Clouds Fall
Hi I'm Vale! Glad to take part in this challenging FX contest to push my skills further. Story | Clouds Reign is at risk as the Infernus Zerg, its infamous enemy, is ready to strike once again. The Guardian is called to do everything in his power to stop it. Either he'll succeed or The Clouds will fall.
Update - 3 Apr 2021
Progress | Worked more on comp (fixed and tweaked some layers mostly as well as added some distortions and such), edited and added sfx.
Goals Next Update | Keep on tweaking comp and editing and submit the final.
RECAP
References & Plan | As I approached this challenge I decided to start thinking about the environment and the story first. This way I found myself following a specific concept which helped me a lot not to get lost or waste precious time at early stages.
Here the links to the reference images I used: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Pb3xo
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/3oqyQm
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/oOVLRk
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/9981y
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/eaa93b
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/4bD40L
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/RPBYW
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Dl22R
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Z550yZ
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/4brO21
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/28nR4J
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/mDmG1v
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/d8gX61
Modelling & Shading | Luckily I didn't have to spend time modeling anything as great assets were provided. I instead took advantage of what I had... so I turned all those FG rocks into clouds. This way the layout of the scene was basically the same (which was helpful in terms of camera view). I also re-arranged couple of rocks to provide the Hydra something to stand on once emerged.
On the shading part the most difficult one was definitely the Cyborg as it was so close to camera all the time and his movements didn't really allowed me to go crazy with the smoke around him cause otherwise the scene would have become easily un-readable. On the Hydra I used heavy displacement and SSS tooking advantage of the texture provided and simply created hot veins with find shortest path node plus some custom point vops.
FX | To put it simply I kept following my idea: working on characters first then progress from there. The Cyborg once again was hard as he's doing a bunch of moves, I believe I kept on changing my mind about every aspect of him for like two months. Luckily I could keep him to render as the very last as he was basically on the FG all the time so didn't really affect anything in terms of shadows and such except for himself.
Volumes play a huge part in my scene. It was a risk as I never really played that much with them but it was fun and I learned a lot on how to control them. RBD's was secondary as I thought everybody was going to do that so I treated these sims as a supporting ones: like the Hydra couldn't possibly stand with its claws on clouds; its animation was making it non believable. I had to use some rocks there. The most fun part was about the headcap though, as the RBD's were linked to an animation.
Lights & Render | Lightning is always so hard as changes everything. I played with it in the first month where I was still working on the environment which, being clouds, required lots of work on it. The characters have their own lights mostly.
While rendering I had to split everything into layers both for comp and optimization of volumes. Of course I made many mistakes that's why I was basically rendering each and every new layer I had at very low resolution, skipping frames etc from the very beginning.
Comp, Editing and SFX | Comp is not my favourite part but it's essential. Having all the layers set up helped a lot of course.
I gave the final touches with some editing tricks, nothing fancy at all, and some sound effects which I enjoy a lot everytime. I used 5alarm.ca for all the music and effects.
Thanks | to all the participants, the sponsors, the judges and The Rookies for making this possible. It was fun! Cheers!
Still Renders | Final
Update - 25 Mar 2021
Progress | Finished rendering Shot 03. Worked on two additional sims I was missing: the wave cloud between Shot 02 and Shot 03 and the overall motion of the Env for Shot 03.
Goals Next Update | Work more on comp, editing and sfx. I believe I'll need to render and/or render-again just a couple of layers across the whole sequence.
NoComp & Comp | Shot 03
Additional Sims | Shot 03
Password: preview
Update - 11 Mar 2021
Progress | Over with Shot 02 renders (except for later on fixes). I worked also on main FX of Shot 03: 1. Clouds Guardian (same setup as previous shots just tweaked vorticity and vel fields). 2. Tornados sources for his attack: split three ways in order to have more control over behaviour, iterations and resolution. 3. Lightning bolts: they werent't planned but I noticed they helped enhance the scene and focus more the attention were it should be. 4. RBD's on the Headcap once hit as well as on the peaks (same setups of before). For the Headcap was interesting, tricky and new to me applying this kind of sim on an animated geo.
Goals Next Update | Start rendering some layers for Shot 03. Implement couple of sims to bring the Env and the attack all together: 1. Clouds/Smoke motion during the load and attack. 2. Clouds Wave for continuity between Shot 02 and Shot 03 (after the Claw hits).
NoComp & Comp | Shot 02
RBD | Infernus Zerg being hit
Password: preview
Clouds Guardian Attack | Shot 03
Password: preview
Update - 28 Feb 2021
Progress | Worked on Shot 02. I run few sims on the Clouds Guardian's defense based on the setup I made previously for his legs and adjusted accordingly to the camera as this one was really tricky. After fixing the Guardian's jump (to avoid the claw) I noticed I needed another FX to bring the environment and all this movement all together. As a result I came up with two other layers of smoky/cloudy streaks as well as a much bigger wave of clouds generated by the claw's movement, so to speak (this will also help for a smoother transition between shots 2&3). I started rendering all the elements as separate layers as before.
