This month I took visual effects 2. This was much more difficult than VFX1 because we had to step outside of our comfort zone and start using other software (other than Maya 2014) to do different VFX simulations. This class was very much based on doing your own research to figure out how software works and how you can use it to create your effect.
For the first assignment I was using Maya 3D fluid containers to create an effect of a fire. I chose to do the effect of a fire in a metal barrel. I modeled the barrel and wooden planks, then I created a volume particle emitter inside the barrel and emitted the fluid from those particles to create my effect.
The second assignment was an aircraft engine fire of a commercial air-liner. I created this effect in Houdini FX.
For my third assignment I was supposed to do an effect that I have never done before in any of my previous classes. I created the effect of a cannon ball going through a cinder block wall with Maya 2012 DMM plug-in. On top of that I created fluids to act as dust
Time to get an early start on my portfolio content creation. This side project that I am picking up is going to be a model of Bruce Willis's face/ head combined with the mechanical features of a cyborg like the woman's face on the left. I plan to model in extreme detail and rig this face later on. There will be many blend shapes involved in this process. I'm going to model all of the mechanical parts in the neck down as separate parts and they will all be moving during the face expressions.
First Pass:
getting down basic forms and simple shapes. (about 1 hour)
Second Pass:
Start shaping the mouth and nose area. Introduce neck until face is finished. (about 40 mins)
Making better progress on this model now. Please follow my pinterest board for more updates.
It's been a while since I posted my progress on this blog for this model/ rig so here is a few more recent images.
sculpts for wrinkle maps
I've also decided to change the project a bit. Instead of him being a cyborg-like character I'm just going to be putting him in an armor suit that I modeled out a long time ago. There will be some updating that I will be doing to this model for functionality purposes of the rig.
Here's an animation test for the functionality of the helmet. This is going to be changed in many ways, and it will not be splitting down the front in the middle because the front will be stowed into his chest plate.
