NOVEDGE blog

The Edge: Ilan Gabai's Epic Animation

Novedge: Tell us about yourself and what you do.

Ilan Gabai: Hello! My name is Ilan Gabai, and I am an effects animator (technical director) located in NYC. I earned my BFA in digital arts in 2007, and have since worked in the entertainment industry. I began my career working on TV shows and live action film, but over time shifted towards feature animation. Today I work as a full time effects artist at Blue Sky Studios/20th Century Fox. I have previously worked on projects such as Ice Age 4, Rio, Fast & Furious, Lost, Fringe, Rescue Me and more. I like to teach in my spare time, I have lectured and taught courses at Gnomon, SVA & Pratt. I gave my first SIGGRAPH presentation last year in L.A.

As an effects artist I am responsible for developing techniques and creating appealing visuals to support the story. My favorite part of the job is that I am involved with both development and animation of my effects work. Some examples of effects work include Oceans, water splashes, smoke, fire, dust, magic, explosions, destruction, etc.

Ilan Gabai - 2012 FX Reel from Ilan Gabai on Vimeo.

Novedge: You have worked on TV projects, films and animated features. How similar and how different is to work in these different fields?

Ilan Gabai: Short answer: The amount of time you have to deliver your work.

More elaborate answer: While the goals and type of work may be similar, there are quite a number of differences between the project types. They are all pretty demanding in their own unique way. Working in episodic television can definitely take a few years off of your life span. Other than pilot shows and season premieres, you have on average 2 weeks to complete all of the visual effects for an episode. Your studio is generally hired as a visual effects vendor for a larger production company. There really is no room for screwing up. So you look for the least time consuming, most aesthetically pleasing solution. Because you have very little (if any) time to develop ideas, it is best that you rely on prior experiences that have proven results. In episodic television, your development time is during the pilots and premiers which generally have longer deadlines.

I find live action films to be closer in nature to episodic television pilots, with higher aesthetic demands. So you generally have more time to work on a shot, but you are expected to create a visual effect at the highest level of realism. You are still hired as a vendor to work on a larger production. Visual effects for films usually get distributed over a number of studios simultaneously. So there are a number of vfx vendors completing work on different sequences for a larger production studio. Also, as many of the readers are probably familiar with this, the vfx industry is going through a serious struggle right now. The flat rate bids definitely add pressure to the work environment when your employer is trying to stay within budget. Artists are frequently forced to relocate in order to stay employed. These pressures create a more challenging work environment, which made my decision to shift towards feature animation an easier one.

Working at Blue Sky Studios has been a great experience for me. It has been a breath of fresh air. The studio is family oriented, and a pretty fun place to work. Like all work places, we have deadlines and crunch times; but somehow they feel much easier to meet here. Most likely because we have a good recipe for making film production work. Unlike in live action, here at Blue Sky we make our own films. Everybody gets credited for their work here, including babies that were born to artists during production. I think that the fact that our movies are made in house also makes us feel more attached to them. We take the success or failure (but mostly success) of our work very personally. Another big difference between working in feature animation vs live action is our ability to create more stylized visuals. While we do have art direction, artists are given plenty of opportunities to share their ideas and creativity. We usually have time dedicated to developing new ideas and techniques between films or at the beginning of a new production.

Novedge: What is a recent project that you worked on? 

Ilan Gabai: I just completed my work for the upcoming film Epic, and am currently working on Rio 2.

I can only share what has already been publicly announced about Epic. The film is based off the children's book The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs by William Joyce. and is directed by Chris Wedge (Ice Age, Robots). The story is described on Wikipedia as a "battle deep in the forest between the forces of good and evil, and tells a story of a teenage girl who finds herself in a secret world, where she must help a team of fun and whimsical characters to save their world, which also saves the real world."

Back to my opinion: visually, the movie is amazing! Everyone here at the studio really pushed themselves artistically and technically to the next level. You can get a bit of a taste of that by viewing our trailer, but most of the exciting work won't be seen until the film is released. And we are all very excited to share this with the the world this coming May.

 

Novedge: What software do you use? 

Ilan Gabai: I work with a variety of software packages. My main software for effects work is Houdini. I use Houdini for its procedural and non-destructive workflow. While other software packages are slowly catching up, Houdini has been the first to go fully procedural, and is designed from the ground up to work in that way. We maintain a close relationship with the developers at Side Effects Software, and work closely with them to figure out ways to tackle new challenges. The level of support that sidefx has shown us during our productions has been second to none in my experience.

For liquid simulations I sometimes use RealFlow. RealFlow is a great stand alone liquid simulation package. It does actually offer more than just that, but liquids are what they have become known for. After creating your simulation in RealFlow, you can easily export your results to any major 3D package. The company that created RealFlow, Next Limit, is a small and friendly company located in Spain. They are very personable, and work closely with their clientele. For me it is always a huge plus to see that a company goes out of its way to make user experience a high priority.

