I had a blast working with the crew of CafeFX on G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.
I think the release date for the film is fixed to August, I will see you in the movie theaters!

My work was mainly as FX Lead/TD working on shots and also providing some tools for the other artists.
I have to say thanks to: David Ebner, Jeff Barnes, Seth Lippman and all the crew at CafeFX!
For an (incomplete) credit list of the film: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1046173/fullcredits#cast

Hello, we are looking for testers to join the SPH fluids simulator for ICE.

This is a free set of nodes for ICE, all you need is register to get access to the testing group, Addon, sample scenes and documentation.


height=26 width=132 alt=”Google Groups”>
Subscribe to ICE SPH Fluids
Email:

Visit this group

SPH Fluids in ICE

November 7th, 2008

I’ve been working on this SPH (Smoothed Particles Hydrodynamics) fluids simulator for XSI’s ICE.
I did my own collisions logic, integration, substeps, all the physics part, etc… using low level ICE nodes, and now some compiled C++ nodes.
The simulator supports pressure, density, viscosity, tension, collisions and some other stuff.

visit my page on Vimeo for some previews:

Graphing in ICE

October 3rd, 2008

Visualize the graph of a function is not easy (at least for me), without plotting the function.
It can be really hard to understand what y = x^2 * z^2 looks like.
So I obviously did an ICE compound with these most common graphs.
I couldn’t stop doing functions and playing with it, so I ended up with this list, all in the same compound:
x*z
x^2 + z^2
x^2 - z^2
x^2 * z^2
x^3 + z^3
sin(x)
cos(x) + cos(z) ^ 2
cos(x^2 + z^2)
sin(x^2 + z^2)
-1 / (x^2 + z^2)
|cos(x) + cos(z)| ^ (1/2)
cos(x) + cos(z)
| cos(x^2+z^2) | ^ (1/2)
|cos(x+z)| ^ (10/2)
cos( |x| + |z| ) * ( x + z )
cos( |x| + |z|) * (|x| + |z| )
cos( |x| + |z| )
|sin(x) * ( sin(x) + cos(z) )| ^ 0.2
sin(x^2) * cos(z^2)

Some are very common, others are not. It’s cool how many crazy patters you can get using these functions.

Hopefully this will work as a “educational” resource, so you can see what these functions look when applied to a 3d shape and understand how Sin, Cos, Absolute values, etc, can affect the function.

Here is what these equations look like when applied to a grid:

What’s even more cool in ICE is that after I had all the functions done, I could apply this as a force, a weightmap… basically anything that reads a 3d vector or a scalar.

Visit the page in the Softimage Community



Microsoft Zune

September 1st, 2008

Package of 6 animations done at Nervo.tv for Zune.
My participation on this project started on RnD, and how we would make the simulation work on the cube shape, then how to animate it. I also did most of the lighting work and the final compositing/color grading.

Few interesting things from this project:
The “Boxes” animation was done simulating rigid bodies in XSI, and a lot of layered animation on top.
The “Liquids” one I had to write a little script to allow me import a sequence of meshes, that came from a standard particle simulation. To then enable people to tweak it later, in a mesh state and apply relax operations etc.
The “Sweets” one was very tricky too, each frame of the animation is a different object. Like a 3d stop motion technique.

This project was fun and challenging at the same time, I’m pretty happy how it turned out.

To see some original sketches/concepts that my wife did for the same project, just follow Fabiana’s website

Hope you enjoy it!

Quicktime video

Credits - project page http://nervo.tv/index.html?sect=5&proj=zune
Creative Director: Nando Costa
3D Artists: Thiago Costa, Jeff Norombaba, Joshua Cox, Catherine Langevin, Gabriel Beauvais
Compositing: Thiago Costa, Jeff Norombaba, Alphonse Swineheart, Robbie Johnstone
Storyboard Artist: Fabiana Fortes
Music: Darrin Wiener

OBJ Sequencer

September 1st, 2008

I’ve uploaded my Obj Sequencer in the community site.
This tool was used during the Zune project to import sequences of animated liquids. This saved us a lot of time during the production.

Download addon from the Softimage Community

ICE - Particle density

August 28th, 2008

Based on the number of neighboring particles, this compound can adjust the color around the boundaries of a particle cloud.
The range is calculated based on the number of points in the island, so a gradient is smoothly blended to the particle color.

