Sometimes creating real light effects can be a nightmare. Searching for a good volume light and at the same time keeping the render time reasonable seems almost impossible to achieve. In order to research realistic looking lighting which includes the unexpected textures that a camera lens adds to the image, we reviewed some recent high profile concerts and also a spectacular light show in Hamburg for Wladimir Klitschko’s entrance when he fought David Haye. A more subtle but equally powerful light show worth looking at is the 2012 Grammy performance of Adele singing Rolling in the deep. If you look closely at the light beam properties on show, you will see what look like gas flame effects in the volumetric and there are also some great details from the ground row lighting which appear to burn together as one light when they are at their most powerful.

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CGI Integration into a Locked Camera Shot

Shortly after aquiring the new studio camera, the team devised a small test to see how well we could integrate CG elements into a live shot. This work requires skills in camera matching, rotoscoping, compositing and colour matching so that the real footage and CGI seem to share the same space. Below is a brief description of how the above video was made.

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RayFire is a great plugin for 3Ds Max which lets you to fracture any object you like.
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Several years ago, I was asked to design a garden for a friend. Having never designed one, I wasn’t completely sure on what the outcome would be, if I could do it or if I was lining myself up for a whole heap of trouble. Continue reading

There are certain thresholds which carry particular experiences, ones which jolt our senses and awareness Continue reading

This is a work in progress.I wrote a piece of music some time ago called ‘Raining June’. This animation will hopefully compliment the music.
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This is a test to try Hair and Fur of 3DS Max, and the dynamics of the effect as well.

This is a test to try to mimic the real movements of a hand held camera in 3DS Max. We began recording several shots in a corridor literally walking around with the camera on a mini steady-cam.
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As all you know, the more the frames per second, the smoother will playback the animation, but it’s always the problem of the render times, if you render the double frames per second, you have to wait twice to finish your work. We tried to remap the video in After Effects, which is faster than render at 50fps, and the results are not bad at all.

Above is the original video.
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Density 0.1

This is a test of reflective and refractive caustics in 3DS Max and Vray, changing the Maximum Density, you get more or less detail on the caustics.
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