, save target as...)
Quicktime 2.35MB - Location One
Quicktime 2.35MB - Location Two

ST Transporter Tutorial

2005-06-02T19:10:00.000-07:00

Create your own cool Star Trek style transporter effect using After Effects. IF you want to go for this exact effect, you'll need the Cycore FX package. But don't let that limit you, you can do a lot more with this technique than just transporter effects. You can view a sample video here.

The project file is also included sans footage, sounds, and extra plugins. Given enough time, I will also try to make a version using the built in AE particle generator for those of you without Cycore FX. Feel free to use this effect, but remember to send me a clip!

Enough jibba-jabba, go to the Star Trek Transporter Tutorial

EDIT - For those of you without Cycore, I am going to post an AVI file with the Body Particles effect pre-made. Also, a couple people have emailed me about doing this in Premiere. I will post a link to this soon.

Star Trek Transporter Effect Tutorial

2005-05-25T15:49:00.000-07:00

Looks like the xporter effect is getting a lot of feedback so I will post the project file and make a complete tutorial since I am tired of writing the same replies to emails over and over:). I need to clean up the project file a bit first, then I will post it. Check back in a few days or so for the project file, and about a week for the tutorial. Thanks.

Update

2005-05-17T14:16:00.000-07:00

Been a while since the last update so I thought I might fill you in on some happenings. I put DTM&O on a short hiatus because of shifting priorities and I just plain needed a breather. I'm getting back on the horse with a new project. In the meanwhile, I'll be posting some other projects I've finished already, including the possible prtfolio DVD opener. Stay tuned...

The Mighty Excalibur

2005-04-25T18:02:00.000-07:00

After being marred with post production problems and last minute changes, I can finally say this project is now finished. This was an emotional roller-coaster ride of a project, covering the spectrum from spine shivering happiness, to all out frustration. It took a big chunk of time, but it was well worth it.

The main goal of this piece was to capture a cinematic space scene. This was also a good chance to familiarize myself with 3DS MAX. So far, this has been the most resource intensive project completed so far. I'm really proud of this one, and I hope you like it.

I apologize for the hefty download size, but this project was meant to be experienced in high quality, high resolution, and with good sound. If you can, watch this on a fast computer with a good monitor and good stereo speakers. Turn the volume up too (and sub-woofer if you have one).

Thanks again to Steve Davis for use of his 3DS model, the Excalibur. This was the perfect ship for this project.

If you would like to see how this was made, check out the Mighty Excalibur Dissectional.

Download the video:
(right click, save target as...)
Windows Media Video 16.6MB - OurMedia.Org
Windows Media Video 16.6MB - ConditionZero.Org

Star Trek Transporter Effect

2005-04-20T13:17:00.000-07:00

This is both a test and a little parody from the world of Star Trek. This one was pretty much built up from scratch aside from the sound effects. Again, this was another project that ended up far better off than I had planned.

If you would like to see how this was made, check out the Star Trek Transporter Effect Dissectional.

Many thanks goes out to OurMedia.Org and Condition Zero for hosting these files.

Download the video here:

Right click on the link, and select Save Target As...
Quicktime 4.09MB - Location One
Quicktime 4.09MB - Location Two

No I will not turn into a LightSaber

2005-04-18T15:45:00.000-07:00

I figured this would happen. I've already gotten three emails from people wanting me to make a LeashSaber for their dog, or TurkeyBasterSaber, or a BidaySaber (that is sooooo wrong, but funny nonetheless).

So please, no more emails about this. I am using this effect only for real lightsabers and nothing else. I don't want to abuse this because it's one of my favorite effects. If you want me to make a biday that shoot laser beams, I'll gladly do that, for now, no more lightsaber this or that. Thanks.

Me vs. Myself

2005-04-18T13:52:00.000-07:00

And here's the last saber test. This one was almost scrapped, but it turned out much better than I thought it would. By far my favorite and one of the most complicated ones so far. My doppleganger proved a worthy adversary during our little six second battle. Now that the tests are finished, it's time to make some good saber props instead of the shower curtain rod and a yellow halogen lamp post with black duct taped handle.