For general 3D usage, I work with Maya. Maya is the 3D package that I was taught to use in college. It also seemed to be the most wide spread package of choice amongst the US based studios that I have worked for in the past. So until I arrived at Blue Sky, Maya was the main software package at the studios I worked for. It is a strong general package for all contexts of the 3D pipeline such as modeling, texturing, animation, effects and lighting ( with the help of external plugins).

Novedge: What would you say to young people who want to work in the visual effects field? What skills, both technical and personal, are in demand in the industry?

Ilan Gabai: This is a very competitive field of work, which requires an artistic eye and a certain degree of technical know how (it varies depending on the area of specialty).

With technology rapidly improving, it is important that you stay on top of things. I personally read, and practice a lot in my spare time. The industry is filled with extremely passionate people, so it is hard to compete against them if you are less dedicated than they are. For those of you currently earning a degree in the field, just holding a degree isn't enough. You really need to go the extra mile on your own and gain a professional level of knowledge these days. For effects work specifically, it's important to have an eye for detail, a creative thought process and a technical mind set. Finding an artist that excels in all of those areas is sometimes a challenging task.

With all that aside, it really is a rewarding field of work. It doesn't feel like a job when you enjoy what you are doing. I still get excited every time I start a new film, or even a sequence of a film. Also, for me, my work environment is a big plus. We enjoy lots of little perks, game room, film screenings, guest speakers, studio parties, etc. It definitely beats a 9-5 office job!

 

Would you like to see more of Ilan's work? Check out his Vimeo channel.

Are you on Tumblr? Follow us on The World is 3D!

And don't forget that Epic opens in US theaters on May 24th!

Novedge Webinar #69: Q&A with Chris Stringer - Working with Shaders in Artlantis 4.1

Our 69th Webinar, Working with Shaders in Artlantis 4.1, left us all wanting for more! Here Chris Stringer answers all the questions he couldn't get to during our live Q&A session.

 

Q 01: Can a render from Artlantis be used as a Postcard? 

A: No. A Postcard is a specialized type of low-resolution (400x300 pixel) JPEG rendering with additional information about the scene's materials embedded into it, created in Artlantis using the menu/command Tools/Create Postcard. By contrast, a regular Artlantis rendering created using the menu/command Inspector/Render does not contain this type of information...See also Q 2, Q 12 and Q 24.

Q 02: Can Postcards be moved from one PC to another? Must the Shaders be shared on both rigs?

A: Yes, Postcards can be moved, shared, emailed, etc. Yes, the original Shaders that existed on the computer/project where that Postcard was created must also exist on any other computer where that Postcard is going to be used, if it is to work properly. To ensure that Shaders and other media files used in a specific project travel safely with the project when it is being sent from one computer to another, always remember to save the project using menu/command File/Export as Archive… See also Q 1, Q 12, and Q 24.

Q 03: When you re-assign materials, will it be saved that way when the document is reopened?

A: Yes. Those settings are retained in that Artlantis file. See also Q 9.

Q 04: What are the limitations in Artlantis if a texture is pulled from the web? Do you lose any feature rich operations if you apply your own texture?

A: The limitations really depend on the quality of the texture and the set of accompanying image maps, because your goal in Artlantis shouldn’t be just to use good textures…it should be to use good Shaders. So,what’s the difference? A texture is a single bitmap image that defines one aspect of a material’s appearance. They can get assigned to the material in the 3D modeler or later in Artlantis. The most common type of texture used isa color (diffuse) image map, which are typically made by photographing a real-world material and often digitally altering them to create seamless edges. A material that only has a single texture map assigned to it is going to appear “flat” and less realistic…i.e. more computer-generated. A Shader is a combination of one or more separate texture files(typically all based on the same color image map as a starting point) that work in combination to define a material’s appearance in ways that cannot be accomplished with the use of a single color image map alone. Shaders typically make use of additional supporting image maps to add effects such as bump, reflection, shininess, normals, etc. These maps interact with the scene’s light and reflections to add life-like qualities to the materials. In Artlantis, it is possible to create a custom Shader that has all of the advanced settings of the high quality default Shaders in Artlantis, since they are offered to you within the menu/command Tools/Create Shader From... But, you either need the skill to create the supporting image maps for the shader (if they don’t already exist), or you need to find someone who already has those skills and has created those image maps. You can learn a lot by using the Create Shader From command to examine some of the existing Shaders’ settings and their accompanying image maps.

Q 05: Is there a specific relationship between values of the bump to the normal maps?

