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
Mesher for the SPH
There are at least 3 different meshers for ICE particles that can be used with the SPH:
And Guillaume Laforge is doing this pretty cool project that constructs a fast scalar field in ICE and passes to the polygonizer in a grid structure.
The coolest stuff for me is that the distance function on Guillaume’s polygonizer is an ICE compound! So you can play with it right there and manage to change the way the polygonizer will weight the surface.
It’s exciting to see all these people developing these tools and they are all compatible with my SPH solver, have fun!
Mesher by Eric Mootz
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
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.
 height=26 width=132 alt=”Google Groups”> |
| 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.
Microsoft Zune
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 just follow Fabiana’s website
.
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
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.
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.
Digital Kitchen “The Company” nominated to Emmy Awards!
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.
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.
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
Fox Horror
I’ve just finished working on the Branding Package for Fox-Horror Japan with director Nando Costa.
My work was to Model, Rig, Animate and Render the hero bird!
The hardest part was the rigging, no question 3D feathers is a pain.
Fox Horror for Nervo from Thiago Costa on Vimeo.
Nike Multiplicity
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.
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
CMT – Celebrity Bull Riding Challenge
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.
Game model
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
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)
Reel 2006/2007 is online!
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:
Harpy – Personal Project
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.
Fuel TV
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
* The treatment on this image is just a preview render.
Bang-Bang
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.
Early render test…
Bang-Bang © Rede Globo.
Sob Nova Direção
This project is property of Rede Globo television
“Sob Nova Direção” is a comedy TV show aired in Brazil.
This animation was very fun to work. The most exciting part is that I got to do the art direction of it. One of the most fun things was to make the backgrounds in Photoshop, and the characters in 3d.
Most of the 3d work was divided by me and Andre Holzmeister. Andre did an awesome job animating everything while I painted the backgrounds.
We both modeled/textured/shaded/lighting everything. I got to do the final compositing/color grading.
