environment « Bryan Ray, Visual Effects Artist

June 18, 2010

Solar Expeditions Cruise Lines

Filed under: 3d Modeling, Compositing, Environments, Graphic Design, Object and Vehicle Design, Photoshop, Video & Animation — Tags: 3d tracking, After Effects, alexis tomashosky, animating, anyul garza, CG Textures, cgtextures, compositing, cruise ship, earth, editing, effects, environment, fluids, flying rig, Graphic Design, greenscreen, gustav holst, illustrator, jessica, jessica ray, jupiter, kat michels, keying, lighting, logo, mars, matchmoving, matte painting, maya, modeling, motion tracking, NASA, nuke, ognian bozikov, particles, PFTrack, planets, premiere, production studio, ruth mentzer, saturn, ship, shuttle, sky, solar expeditions, solar system, soundbooth, space ship, stars, sun, textures, texturing, tracking, twitch, vfx, video, video copilot, visual effects — Bryan @ 9:33 pm

My Production Studio I team produced a set of four television ads for an interplanetary cruise line:

Solar Expeditions 60 second ad from Bryan Ray on Vimeo.

The team consisted of me, Alexis Tomashosky, Anyul Garza, and Ruth Mentzer. Breakdowns by shot follow:

Shot 1, Liftoff: Matte painting constructed in Adobe Photoshop CS4 by Bryan Ray using elements provided by NASA (the launch pad), and cgtextures.com (several sky photographs). The shuttle was modeled in Autodesk Maya (versions 2008 – 2010) by Ruth Mentzer and textured with Maya and Photoshop by Bryan. Animation, fluid simulation, particle effects in Maya and compositing in The Foundry Nuke by Bryan.

Shot 2, Leaving the Earth: Earth texture provided by NASA. Earth and stars modeled and textured in Maya by Bryan. Cruise ship modeled in Maya by Ruth and textured (so to speak—really just simple materials) in Maya by Bryan. Animation and atmosphere effect by Alexis Tomashosky in Maya. Composited in Nuke by Alexis. Greenscreen footage keyed by Anyul Garza and Alexis in Nuke and Adobe After Effects. Shuttle as above.

Shot 3, the Lobby: Lobby modeled in Maya by Ruth and Alexis. Textured and lit in same by Alexis. Keying in After Effects and 3d tracking in PFTrack by Anyul. Map element by Bryan. Alexis composited in Nuke.

Shot 4, the Map: Modeling, texturing, lighting, fluid effects and animation in Maya by Bryan.

Shot 5, Orbiting Jupiter: Jupiter and stars modeled and textured in Maya by Bryan. Animation and engine effects in Maya by Bryan. Composited in Nuke by Bryan. Cruise ship as above.

Shot 6, Cabin: Room modeled and textured by Alexis and Bryan in Maya. Greenscreen footage keyed in After Effects by Anyul. Matte painting created in Maya by Bryan. Hologram animated in Maya and After Effects (+ Video Copilot’s Twitch plug-in) by Bryan and composited in Nuke.

Shot 7, Dining: Keying in After Effects and 3d tracking in PFTrack by Anyul. Modeling in Maya by Bryan and Ruth. Texturing and lighting in Maya and compositing in Nuke by Ruth.

Shot 8, Sun Deck: Sun model, texture, and fluid simulation in Maya by Bryan. Deck modeled and textured in Maya by Ruth. Keying in After Effects and tracking in PFTrack by Anyul. Rotoscoping in After Effects and Nuke by Ruth and Anyul. Compositing in Nuke by Ruth.

Shot 9, Freefall Room: Keying in After Effects by Anyul. Modeling in Maya by Alexis. Lighting in Maya by Alexis, Anyul, and instructor Ognian Bozikov. Compositing by Anyul in Nuke. Flying rig by Daniel Mentzer.

Shot 10, Logo: Mars and stars modeled and textured in Maya by Bryan Ray. Animation and compositing in Nuke by Anyul. Logo created in Adobe Illustrator by Bryan. Additional compositing in After Effects by Bryan. Cruise ship as above.

Screen talent: Alexis, Bryan, Kat Michels, Todd Judd, Vince Chowdhury, Tasha Muhammad, and Marcus Porter.