A: The bump and normal maps are both typically derived from the same starting point: the diffuse (color) image map. Both can be used to create the illusion of enhanced depth or relief in a Shader by affecting the way light interacts with the underlying color map, however, the normal map can be used to accomplish more than what is possible to achieve with the bump map. The grayscale information in the bump map can only scatter light in the direction of one axis: the Z axis.The normal map is a more advanced type of bump map, using the RGB color information it contains to scatter light in the X, Y, and Z axes. As an example, when creating a slate floor tile Shader, you might start with an 8 x 8 tile grid for the color map.

Giving it a Reflection of .7 and Shininess of 700 would create the following appearance:

You might use a bump map to simulate the depth of the grout lines and provide a rough textured quality to the slate surface. The lighter areas in the bump map will result in that area of the diffuse map appearing raised while the darker areas will appear to be recessed.

The normal map could have some of those same qualities as the bump map. It could have the same basic texture, accentuating the rough texture of the slate surface (below top). However, it could instead be created to scatter light in a simpler, profoundly different way…to make the individual tiles appear as if none of them were laid completely level (below bottom), so that the reflections of the background do not line up perfectly on each tile.

The combination of the bump and the normal maps could be used to both enhance the natural texture of the material and create more of a random appearance to the reflections in the tiles.

Q 06: Chris, can you show us how to use light on interior at night views? Thank you.

A: Lighting will be the subject of a future webinar. In the meantime, you can watch these videos available on the Artlantis YouTube channel: Adding Lights and Physical Camera and Automatic Light Adjustment.

Q 07: How can we make realistic renders like those in 3D Studio Max using Sketchup with Artlantis?

A: The built-in Artlantis radiosity engine strikes an excellent balance between quality and speed. However, if you need something that goes beyond the capabilities of the Artlantis radiosity engine, check out the Maxwell Render engine for Artlantis. By default, it is installed with Artlantis 4.1 in a 30-day demo mode (can be activated with the purchase of a separate serial number) and is accessible from the menu/command Artlantis/License/Maxwell Render Engine (on Mac) or Help/Edit License/Maxwell Render Engine (on Windows). Licensed from Next Limit Technologies, the developers of the standalone version of Maxwell Render, the engine is an optional product that excels at creating hyper realistic renderings with physically accurate lighting behavior. The renderings take significantly longer to produce, but if that level of quality is needed, it is possible to do so without having to leave the familiar and extremely easy-to-use Artlantis work environment. That’s a powerful combination! Normally,you’ll want to use Artlantis for your preliminary renderings (and most of your final renderings, for that matter), then use the Maxwell Render Engine when is has to be perfect. You’ll note that there is a dedicated family of Maxwell Render Shaders in the Catalog of mostly reflective and refractive surfaces. You’ll want to apply those in a different version of your Artlantis project before doing a Maxwell rendering.

Artlantis Radiosity Engine:

Maxwell Render Engine:

Q 08: I had difficulties customizing interior views using white walls in Artlantis. I use the "china", "basic" shader, but never got the realistic view as you can see in this if it's possible.

A: If you want to achieve brighter whites, here’s what to do. In our example here, we’ll be changing the walls. First, you’ll want to have probably either the Basic or Expert Shader applied to your surface. The color doesn’t matter, but just to keep things simple, make it white. Locate the blanc.jpg in the Catalog/Images and drag it onto the surface (the walls, for example) in the 3D Preview window. In the ShadersInspector/Material list, select the blank.jpg texture. In the settings for that texture, mark the Rep. checkboxes so that it tiles horizontally and vertically. At this point, you probably won’t notice any visible changes in the 3D Preview window yet.

With the blank.jpg texture still selected in the Shaders Inspector/Material list, adjust the Ambient slider to the right to maybe around 0.20 or so. You should see the white areas of the walls brighten considerably. If you take the Ambient slider all the way up 1.00, it will increase the white to a very unnatural looking pure white, which you wouldn’t normally do. Note that the ceiling in the next image next has not been changed, thus becoming a point of reference compared to the brightened walls.

Q 09: Is it possible to apply a shader texture in just one face of the imported model? Or do we need to import another model with that face in a different shader?

A: Yes, you can apply a Shader to just one face using the re-assign material command. There is no need to import another model. First, select the face by activating the selection tool in above the material list.

Change the selection method to single face.

Click on the desired face in the 3D Preview window to select it. The selected element will temporarily be highlighted. Then, click on the Apply Material icon, in the Shaders Inspector palette.

A dialogue will appear. In this case, you will want to apply a copy of the currently selected material to the surface. Give the new material an appropriate name.

The final result is a new material definition for that surface, which now operates completely independent of the other elements in the scene that shared its previous material. You can then apply Shaders to this surface as you normally would in Artlantis…just drag and drop a Shader directly onto the surface in the 3D Preview Window.

See also Q 03.

Q 10: How can we use HDRI files to get shaders affected within the environment?