If you would like to see how this one was made, check out the Me vs. Myself Dissectional.

Download the video:

Me vs. Myself 743KB, Location 1
Me vs. Myself 743KB, Location 2

Saber Test Two

2005-04-18T13:40:00.000-07:00

Here's the second test in the three parter. In this one I've graduated from a straw to a long shower curtain rod with black duct tape (classy). I was very pleased with the outcome of this test. So much so that I incoporated it into one of the cloning tests.

If you would like to see how it was made, go check out the Saber Test Two Dissectional.

Download the video:

Saber Test Two 2.02MB Quicktime, Location 1
Saber Test Two 2.02MB Quicktime, Location 2

Cow Palace Straw Saber Test

2005-04-18T13:26:00.000-07:00

Here's the first part of the three part lightsaber test that I had planned. The only reason this one is posted is because I want to show Rose McFlowerson what I did with that straw from Cow Palace. Don't try and drink from it either.

Download the video:

Saber Test One 630KB, Location 1
Saber Test One 630KB, Location 2

The Mighty Excalibur

2005-04-13T11:55:00.000-07:00

Animation still

This project started out as something very small and ballooned very quickly into a short one minute animation which has taken almost two weeks to complete. Originally, I started out only needing a simple ship fly-by for another project. After fiddling around with 3DS Max, I started to realize what great potential this tool has. This program was seriously intimidating at first. But as I began to learn more about it, that's when this project started taking on a life of it's own.

I've always wanted to do Star Trek ship fly-by's and effects sequences ever since I saw the first movie a long time ago when I was younger. Now, I'm able to pull off quite a spectacular looking CG animation that looks exactly how I envisioned it all these years. And this is just a test run to do bigger and better projects! I would like to thank Steve Davies for letting me use his ship model. This was a very high quality model and gives me something to shoot forwhen I eventually design my own. Also, a great thanks to Jeremy C. for showing me some of the ropes for 3DS and use of his super fast computer. Lastly, a thanks for all the support I got from the Discreet forums and all the people who made tutorials for some of the elements used in this.

As it stands right now, I've only got one more re-render to finish and then it's time to for cutting room. Sadly, there are still more things I would like to add to this, but I've got other projects waiting in the wings. Overall, I'm quite happy with the way the project has turned out. This will set the foundation for a few other projects involving 3D and Star Trek effects sequences.

If you are into 3DS and After Effects and would like to know a more detailed version of what went into this project, I'll put up a short dissectional when I post the final animation.

A little bit about A Danger to Myself & Others

2005-04-13T10:17:00.000-07:00

DTM&O is a portfolio of video and photo projects that I have worked on, or am currently working on. Right now, this is mainly a trial run for a possible expansion into business. Although I have no formal education in the field of special effects and photography, I've aquired a wealth of knowledge from the past several years working with a cable production staff, freelance videographers, small personal projects, and constant research. Having a computer background also helps immensley.

So far I've been delving into Adobe After Effects and Premiere (2D effects and editing), Discreet 3DS Max, Ulead Video Editor (for the quick and dirty), AutoDesk AutoCad (3D modeling aid), Steinberg Nuendo (audio editing, mixdowns), and DVD Maestro (DVD authoring). I'm starting out with this, and possibly expanding into other packages as the need arises.

The future goal of DTM&O is to mainly provide effects work and consulting, and possibly to provide a total solution from capturing footage all the way to the final cut. For now, sit back and enjoy the works I'll be posting, and let me know what you think, all comments and criticisms are welcome.

Upcoming projects:

-Personal Portfolio DVD intro sequence
-Various compositing tests (light sabers, transporter effect, cloning, 3D backgrounds)

Hey There

2005-03-31T15:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome to DTM&O Productions. There's more to come...