Water shaders in Maya and Lattice Deformers

Testing water shaders on a simple sphere...
This link was great http://mentalraytips.blogspot.co.uk/2007/06/nice-water-with-miamaterial-arch.html
Using a Mental Ray mia_material_x > presets > water and setting the transparency to 1, created a great water effect

I wanted the water droplet to appear realistic in it's shape and was deformed by the leaves...

This is a great link http://mayazest.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/slow-motion-rain-drops-in-maya-vray.html
on how to simply deform spheres using a lattice, so that the droplet would 'hang' and be deformed by the leaves,

I realised that I could insert the poppy as a 3D object, which could look great with camera movement and water reflection...

Simple image, with a background plane, a 3D plant, water blobs and a 3D poppy set inside water.
This is with one directional light only...just placed for the purposes of a quick render
...more reflective, back light and light from underneath to be added...

Another couple of links that were useful too

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016/ENU/Maya/files/GUID-E092CABE-4709-469A-82CF-44B6C8F97A24-htm.html

http://simplymaya.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40768

Water droplets in Maya and Powell and Pressburger

Quick tests using leaves with bump and texture maps, plus some water droplets with different mia material finishes, and presets of glass, water, chrome.

I particularly like the effect of a bright yellow directional light, pointed straight at the leaf...it reminds me of the vivid technicolour of Powell and Pressburger films

The Tales of Hoffman - Powell and Pressburger

Goliath - Critical Review

This is great, straight out of the gate.

The cinematography and camera angles are brilliant...even a simple mid shot of the character smoking, is shot low....every detail has been thought about and the lighting is fantastic.

Timelapse too. Script is very real (I particularly like the 'yapper' female lawyer's retorts) and the edits are swift..

It has a hint of Dallas Buyers Club to it too....

Episode 2 tonight!

Pole Vector Constraints in Maya

A few screen shots of numerous attempts to apply a pole vector, without the joints moving themselves automatically out of line.

Check out these tutorials by Jennifer Conley, for simple help with troubleshooting the problem...

                                         

 I used the polygon tool to create a polygon plane between the three joints (shoulder, elbow and wrist) to create an exact point for my 'E' controller to snap too...in following the tutorial  I discovered that I had a rotation on my elbow joint....it meant recreating the arm joints but progress and no attibutes in the rotation channel box (bad juju - technical term)

Using the polygon tool to create a polygon between all three joints. Change from object to vertex mode (modelling toolkit) and extend out the vertex towards the 'E' elbow controller. Then snap the controller (select and 'V' key) and move and snap to vertex on polygon.

Put the kettle on and take a deep breath.

Metling Man tests

Beginnings of testing 'melting man'

Mike Hermes tutorial below and then some Maya screen shots and a test playblast of a cushion melting.

The cushion timing needs adjusting, and I need to re-visit my melting man, as so far, the geometry isn't moving in the tests.

Time to refresh!

Environment lighting tests - keeping it simple

Playing with simple image planes and lighting for the forest environment...
Good to see compared to an early concept Photoshop image for the storyboard...

I love 2D to 3D!

 Perspective view; I like the top shot view!

Node placement in Hypershader

Node placement in hypershader...reminds me of  placing nodes in Nuke....

FK/IK arm joints to Bind joint, using blend colours node in Maya Hypershader

Connecting FK/IK arm joints to Bind joint using Blend Colours Node in Hypershade...

Here goes!

Elbow and hand controllers - Maya Outliner hierachy

Loud Ceilidh music playing, whilst creating elbow (E) and hand (cube) controllers, constraining > pole vector and parenting to the 'spine_03' joint

Outliner on the right shows the hierarchy....

Mudbox blend shapes and material finishes

More blend shapes and playing with different material finishes in Mudbox, to give me an idea of how this ice man figure will look when he's glossy and lit....
and of course transparent!

Photoshop concept art for storyboard

Mudbox blend shapes with simple reflective material

Mudbox eye blend shapes

More blend shapes in Mudbox

Mudbox blend shapes - eyebrows up

Mudbox blend shapes - eyebrows up!

Using sculpt layers, duplicated and then the mask brush.....

Critical Review - Allied

#Allied' Is a World War II Romantic Thriller, the art direction and costume design are brilliantly observed...

I expected this film, based on the trailer, to be a vintage action packed James Bond spy thriller..with a significant emphasis and tension regarding whether the Protagonist's wife was an ally opponent, or an ally. 

To a certain extent this was the case, but the true emphasis was on their relationship, rather than violent, slick combat.

I found the design to be the most compelling and convincing part of the movie, and felt that the final resolution  at the end, was seemingly hurried. A rather swift ending to an otherwise thorough script.

Rigging, FK, IK controllers - and how to create a nurbs curve in 30000 hours

Rigging today...

So I find the rigging process and creating the hierarchy fairly relaxing...

Creating a Nurbs Circle with 8 sections, and a Nurbs Cube....3 hours of tension !!!!!

For my own notes, so that next time it's not so laborious...

For the wrist controller cube...

Make coffee.

Put on Music.

Create Polygon Primitive Cube

Create an EP curve (curve tools)

Set cube to component mode 

Shift select EP curve

Snap to points (part of the magnetic toolbar icon)

Select cube, component mode, shift select new curve and snap vertices to the cube corner vertices.

Adjust, tweak and repeat (for about 30000 hours) until all cube edges have a curve (straight line!) attached to them. 

Delete cube in outliner

Select all curves (straight lines) and under curves drop down menu, select 'attach'.

Hopefully all the curves will now glue together and become one complete object...

And now back to the straightforward easy part of rigging....

Outliner below showing the Hip, Knee and Foot controllers

 Foot controllers with the IK handle

Hip, Spine and Arm controllers

Duplication of the Shoulder, Elbow and Wrist joints, with a rename to IK, FK and Bind...

and then repeated for the right side

Timelapse test; Atomos Ninja Assasin and the Panasonic 4K camera

Timelapse Test, using the Atomos Ninja Assassin and the Panasonic 4K...

This is 1 frame every 20 seconds and filming was for approx 4 hours.

More tests to come, alongwith research on how to become a 'sunset' chaser...