A: While it is true that HDRI does affect the appearance of Shaders in the scene, that’s a lighting/background topic really best left for a future webinar. In the meantime, you can watch this video available on the Artlantis YouTube channel: Artlantis 4.1 - Adding HDRI Background.

Q 11: When we render the "white" shader from native Artlantis there's always a little bit of gray aspect. How can we control this shader to put it more with and apply to interior walls?

A: See Q 8.

Q 12: Since the Postcards are just jpegs, do they have to be generated from Artlantis?

A: Yes, they must be generated from Artlantis, because they are not “just” jpegs, they are specialized jpegs with additional information embedded into them. See also Q 1, Q 2 and Q 24.

Q 13: Can you do paint on the surface, like graffiti effect?

A: Yes. While there is no paint brush tool in Artlantis, this can be easily achieved if you add an alpha channel to an image in Photoshop to mask out its background. In the alpha channel, dark areas will mask the image and light areas will remain visible. Export as a TIF or PNG, then drag and drop that image file directly into the Artlantis 3D Preview window. Scale, reposition, and check the Use Alpha Channel checkbox.

Q 14: I have problems with 3D plants from version 1.2 looking very rough when rendered in 4.0. Do you know why that would be?

A: That would be a question for the Artlantis technical support team. We would need to know what plant files you’re using, a few things about your system and setup, and might possibly need an archived project file to diagnose the cause and offer a solution. To submit a support ticket on artlantis.com, use this link.

Q 15: Is there an easy way to use alpha channels in Artlantis, so you can make realistic looking grass for example?

A: Yes, but Shaders might not be the best option. The problem with many grass textures (and even high quality grass Shaders) is that from a far distance, they appear too repetitive, while from a close distance, they appear too flat. You could start with a grass Shader, and drop one or more subsequent grass textures onto it (with various bits masked out using an alpha channel to show the other underlying grass texture) to create a more randomized appearance to the grass texture, but this does nothing to resolve the problem that in real life, unless you’re on a golf course, grass normally doesn’t look like low-pile carpet.

Grass 1 with alpha (goes on top)

Grass 2 (goes underneath)

Grass textures 1 and 2 combined. The blend creates more randomnessthan using one texture alone, however it still looks pretty flat.

Grass is a material that is really difficult to simulate through just a texture and some bump and normal maps, because in reality it is a highly volumetric type of surface. Yes, you’ve got to put some kind of ground material in your project, but rather than taking great pains to create a Shader to simulate grass or using a high-poly 3D grass object, you could instead make a composite for your final image. Artlantis provides the option to save out a rendering as a Photoshop file. The resulting file contains 5 separate, very useful layers: MODEL_FRONT (the foreground elements), BACKGROUND (the background elements), MATERIAL (a materials map, differentiating the materials in the scene by unique colors), OBJECT (like the materials map, only for objects),and ZBUFFER (a grayscale depth map of the scene). The first 2 layers combine to create the finished rendering, but it’s the last 3 layers that can be very useful for post-process editing.

If you don’t already own Photoshop, stop what you’re doing and order it now. If there’s one other tool you need to create great renderings, it’s Photoshop. We can open this rendering in Photoshop and quickly use the magic wand to select the ground plane in either the OBJECT or MATERIAL layers. We create a grayscale mask from this, then apply a glass distortion filter to it to give it more of a rough edge.

Next step is to combine the rendering with a real image of the site or a photograph of a neatly manicured lawn (via a quick trip to a stockphoto website). I located 2 suitable images, used the content-aware fill to extend and touch up some areas, blended them by setting one of them at 50% opacity, then brightened the result with an overlay layer. Grass is brightened by adding a new solid green layer, set to overlay at 28% opacity

The final result of the new grass added into the overall composition is pictured below. Much more convincing! Since this is a tutorial about adding grass textures, I won’t discuss the additional compositional elements, cropping, and other adjustments that could be done to this image in Photoshop to make it a fully realized architectural rendering.

Q 16: What is a good practice to make good use of those different mapsto make better looking gaps or displacement?

A: See Q 5.

Q 17: We've had a lot of problems with swimming pools in particular. If in the modeler the solid element (slab) for the water actually touches the walls around it then Artlantis shows a black surface when rendered. We've been doing a work around which is leaving the water short of the walls and floors of the pool by about 1 cm inorder to not have the black surface. Any suggestions?

A: Sometimes, a simple work around is the best solution! You might also try just using a flat plane for the water. I once talked to a person who was rendering an interior and was puzzled by the way that the exterior looked wrong through the windows, even though everything was oriented properly and set up correctly. As it turned out, she was using the “glass” refraction option in her windows’ glass Shader settings, which was warping the view of the exterior like a magnifying glass. This was quickly and easily resolved by simply changing the glass refraction option to “air.” Your issue might be related to something like this…some weird refraction happening at the water’s edge. If you think this is a bug, you should create a support ticket with the Artlantis technical support team. They would probably need an archived project file to diagnose the cause and offer a solution. To submit a support ticket on artlantis.com, use this link. Another option might be to try posting in the Artlantis forum.