This can be used in any region of the stack. Plug the Execute Color in one ICEtree port and you are good to go.
However if you want the color to update with the simulation, you must use this in the simulation region.

Visit the page in the Softimage Community

Here is the representation of an acceleration graph:

* Open video on Vimeo to see in High Definition.


 

acceleration = F/m
This compound gives you the Acceleration vector (direction the particle is accelerating), a scalar value that is the magnitude of this vector, and IsAccelerating which returns a boolean value.

Acceleration can be used in many different things, play with it the way you want.
Visit the page in the Softimage Community

Here is the representation of an acceleration graph:

* Open video on Vimeo to see in High Definition.



 

The Company was nominated in the category Main Title Design for the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards!
I was lucky enough to be on this project with Digital Kitchen - Seattle.

Watch The Company on DK’s website http://www.d-kitchen.com/video_popup.php?p=99

The Company • TNT
Studio: Digital Kitchen
Creative Director: Matt Mulder
Lead Designers: Cody Cobb, Ryan Gagnier, Noah Conopask
Animatiors: Ryan Gagnier, David Holm, Pete Kallstrom, Matt LaVoy, Dayvd Chan
3D: Cody Cobb, Igor Choromanski, Gordana Fersini, Thiago Costa
Editor: Dave Molloy
Producer: Jill Johns, Colin Davis
Executive Producer: Mark Bashore

My participation here was on the last scene, from the transition to the mushroom to the end. The guys at DK and Cody Cobb specially worked really hard to give all the styling on the final frame, with lot’s of render passes and even drawing things by hand over the 3d render.

Here are a bunch of Shaderballs for XSI
Visit the page in the Softimage Community

Runner for Timex

March 21st, 2008

For this Timex spot done at Nervo.tv, I worked mostly in the runner, but also in some background elements.
The runner rig/animation/cloth simulation was pretty fun, I worked with Syflex, used Refmodels to manage the versions of the runner and also developed the look of this guy in 3d.

  Quicktime video

Like the grease pencil tool for Maya, this tool allows you to draw with the sketch tool for 2d animation/per frame annotation, directly in the XSI viewport.
Changes V1.1

  • Assembled the XSI Bezier curve tool, CV Curve tool and Curve Text tool to be used from the TC_sketch PPG
  • Added the “edit frames” command, now you can move your frames in time, selecting a frame in the listbox and using the “up” and “down” buttons.
  • Added the code to work on linux system.
  • The current frame stays visible until the next frame.
  • The listbox now let you navigate/select frames to edit.
  • “Default frame duration” option in the setup tab was renamed to “Last frame duration”. So now it just affects the last frame of the animation.
  • Re worked the entire keyframing command

Features V1.0

  • Drawing mode Auto-keyframing (selectability/visibility).
  • Curves color and Visibility/Selectability overrides.
  • Curve editing The “nav slider” in the “Edit Frames” group is useful to edit/add curves to existing frames. Change this slider will jump the XSI timeline to where the sketched curve is in time.
  • Auto-select curves option will automatically select all the curves for that given frame.
  • XSI Brush tool and View Proportional Transform Tool can be called from the TC_sketch PPG.
  • The Sketch tool creates a standard XSI curve, so you can use any XSI deformer tools on it.

Download addon from the Softimage Community
Here is a video showing the tool in action

Fox Horror

September 19th, 2007

This was fun to do, unfortunatelly I didn’t had the time to do more than Model, rig and animate the bird!
To see more: Nervo.tv,


  Quicktime video

2d sketches/drawings/sketchbook

September 18th, 2007

This is my sketchbook.
Most part of the work here was done in digital (photoshop, open canvas, painter, artrage). But I also work on paper and I really like life drawing sessions.
I’ve used photographs as a reference for some images on this section.

I will post my OC painting sessions with my friend Mario Ucci, don’t forget to check out his amazing 2d portfolio.
I would say it’s better then the 3d one. But don’t tell him :)

Nike Multiplicity

September 12th, 2007

Little animation for Nike. Did simulation, rendering, everything in XSI.
Compositing and creative direction by Nervo.tv

Simulation was really fun to do, the rigid body solver worked perfectly with a bunch of groups, two environments and animated RB constraints.