Music: “Jupiter” from The Planets Suite composed by Gustav Holst and mutilated in Adobe Soundbooth and Premiere by Bryan. Voice over by Jessica Ray and recorded in Soundbooth by Bryan. Sound effects from an unknown library that’s been kicking around on one of my hard drives for years. Audio mastering by Anyul and Bryan

Editing by Ruth and Bryan in After Effects and Premiere. Special technical support by instructor Ognian Bozikov.

Thanks to the Art Institute of Colorado for the use of a Panasonic HVX200 camera, greenscreen stage, video studio, portable greenscreen kit, and the 60+ Macintosh computers we used for rendering on the weekends.

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November 23, 2009

Neon and Chrome

Filed under: 3d Modeling, Environments, Object and Vehicle Design — Tags: Advanced Lighting and Texturing, christopher dess, chrome, environment, garage, lighting, lights, matthew thain, maya, neon, texture, textures, texturing, truck — Bryan @ 12:45 pm

This model, entitled Neon and Chrome, was built by Christopher Dess and Matthew Thain. As with the lighthouse, I am doing the lighting and texturing. This one is a work in progress; I am fairly satisfied with the light, but it is going to be a while before the texturing is complete. Most of the light is emitted from the geometry and bounced around with Final Gather. The accent lights on the wall are spotlights, and there are two spotlights impersonating streetlamps off-screen. I am attempting to make as much physically correct light as I can without greatly increasing the render time. It currently renders in around 4 1/2 minutes at a resolution of 640 x 480. This image, of course, took much longer since it’s full HD (1920 x 1080).

click for full size

I suspect that this image will wind up in my portfolio, so I am really going to take my time with it. Expect to see updates from time to time over the next year.

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Lighthouse

Filed under: 3d Modeling, Environments — Tags: Advanced Lighting and Texturing, CG Textures, cgtextures, environment, juan carlos silva, light, lighthouse, lighting, maya, sky, texture, textures, texturing — Bryan @ 12:28 pm

This lighthouse was modeled by Juan Carlos Silva. Our assignment was to light and texture it. Although this project did not turn out as well as I had hoped it would, I learned a lot.

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October 31, 2009

Soldiers fighting back-to-back

Filed under: Compositing, Environments, Video & Animation — Tags: After Effects, alan province, cgtextures, chroma key, composite, compositing, environment, guns, john white, keying, Motion Graphics, motion graphics II, mutant chronicles, nick person, ruth mentzer, sebastian hernandez, seth lawrey, sky, tim mohatt, todd debreceni, vfx, videocopilot, visual effects — Bryan @ 9:21 pm

I was assigned a simple chroma-keying exercise in Motion Graphics II. Since I had little else due, I decided to take it a bit further than that. I am one of the soldiers, the other is Seth Lawrey. Muzzle flashes and fog from a footage collection by Andrew Kramer of Videocopilot.net. Costumes by John White. Miniature terrain built by me, Ruth Mentzer, John White, Sebastian Hernandez, Tim Mohatt, Seth Lawrey, Nick Person, Alan Province and instructor Todd Debreceni. Guns by Todd Debreceni. Sky provided by Cgtextures.com. The composite was done in After Effects CS4.

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September 19, 2009

The Mutant Chronicles ship in action

Filed under: 3d Modeling, Environments, Object and Vehicle Design, Video & Animation — Tags: After Effects, alan province, cgtextures, compositing, environment, john white, maya, miniature, mutant chronicles, nick person, ruth mentzer, sebastian hernandez, seth lawrey, shake, sky, texture, texturing, tim mohatt, todd debreceni, vfx, VFX Field Production, visual effects — Bryan @ 5:01 pm

For my final project in Compositing, I was required to create two scenes of 5 seconds or longer using the techniques we’d learned in class. My Visual Effects Field Production class, meanwhile, had produced lots of great footage and assets for our use in later classes. So I decided I wanted to show our ship flying down the valley in our miniature and attack the gun emplacements. My reach exceeded my grasp somewhat, and I don’t have time to do the combat effects. The flythrough and environment elements did, however, get done.