Q 18: Good afternoon, in my experience with Artlantis I have a problem with exterior renders. In general, is there a simple way to make the default shader to look more natural, I mean imperfect, weary or grayed out?

A: See Q 13 and Q 15 (first half)…stacking alpha channel images on to materials. The repetitiveness of the brick wall in the example from Q13 is definitely broken up by the graffiti, but in your case, you will probably be using a more subtle pattern (maybe a light layer of patchy dirt/grime that is applied across the surface), with maybe a few additional one-off textures applied here or there to resemble pockmarks or imperfections. You can apply as many textures as you want over top of a material, and you can opt to have them simply operate as one instance, or repeat to tile across the surface. Also, keep in mind that when a texture is applied to a material, that texture can then be set to be 100% transparent and used as some other kind of map (such as a Bump map) by adjusting the relevant slider (such as the Bump slider). So, you can really stack up or layer a whole series of graphic effects onto a material to achieve just about anything you want for imperfections or weathering.

Q 19: Can you render the pool image we're looking at?

A: Here’s another look. Sorry, the high resolution version stays with me!

Q 20: Are Artlantis 4 and Artlantis Studio separate applications that need to be purchased separately?

A: That depends on what you need. Artlantis 4 is available in two separate packages: Render and Studio. Render creates still images only, while Studio creates still images plus dynamic content like animations, VR object movies, and iVisit 3D panoramic VR presentations. You can start with Render, and if you ever need to create any of the dynamic presentation content, you can upgrade to Studio for very close to the difference in cost between the two applications. Incidentally, they both use the same file format interchangeably, so an office team could easily use both Render and Studio on the same project files.

Q 21: Can ImageCels be incorporated in Artlantis?

A: Yes. According to the imagecels.com FAQ, their “images (people,trees, etc.) are 2D in the 32 bit .TIF (LZW compressed) file format with embedded alpha channel masks. They are placed against a 0,0,0 black background. Textures are 24 bit .TIF (LZW compressed),seamless and tileable.” TIF is one of the many file formats that Artlantis supports, including support for embedded alpha channels.

Q 22: What are good websites to get HQ textures?

A: There really are a ton of them. Our store, objectsonline.com, sells 6different volumes of Artlantis Shaders, but we do not carry any stand alone texture files. Marlin Studios is one old favorite. Another is TurboSquid. But, even with a site as huge as TurboSquid, I will often start my search by using Google image search, and then happen upon professional texture websites along the way, once I find the best example of a texture for whatever specific material I’m trying to create.

Q 23: I was an Artlantis user for many years and missed the latestupgrade path. In 4.1 can we re use all the shaders that we have for the past versions? (vol 1-10)

A: Artlantis has been around since the days of big hair and spandex (although being a French product, I’m not sure what was popular in Paris back then). When Artlantis was completely recoded and released in 2005, Abvent reset the version numbering to 1.0 and split the product into Render and Studio. Users of the legacy version, which had reached v.4.5, had a period of several years during which they could upgrade at a discount. Currently, users on Render or Studio v1.0 or later are eligible for a discounted upgrade to Render or Studio v4.1. Regarding the legacy Shaders, if the disc they came on is copyrighted year 2000 or later, there is still a chance they might work. Backwards compatibility was available for the legacy Artlantis Shaders volumes1-10, if they were released on or after year 2000. Although many of them still might work, they are not officially supported anymore. I’m not sure if yours will still work for you, but you could test that out by downloading the Artlantis 4.1 demo version, which runs without a serial number for 30 days. You would just need to copy your legacy Shaders into your programs folder…Artlantis/Media/Shaders/.

Q 24: Are postcards embedded in the project file, or do we need to transfer postcards to other computers where the project file is being worked on?

A: Postcards are separate JPEG files that are created in a project, but are saved outside of and operate independently of that project. Do not rename or edit them! They should normally be stored in your program's folder…Artlantis/Media/Postcards/. You will want to keep copies of the Postcards on any computer where you may later want to access them.You should also ensure that any Shaders referenced in a postcard also travel with the Postcard. See also Q 1, Q 2, and Q 12.

Q 25: What is the difference between reflection and fresnel settings?

A: The Reflection setting of a Shader controls one aspect of the Shader’s appearance: its ability to reflect light. The Fresnel Transition can, in effect, dynamically override or exaggerate the Transparency and Reflection settings of the Shader. In order for Fresnel to have any noticeable impact, there must be at least some level of transparency and/or reflectivity assigned to the material in the Shader settings. Fresnel will increase a material’s apparent reflection/opacity as a surface is oriented more obliquely, angled to face away from the observer. Conversely, a material’s apparent reflection/opacity is reduced as a surface is oriented more tangentially, angled to face toward the observer. When a material is assigned a low Fresnel Transition value, the apparent differences between the material’s reflection/opacity, when viewed at different angles, are exaggerated. When a high Fresnel Transition value is used, the differences are minimized. The following images illustrate these differences.