  Quicktime video

TC Add Channels

July 20th, 2007

This simple Addon can save you a lot of time if you have multiple channels to add to passes.
It allows you to select channels and add it all at once.

Download addon from the Softimage Community

I was the Lead 3d for this project with Adam Gault and Carlo Vega.
Marcelo Souza helped me a lot to deliver a bunch of animations of the bull.

One thing I can say is that Carlo and Adam are really great people to work with!
If you have the chance, don’t miss it!
They did saved my 3d renders adding a lot of nice colors and style to it.

Quicktime video

Out of the country

July 16th, 2007

Got very good feedback to my demo Reel. Thanks everyone!
After some very nice job offers/interviews (and all the work to get an US visa), I’ve finally moved to Portland-Oregon.
Pacific Northwest looks awesome, if you are around here and know something fun to do… just send me a message!

Worked with my friends Chris Bahry and Alexandre Torres from Tendril doing texturing, lighting and some animation on this piece.
Texturing done in Photoshop and composition in After Effects, all the 3d work was produced using 3ds Max.
I’ve cut the best shots and previews I did, and worked on this small clip.


  Quicktime video

H2oh!

June 10th, 2007

H2oh! is a flavored water type of thing that called for animated fishes inside of the aquarium.
At Conspiração Filmes filmes I had the opportunity to work in the modeling, animation and was the lead texturer/shading artist.
Our pipeline was based on Maya, Renderman and Photoshop.

I worked in two spots, the one for the launch of the product and the other for the new flavor Tangerine:

  Quicktime video - Lemon

  Quicktime video - Tangerine

Game model

June 5th, 2007

Low poly game model done as a test for the Amsterdam based game studio Guerrilla Games
I did it using Maya, Zbrush|Mudbox and Photoshop.

Mudbox/Zbrush details, later baked into textures.

XSI Brasil

June 3rd, 2007

XSI-Brasil, the Brazilian website about the 3d software Softimage|XSI is back online.
There you will find videos showing XSI features and production techniques. Part of my work with tools development is also being posted in there.
(*site is in Portuguese)

Pepsi Lemon

May 15th, 2007

Pepsi campaign in Brazil is marked by these series of spots featuring two talking Lemons.
Here I have two of the spots I had worked on during my experience at Conspira filmes

  Quicktime video - Yoga

  Quicktime video - Promo

 

Reel 2006/2007 is online!

April 26th, 2007

My reel is online! This is a compilation of my work done between 2006 and 2007.
A shot breakdown is in the end of the reel, enjoy it:

  Quicktime video - 320×240

  Quicktime video - 640×480

Harpy - Personal Project

April 21st, 2007

This is a study of a 3d creature. Most of the work to finish this project was done in a month in my spare time.


  Quicktime video

  

Claro

March 10th, 2007

This project was done at Conspira filmes, I did around 10 shots on this piece. (animation, lighting and rendering).

  Quicktime video

Visa - Soccer and New Zealand

February 15th, 2007

TV ad done during my experience working at Conspira
My participation on the New Zealand spot was to integrate some snowflakes, work out the trees to extend the set, make snow trails in the mountain shot, integrate some boards… etc.
The Soccer ad had lots of 3d work too, I did model and textures for some stadiums, a bunch of tracking work to place things, added grass in some shots, animated some Soccer balls… etc.

  Quicktime video - Soccer

  Quicktime video - New Zealand

Fuel TV

January 3rd, 2007

Modeling of the character and all assets.
My process started with photo references and basic models in XSI, then I moved parts of the main character to Zbrush to refine and give more details to it.
Animation by Renato Ferro, directed by Nervo.tv


  Quicktime video


* The treatment on this image is just a preview render.

Zbrush help for Sepultura

December 20th, 2006

This music video for Sepultura was directed by Luis Carone, I helped him with some Zbrush modeling and texturing.
I’m gonna tell you, it’s pretty intense! And it worth to watch!

Quicktime video

Bang-Bang

March 12th, 2006

This project is property of Rede Globo television

Bang-Bang is a Brazilian soap opera in a western world. lol

This was lot’s of fun to work on, I did a lot of modeling and shading work. Most of the assets and the work on the characters was split by me and Andre Holzmeister.
I had the opportunity to contribute on the design of the piece.


  Quicktime video

Early render test…

Bang-Bang © Rede Globo.