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Lagoa Rebirth

Back in 2002 I was doing some programming gigs when I started in 3D by making interactive demos of industrial motors using HTML, Flash and 3D.Screen Shot 2013-03-14 at 11.46.39 PM The job paid badly but it was really fun.

I learned a ton about the creative process and  the demos meant a lot to the client as they could visualize what they were going to make before they decided to make it. It was empowering for everyone.

After that job I drifted into TV, then advertising, motion graphics, movies and games. I think I have seen it all in terms of workflows and the creative process. Then I found myself limited by the tools I was using, so I moved from design to technology development to build new ways for people to create. That is how Lagoa MultiPhysics was born:

Since Lagoa MultiPhysics I’ve learned a few things about the software industry. The good the bad and the ugly. I was fortunate to work with some amazing people and get in contact with some great companies, but after a few years reality hit me in the face: The software industry has changed and the 3d world was left behind!

Before I crossed over to software development, I was only a user. Here is how I qualify us users:

  1. We are demanding of our tools and ourselves.
  2. We are loud when things work the way we expect them to work.
  3. We get angry when things don’t work the way they need to.
  4. We like to create stuff, we do not like to pay for software.

Put it simply – I know how I feel as a user, and as a developer I know how freaking hard it is to satisfy all of the above.

The developer in me not only needed to work on hard problems, but needed to be able to work faster, fix bugs faster, fix user problems faster, get you new features faster… In other words, I need a platform to grow technology that can be used by users. Not be stuck on a chain of desktop software rules.

So I cut a lot of hard-wires and re-thought digital creation from the ground up. I hired a bunch of really smart people and built something new that is thought for our generation.

This is how TeamUP (now Lagoa.com) was re-born.

Can’t wait to see what you can do with it!

-Thiago

Ben Steiger Levine – Sprite Ad (MassMarket)

via Motionographer

Director Ben Steiger Levine (effects done at MassMarket) featuring Drake exploding in Sprite soda.

The Effects were made using my earlier fluid simulator (Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics tool for ICE).

Looks cool, check it out!

Exocortex SlipstreamFX – Smoke Simulator

Ben Houston’s Exocortex approached me to help on the development of a realtime smoke simulator for Softimage ICE. This is the outcome which I just got permission to show.

SlipstreamRT for Softimage is a proprietary real-time smoke simulator developed for Softimage’s ICE system in collaboration with [exocortex.com/ Exocortex Technologies, Inc.] This video is posted with permission from Exocortex Technologies, Inc. For licensing information please contact [email:[email protected]]

 

I’ve worked on most of the components of the solver including boundary conditions (laminar flow, turbulent flow), vortex shedding, the vorticity equation and particle splitting algorithms.

Most of the tests on this video are done by myself, I’ve also implemented all the workflow and controls demoed in the video.

-Thiago

My work on Assassins Creed Lineage

Just finish working on these series of short films for Assassins Creed 2. The game looks amazing as well!

This project was a joint effort between Hybride (Film studio Acquired by Ubisoft) and Ubisoft Digital Arts (Ubisoft’s own Film studio).

I’ve developed the workflows/tools and lead the Technical Directors ( as well as pipeline development) during the project at Ubisoft.

This was quite an experience and I’m happy with the results, although I wish we had more than 5 months to produce the whole thing… :)
In my opinion (and not because I worked on it) this is the first adaptation of a “game to film” that makes into the form a short film, and doesn’t let me (completely) down. It actually leaves that feeling that we could explore more of this universe in a full length feature film.

YouTube Preview Image

I would be looking forward to work on a full feature film for this brand, with a lot of time to produce it of course :)

More http://www.youtube.com/user/assassinscreed
or  http://www.assassinscreed.com/

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

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!
See the whole crew here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1046173/fullcredits#cast

cmiVFX introduction to ICE

I’ve finally finished producing 4 hours of training material on Softimage|ICE platform. I explain the math, core workflow and several computer graphics techniques behind creating some amazing tools that can be used in production.

This series is packed with examples and is more of a intermediate/advanced focused. Although if you are a beginner you might find this really exciting get you to dive into ICE right away!

To buy it, visit cmiVFX website

 

Screen Shot 2012-12-30 at 4.06.09 AM

 

 

Have fun!

SPH Fluids, looking for testers!

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.


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Subscribe to ICE SPH Fluids
Email:

Visit this group

SPH Fluids in ICE

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

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



OBJ Sequencer

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

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.

Shaderballs for Softimage|XSI

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

TC Sketch v1.1 – Grease pencil for XSI.

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 this tool


TC Add Channels

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