High Fresnel setting viewed at different angles…minimal differences

Fresnel Transition: 8.50 Transparency: 100% Reflection: 100%

High Fresnel setting viewed at different angles…minimal differences.

Fresnel Transition: 8.50 Transparency: 0% Reflection: 100%

High Fresnel setting viewed at different angles…minimal differences

Fresnel Transition: 8.50 Transparency: 100% Reflection: 0%

Low Fresnel setting viewed at different angles…major differences.

Fresnel Transition: 0.50 Transparency: 100% Reflection: 100%

Low Fresnel setting viewed at different angles…major differences.

Fresnel Transition: 0.50 Transparency: 0% Reflection: 100%

Low Fresnel setting viewed at different angles…major differences.

Fresnel Transition: 0.50 Transparency: 100% Reflection: 0%

 

Looking to purchase your own copy of Artlantis? Check it out at Novedge.

And don't forget to connect with both Novedge and Artlantis on Twitter, to stay in touch!

The Edge: Chris Waner's Principle Creative

Novedge: Tell us about yourself and what you do.
Chris Waner: First, I wanted to say thank you for putting the time and energy into creating a forum for showcasing and inspiring students and professionals. I know how much work goes into that.

It wasn't so long ago that I would have said that I was a 3D visual effects artist. But over the last couple of years I've been forced to abandon that description because if I honestly assess what I do, I have to admit that the term 3D visual effects is too narrow. Nowadays I find that I'm called upon to design--design for anything and everything; design for print, web, interactive, packaging, do style frames for commercials, write copy, even compose music or do a costume design. Of course I still do visual effects; I still love visual effects, but quite honestly it has simply become another tool for enhancing a broader creative endeavor. Because I work for agencies, studios, and direct-to-client, I'm forced to view what I'm creating in light of the client's larger and more generalized brand trajectory. I call this kind of work principle creative, and quite honestly it took me a while to figure out that this is the kind of work I wanted.

Ballerina - Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts Grand Opening from claudia chagüi on Vimeo.

I've always been in the arts in some way, but somewhere along the road I decided to follow after other goals; I received a degree in English Literature and Secondary Education, taught for a while, and left because the politics of education were more than I wanted to deal with. And after a five year hiatus I came back to design. I started doing personal projects to get a small portfolio together, did some free work for people I knew, and used that work to become a junior graphic designer at a print house in Tulsa, OK. I then leveraged that work into a freelance children's book illustration job. Then took that portfolio to NYC, received my MFA in digital media, and became a visual effects artist.

Now I help people move their businesses forward in beautiful ways, and I love it.

Demo Reel - 2013 from Chris Waner on Vimeo.

Novedge: How do you find inspiration to stay ahead of the curve?
Chris Waner: As cliche' as it might sound, inspiration is everywhere. I was inspired by a kiwi fruit at lunch today; I had some fun looking at a shadow on the wall that resembled Kermit the Frog. On a more pragmatic level I've always considered staying up-to-date in design, color, technology, and cultural trends a part of my job. I unapologetically spend at least an hour a day looking at others' work, new technology, industry news, design blogs, etc. Ultimately, I'd have to say that what inspires me to stay ahead of the curve is the desire to create great work more efficiently. From a technological point of view, I want tools that are fast, efficient, and flexible; from the art/design side I see the work of others as iron sharpening iron, taking unrefined edges off my own sensibility. There's an efficiency that comes with refinement.

Novedge: What is a recent project that you worked on? Feel free to talk about more than one project!
Chris Waner: Certainly one of the most interesting and unusual projects that I've done was for Stark Collective, a start-up agency in Kansas City. On the surface the project was pretty straightforward, a launch video that spoke to the agency's intellectual ideals. However, the project was novel for a couple of reasons. In the first place the typical internal brand identity for agencies is white, graphic, and minimal. Stark, whom I would find as time went on to be breakthrough in a number of areas, had chosen a look that was black, raster, and active. In the second place, and perhaps even more astonishing, Stark did not want anything even remotely didactic but, rather, something abstract, even esoteric.

Stark Collective - Launch Video (Director's Cut) from Chris Waner on Vimeo.

Unlike many launch videos where the plain communication of core values is sufficient, Stark wanted a visual piece that spoke symbolically and even emotionally to those values; and especially visually they wanted to avoid a concrete or literal exposition. This, I think, is a powerful way to work, a resonant method of communicating ideas, and a very modern, forward-thinking approach to design. As it would happen one of the reasons I was asked to work on the Stark launch video was because of a piece that I co-directed and executed with Claudia Chagui, a brilliant creative located in Chicago. The piece was for a Kansas City organization called CinemaKC, who is dedicated to providing a forum for local film makers. In that piece we told the story of an idea that grows, blooms, takes flight, and finally finds an audience in the land of CinemaKC.

