Instance Generator Effects WIP

[Scazzino]

I'll be designing and testing the instance generator special effects in this thread. The Autiton instances will be created in a beam of light inside the Instance Generator. This will include a light beam effect and an instance materialization effect. I'll probably use particles and hypervoxels for the beam of light. I'll also investigate using points, lines and separate polygon effects for the instances being created.

Below is a previous test render with 0090 standing inside a placeholder beam which was just a textured cylinder in these early tests.

[Scazzino]

Here's the first rough test. I'm just exploring various options at this point. This test has the beam itself off and I just tested what it would look like if I had the individual polygons grow from 0% to 100% and then the subdivision level go from 0 to 2-4 on the parts, for the instance creation effect.

I know there's faceting, no AA, the character looks dark and the feet sink into the ground. I'm just testing the materialization effect itself at this point.

I don't particularly like the result though and am exploring different effects.

C&C welcome as always while I go through the process.



QuickTime animation test.

[tobian]

It's a nifty effect. Perhaps step up the subdivision in more than one frame, as it does jump quite badly. I was gonna suggest you could make the poly's fly into place using node item motion, but you can't get that for the mac, unfortunately. Perhaps you could use the nearest point node to drive on spreading discs, rather than triangles?

Still it's a nice start, I am interested to see what you do next!

[Scazzino]

Thanks Tobian,

I didn't like the triangles either. I'm currently running some tests using the points to create hypervoxels instead as well as testing outlines. I'll post another test when I have something interesting.

Stay tuned!

[Scazzino]

I've started exploring the use of hypervoxels to render the points of the Autiton instances materializing. I was having an issue getting Viper to update while working on the HVs, which made it a slow process. It turned out to be a transparent object (the invisible beam placeholder object) between the HVs and the camera that was preventing the Viper updates. Now that I've got Viper updating again it should accelerate the hypervoxel effect design process.

Here's a rough initial render test of the hypervoxel points as I begin to design this materialization special effect. There will also be a beam effect, which I'll design after I get the materialization going. The background in these tests is still rough too. I'll be refining the materials and lighting of the scene as I go. There's also faceting and UV glitches in these tests since I haven't turned on the adaptive subdivision or finalized the ambient occlusion UV maps yet.

[Scazzino]

OK, Here's a new rough animation test exploring the use of hypervoxel rendered points for the materialization effect. I like the direction it's heading, but it's not there yet. I'll post another test when I take it a bit further.

[tobian]

That's way better than the triangles effect! The one thing I would suggest is maybe try to reverse-explode the points, so that it looks like it's being atomically assembled, if you get your meaning. The actual voxel part though is really nice, and I like how you have them glowing, and the fade-in!

[ArtGoblin]

I'm liking the look of the effect. But I agree with tobian that exploding the points and morph them back in would probably compliment the nice look on the effect with some more interesting motion

[Goran]

Looks great! Some light trails following the points as they spin would be uber neat.

[Scazzino]

Thanks guys!

That's all excellent feedback and right along the lines that I've been thinking.

I've been considering having the points drop into position from above (since this will be in a moving beam effect) or trailing down from their current position. I've also been considering using a trailing effect as the points move/spin.

I'm thinking of this materialization effect as creating the character in 3D much as it's modeled from points and lines as a CGI character. So I like seeing it come together as a sort of point/wireframe. I'm not trying to make it look like a real physical character being created from atoms necessarily but rather a 3D CGI character being created from a subdivision cage that exists in Cyberspace... almost as if it's being rendered from the point cage... if that makes any sense...

This materialization effect is really only half of the effect that will be going on here though. If you look closely you'll see a few dark points fall down from the top near the end of the test. Those were stray points from an emitter that will be generating a beam effect. It was just a placeholder so far and I'll start working on that second part of the overall effect now.

This materialization effect will be happening inside a beam of light information that's flowing down from above. I need to get that effect roughed out before I add too much to the materialization effect, so as to avoid making the combined effect too busy and hard to read.

The materialization effect also needs to occur in 36 frames because that's how fast the Autitons are coming out of the Instance Generator to joint the column walking down the floor at a rate of one and a half seconds per meter.

The final 0090 character may take longer in the beam/materialization effects though because there won't be any other units coming out behind him, so I'll have more time to play with his effect... that's also when the butterfly effect will be intersecting the beam causing the actual disruption or "Fault Effect" that spawns the anomalous unit 0090.

I've updated the rough animation test above with a version that rendered over the weekend. It's basically the same but I changed the character's spin from 360 to 180 degrees to slow it down. I turned on a slight motion blur to test its effect. I also let the points last longer as the character fades in (though I may extend that a bit more). I've also started to adjust the "target" on the floor to pulse as the character materializes. Both the floor and wall light panels will pulse as each Autiton is generated.

In the final shots I may render the points separately and comp them in post, but for now I'm doing it all in render as I rough the effects out.

Keep the feedback coming, it helps me know if I'm on-track or not...

[tobian]

Oh I know they aren't 'physical' but still an animation which 'assembles' them from somewhere, so yes the particles flying in from above would be great, I agree. Maybe something as simple as a stretched morph state.

For the 'fault effect' I suggest you make more of a feature out of it, so have it be more than 36 frames.. the machine going haywire, maybe even pulling out so that all of the arrays fire off like neurons or something weird, causing that padd to fizzle and pop, maybe some swirling? If you could I would have suggested modifying it using the DP node item motion, but I don't think you can, as it doesn't have a Mac version

[Scazzino]

Thanks Tobian!

I've started work on the beam effect. This is just the first test as I start adding in the particle emitter. At this point it's one step forward, and two steps back, since the rough beam makes it hard to read the effect and doesn't add much to it yet. I'll refine it further and post another test when I have an improvement. This is just a test to be used as the starting point.

This is what I have in mind for the beam and "fault effect". I want the beam of light to be comprised of particles of digital information with a primarily white color. As if it were digital rain. As the multicolored butterfly effect intersects the beam it will disturb the falling particles which will take on the coloring of the butterfly effect. Like light going through a prism...

The "fault effect" will be longer than 36 frames. It will run longer and perhaps be done in slow motion in the real shots... also 0090 will spin more than 180 degrees while materializing, turning around a few times and come out wobbling and off-balance as he stumbles out of the Instance Generator, in stark contrast to how the generic Autitons stepped out in assembly line fashion...

[tobian]

Sounds like a good solution so far, I am looking forward to seeing it rendered!

[Scazzino]

Here's a new test using two cascading emitters so that as each point falls it leaves a trail of its own particles behind it.
Still working...

[RObert_Lavigne]

Looks great. You've got some really neat effects going on here. I look forward to see what this ends up as.