The ship was modeled by Alan Province in 3dsMax. I textured and animated it using Maya. The miniature was built by everyone in the VFX class and shot on greenscreen. This composite contains four different angles on the miniature. The camera move was tracked in PFTrack, and that data was exported to Maya to assist in animating the ship. I pulled the mattes and created the engine blasts in After Effects, then the entire thing was composited in Shake. The sky backdrop and many of the textures on the ship are courtesy of cgtextures.com and used in compliance with their license.

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September 10, 2009

Adventures in Maya

Filed under: 3d Modeling, Environments — Tags: 3d, advanced modeling & animation, CG Textures, environment, maya, model, modeling, tea, teahouse, texture, textures, texturing — Bryan @ 5:08 pm

So I’m almost through with my first Maya class, and I’m starting to be able to produce things that are actually at least interesting to look at. To me. And only because I made them. But here they are for everyone else’s enjoyment, too.

A Japanese teahouse, modeled, textured, lit, and rendered by me, with much assistance from numerous tutorials, and textures from cgtextures.com:

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August 16, 2009

Compositing with Shake

Filed under: Environments, Video & Animation — Tags: compositing, environment, gargoyle, shake, sky, vfx, visual effects — Bryan @ 9:32 pm

This is my first project using Apple Shake. It is in no way narrative; it’s just a simple shot with an unsteady zoom to which I have added a couple of elements and replaced the sky. I was somewhat dissatisfied with Shake’s tracking capabilities, though I have to admit that this isn’t the greatest footage in the world. I will have some high def greenscreen footage soon, with which I hope I can get some better tracking experience.

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August 13, 2009

The Ruined Valley

Filed under: Environments, Photography — Tags: bridge, compositing, environment, matte painting, moon, mountains, mutant chronicles, night, night sky, Photography, photomanipulation, Photoshop, sky, vfx, visual effects, visual effects field production — Bryan @ 12:31 pm

My Visual Effects Field Production class is attempting to recreate several shots from the trailer of The Mutant Chronicles. (Great trailer, lousy movie.) This is a photographic composite intended to replace this shot:

And my version (Click to enlarge):

The night sky, some of the midground mountains, the refinery, and the rocky arch were provided by cgtextures.com and are used in accordance with that site’s license.
The bridges were provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Original photo entitled “Bixby Canyon Bridge” by Cpt Albert E Theberg, NOAA Corps (Ret) is in the public domain.
I photographed all the other elements myself along the Peak to Peak Scenic Highway between Blackhawk and Estes Park, CO.

Looks like YouTube nixed the trailer for a Terms of Use violation. Too violent, I guess, though it really wasn’t even as bloody as an episode of CSI, in my opinion.

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June 27, 2009

An Arabian City

Filed under: Drawing, Environments, Illustration — Tags: arab, arabia, arabian, city, crusades, Drawing, environment, Illustration, mosque, perspective, Perspective and Proportion — Bryan @ 10:05 pm

Yet another environmental drawing from Perspective & Proportion. For this one, the assignment was to illustrate a particular period in history using the architecture as the primary clue about what time period the image describes. I wasn’t terribly happy with the characters in this one, but I very much enjoyed drawing the mosque. The minarets and domes of Islamic architecture are so beautiful. It was a delight just to look at the reference photos.

Pencil on cold-press illustration board.

An Arabian City during the Crusades

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Karlsborg Fastning

Filed under: Drawing, Environments, Illustration — Tags: carlsborg, carlsborg fastning, castle, Drawing, environment, fortress, Illustration, karlsborg, perspective, Perspective and Proportion — Bryan @ 9:52 pm

Another Perspective and Proportion project. We were to illustrate a castle with strict perspective. This image is based on a photograph of Karlsborg Fortress in… Sweden, I think it was. I am not sure what part of the fortress the photograph shows. I suspect it’s looking down the exterior of the Eastern Land Front wall at the corner tower, but I can’t be certain.

The image is intended to accompany a map created by an acquantaince of mine with the screenname Hoel on the Cartographers’ Guild. The map can be viewed here.

This one is all graphite pencils on cold-press illustration board.

Karlsborg Fastning

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