CinemaKC Show Open from claudia chagüi on Vimeo.

This symbolic storytelling caught Stark's attention, and I was brought on to design and execute a piece that encapsulated their creative philosophy. I did a few style frames, and to my amazement they just said, "Okay, go crazy."






That level of trust is utterly uncharacteristic of, well, really any client I've ever had, and that this client was an agency really kind of blew my mind. The one challenge thrown into the mix was that the piece needed to be a minute and a half long, and after the boards were complete I only had a little over four weeks to create it. Thanks to Bazillion Pictures in Kansas City who provide some much needed support in production, manpower, and infrastructure, we completed on time and on budget. The response to the launch video has been great, and Stark, mostly due to its own talent and perspective, is thriving with a host of new clients, in spite of the fact that as of the writing of this, they are only a little over a month old.

CinemaKC Show Package from claudia chagüi on Vimeo.

Novedge: What software do you use? Why?
Chris Waner: I've found that different software applications approach the same problem from different points of view. I recommend downloading free trials of everything, and see what feels right. Adobe has really cornered the market for suite based workflow and is an industry standard. For me the folks at Alias|Wavefront just spoke my language back in 2002-2003 when I started on Maya 4.5. Maya is still my app of choice because it strikes a nice balance between a procedural and artist-driven workflow (yes, artists drive procedural processes too). In the near future I see Houdini making a real in-road in the middle range commercial market; it's procedural tools are second to none, and I can see real possibilities because it has all the pieces in place to solve one of the major hurdles in commercial work, rapid iterations--turning versions on a theme around quickly for approval. I'm hoping to dive into Houdini in the near future. Finally, I can't leave out RealFlow. Although very few of my projects start out needing fluids, I find that I often end up there; I'll be in Maya thinking, "Hmm...how should I make this effect," and I'll realize that RealFlow has a tool to get me there.

Novedge: What are the rewards and challenges of working freelance?
Chris Waner: I think anyone considering going down the freelance road should remember that freelancing is not one job but ten. As a freelancer it is challenging enough just completing projects, keeping track of hours, billing, keeping and organizing receipts, dealing with clients, etc., but people who are successful at it must also keep pounding the pavement, so to speak, looking for new work, meeting new people, making new connections, keeping up with existing clients, promoting recently released work, and many other things. I think in many ways freelancing is much more similar to running a small business than being a visual effects artist, illustrator, designer, or whatever; you are CEO, CFO, CMO, and the grunt labor in many cases.

Apple Tree - McDonalds from Kompost on Vimeo.

The market makes a big difference too. The market in NY or LA is very different than it is in KC, for example. One market might let you specialize where another market might demand that you generalize. In my market in Kansas City, I will go from being an Art Director or a Creative Director, to a motion graphics artist or visual effects TD, to an interface designer or print designer within a month or two. Freelancers need to know their market in order maximize their offerings.

That might seem like a whole lot of trouble, but freelancing has it's perks too. Quite often it carries with it a lot of creative freedom. If you work from home, your commute is shorter. Many costs are reduced like transportation, food, and there are many tax benefits if you are organized and researched on how to take advantage of that. Quite often freelancing carries with it a higher money-to-time-spent-ratio than a traditional staff position. You rarely have to deal with the same difficult personalities for very long; often I can work when I want to in the day, I sometimes get to work when I want to in the week (i.e. a day off now and again), and on rare occasions I can just turn down a job that seems, well, torturous. You can't tell your boss at work that you're not going to do that job because it looks boring...unless you're wanting to become a freelancer really soon.

MLB 2012 All-Star Game Graphics from Chris Waner on Vimeo.

Novedge: What would you say to young people who want to work in the visual effects field?
Chris Waner: After graduating with an MFA from Pratt in NYC, I went on to teach courses in visual effects to undergraduate and graduate students. I have a real heart for those who are learning and a desire to help them make the jump from academia to the workforce. I say that because it's true and because I'm about to dodge this question. This industry is changing so much and so fast that it is almost impossible to answer this question without feeling that I might have led someone astray. The only comments I can really give young people starting out in this industry is to first, be self-reflective about what you want and why you want it. The design/visual effects industry needs people who are serious about their art and/or science, are willing to work hard, and are also level-headed enough to know when they are being abused. And second, I might get some emails about this one, don't feel like you have to do the NY or LA thing to have a happy and rewarding career. I started in NY, worked on some big jobs with big clients and agencies on their terms, but I left after six years because there's more to life than that. Now three years later I'm starting to work with bigger clients and agencies from NY and LA again, but this time I work my own way. Some of my favorite projects, and the best projects, were for clients that most people would call "small." There are some local business people out there with great vision and also some brave people who will follow you in your great vision for them. The world is a big place, don't settle for a small box.