Goals Next Update | Wrapping Shot 02 renders up. Implement the dynamic streaks layers also to Shot 01 (the scene feels much more alive I noticed). Start working on Shot 03: the Clouds Guardian will collect more cloudy tornados around him and shoot them back to the Infernus Zerg; Its headcap should have some sort of damage as a result, so I'm planning to run some RBD's on it too. As a final note I think I will switch to Arnold (in Maya though as student version has it) just to get the volumetric rays layers faster as I can't get those right in Mantra at the moment.
Defense+Jump | Clouds Guardian
Password: preview
Password: preview
Password: preview
Update - 16 Feb 2021
Progress | Finished rendering Shot 01 and comp it a little bit. I'm going to put it on hold now (as later on I'd like to add couple of layers to enhance a bit more some effects like the roar and the clouds moving up when the Infernus Zerg emerges) and wait to see how it will go along with Shot 02.
Goals Next Update | Keep working on FX for Shot 02 and hopefully "finish" them (they are mainly: Cloud Guardian defense and Cloud Guardian's jump to avoid the Infernus Zerg's claw).
NoComp & Comp | Nuke Tree
Update - 2 Feb 2021
Progress | Started to make render layers for Shot 01 and render the ones that are ok. Made the fracture and debris (plus the smoke generated from these) made by the Infernus Zerg climbing the peaks in the shot. As all this can barely be seen I remeshed, fractured and added interior details (through @targetmeshsize attr) based on transferring a density attribute from the collider (the Infernus Zerg). This allowed me to high res only the small portions I'm interested in. For the Debris I added a fake POP emitter on the peaks (just to enhance this impact effect) then copied to points some small pieces of a prefractured platonic solid (after a loop in which I could basically measure these pieces by their volume and assign them an unique id in order to randomly copy them to the points generated from the POP sim). The infernus Zerg is not really touching the peaks but since this can't be really seen from the camera's view, I preferred to keep my environment layout as it is since I like it.
Goals Next Update | I'm gonna keep on running 540p every 3frames renders to make sure the renders are ok then proceed with high res final ones for Shot 01. Start working on Shot 02 and keep on iterating on the Clouds Guardian as I'm still not happy about it.
Fracture & Debris | Smoke
Password: fracture
Comments (2)
Update - 17 Jan 2021
Progress | Worked on the Clouds Guardian: it was tricky to get a decent amount/behavior of detailed smoky clouds on top of him, considering I didn't wanna lose his silhouette from camera. So I decided to split the sims in basically three ways: 1. Vortex clouds coming up to his legs. 2. Smaller smoky pattern based on an animated texture. 3. Slightly bigger smoke emitted straight from his back. These last two ones are affected by a custom velocity field that's following the character. Worked on the eye of the storm where the Infernus Zerg is coming from too.
Goals Next Update | Working on the Infernus Zerg's interaction with the clouds as well as with the rocks he's climbing.
Clouds Guardian's CFX | Eye of the Storm FX
Password: preview
Update - 7 Jan 2021
Progress | I have worked on the Monster (aka "Infernus Zerg" from now on). Made of rough vulcanic rocks but still having an incandescent source inside him. I also built a quick way to make his saliva in a way that could be useful throughout the whole sequence if needed. I might go back to him later on to add some small consistent flames, I haven't decided yet.
Goals Next Update | Start working on the CFX/FX for the Clouds Guardian (in shot 01).
Infernus Zerg
Password: saliva
Update - 29 Dec 2020
Progress | I have worked on the Cyborg and the environment he's protecting. Run some variations to understand what I liked more for consistency among the shots. I'm quite happy the concept is working for now.
Goals Next Update | Start working on the Monster's concept.
Clouds Guardian
Password: turnaround
Clouds Environment
Password: turnaround
Update - 22 Dec 2020
Story | Above Clouds Reign's safety is being put at risk. The Earth Monster is trying once again to overrule. A Cyborg Guardian is trying to prevent that to happen.
Idea | The Cyborg is made out of the environment that he's protecting: clouds/smoke. He gets his powers from it. The Monster is made of rocks/lava as he's an earth creature.
Process | I'll start with the characters concept/cfx, focusing more on the cyborg and the environment as they are connected. If the LookDev is working I'll move to the FX.
Pros & Cons | Creating FX based on established style will help me not to overdo. It will be a rendering nightmare.
Storyboard
Moodboard
Cyborg | reference
Monster | reference
Comments (4)