 

See more of Cris Waner's work on his website and Vimeo channel.

Interested in Maya and RealFlow? Check them out on our website. And don't forget to connect on Twitter and Facebook.

Novedge RealFlow Webinar: Q&A with Gustavo Sanchez

Did you enjoy last week's webinar on RealFlow? We ran out of time to answer all your questions, so the team behind RealFlow answered all the remaining questions by email.

Q: Will there be a plugin for Luxology modo 601? Or will it be Alembic interchange?

A: We will be using Alembic as the interchange data format between Modo and RealFlow from now on.

Q: Will RF2013 Learning Edition support the use of external plugins?

A: The limitations for the 2013 Learning Edition will be pretty much the same as with the existing Learning Edition license for RealFlow 2012, which already allows the use of external plug-ins. Please contact us if you are having any issues with your current LE license and the external plug-ins.

Q: What about GPU?

A: The Hybrido 2 base solver, hy-flip, will have the ability to make use of the GPU, as long as it is openCL 1.1 compatible. To find out more about what are we doing on the GPU, here is a link to the presentation that Angel Tena gave at the nVidia booth last Siggraph.

Q: Is it possible to develop a plugin for RF?

A: If the question is whether anyone can develop 3rd party plugins, the answer is yes. There is a C++ SDK that allows for that.

Q: Will the 3rd party plugins (e.g the ones from WET WORK) work for 2013? The Plugins are expensive compared to their size..:)

A: The makers of any third party plugins will simply have to recompile those in order to be able to load them in the RF2013 version. We do not set the prices for these plugins.

Q: I have a one year student license for RealFlow 2012 (from the cgsociety workshop), can I upgrade the license to use 2013 instead?

A: Yes, we’ll have an upgrade available for $170. All RealFlow Learning Edition licenses bought within 2 months of the release of v2013 will be upgraded to v2013 for free. By the way, your RealFlow Learning Edition license is permanent – we removed the time restrictions!  

Q: Can we beta test the new RealFlow 2013?

A: We haven't hit beta yet. We’ll be getting there in the next few weeks (Jan 2013). At the moment, there are no plans to have a public beta period, but do feel free to get in touch to make your case and we will see what can be done 

Q: How do you tile RealWave with Hybrido - in Maya or inside RealFlow itself?

A: What RealWave and Hybrido share are the Statistical Spectrum waves, and the ability to export tileable displacement maps. One can use RealWave to get a faster look&feel, and then copy the parameters to the Hybrido displacement. In Maya, you will simply need to make sure that the area you want to cover is made of tiles, and use the displacement texture from Hybrido to displace the Hybrido mesh, as well as the surrounding areas.

Q: How does Realflow 2013 Hybrido compare to the standard of Naiad sims?

A: That will be for users of both products to decide. We believe that our hy-flip, the implementation of the flip solver for Hybrido 2 base simulations, is really good.

Q: Is the simulation flow multithreaded? If so, and Python also comes with 2013 I can definitely see the benefit of using the flow instead of Python. If Python does also come with 2013, has there been any work done to improve Python's speed and various bugs?

A: Regarding multithreading and nodes in the simulation graphs, any node that performs RealFlow internal operations that are multithreaded is multithreaded by definition.
Most of the nodes that perform array operations are multithreaded internally, and you will also be able to create multithreaded heterogeneous compounds using the Kernel node inside them.

Python itself is not getting any updates on this RealFlow version. Although Python will certainly still have its place inside RF, we believe that simulation and batch graphs will allow for greater flexibility with less effort.

Q: Please show step by step how to render a realistic Hybrido water material.

A: This will be pretty straightforward once you start using Maxwell Render inside RealFlow 2013. With Maxwell, the artist really does have the control.

Q: Any plans for a python base job manager/ submitter?

A: We currently have a Python implementation that we can share. Please send us an email if you are interested.

Q: Will Hybrido 2 have viscosity that can be changed over time?

A: Hybrido 2 won't have a viscosity model in this release. It will be implemented in a later release.

Q: Will you have a mental ray renderer inside RealFlow 2013?

A: No. We strongly believe that Maxwell Render is the way to go for fluid/particle rendering, and that is why we are implementing this Maxwell Render integration for previews inside RealFlow 2013.

 

And that's it! Leave your comment below and thank you for joining us for this latest installment of our Webinar Series.

If you have questions about purchasing a RealFlow license, please contact Bob Thayer at Novedge.

To contact the Next Limit Technologies/RealFlow team, you can use the customer gateway - or for non-customers, you can find a contact form here.