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We did a second part with a screen grab from the then upcoming Forza Motorsport 3 video game, which garnered even more attention and helped remove some doubt on the car’s legitimacy.
http://jalopnik.com/5311903/cayman-shooting-brake-confirmed-in-forza-3-screen-shot
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/07/13/more-evidence-of-porsche-cayman-shooting-brake/
http://cupholder.blogs.topgear.com/2009/07/14/shoot-to-play/
http://www.0-60mag.com/online/?p=14925
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=4468726&page=1

Then something funny happened that we didn’t expect, someone created a render of our render. Taking our video and the Forza still, they photoshopped what the finished car would look like.
http://www.0-60mag.com/online/?p=15169
http://www.carzi.com/2009/07/13/porsche-cayman-shooting-brake-photo-video/

The last part of our hoax was a fake flickr gallery of a supposed intern at a German photography firm. I created and posted a bunch of images, of myself, a friend, a road and two of the Cayman.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40860189@N04/3770157784/in/photostream/

The reactions:
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/08/07/spy-shot-porsche-cayman-shooting-brake-revealed/
http://jalopnik.com/5331445/porsche-cayman-shooting-brake-uncovered

From there the NY Times automotive blog revealed the whole shebang.
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/porsche-shooting-brake-is-a-fake/index.html?ref=automobiles

Our producer, Jared Holstein, arranged a little behind the scenes with Jalopnik.
http://jalopnik.com/5336892/how-to-dupe-the-automotive-media

This was a great little reminisce, but not the reason I sat down to write this. The past few weeks I re-textured, relit, re-rendered and re-composited the Porsche, giving it the proper attention it deserved. I tried not to look at the original and just go from what I felt was right now, but every time I would google “Porsche Mule” for reference, the damned thing would pop up in the results.

Here’s some side by sides to illustrate how much a years knowledge, about $30,000 SCAD tuition, and correct compositing software really accounts for:

New:

Old:

It’s interesting to see that previously I desaturated and grained the background plate to match the car, cheap move 2009 Matt. . . cheap move.

And here is my very first render of the project, when I was still honing in on the shape. Simple HDR-lit renders of shiny objects will always make me smile.

This is a quick render of the first blast, it’s missing the particles and debris, but shows placement of the fire.

Freshest motion playblast, the background fluids are moving too fast, and the fire isn’t included.

A low resolution render, unfortunately it crashed just as it was getting good. The last four frames are the very first sign that this shot is going to be good.

Right now the video is flopped, and none of the details were included in the render, but you get the idea.

It is a little strange to watch, mostly because there isn’t any fire or noise to compliment with the camera motion, and also because I have yet to drop in the geometry for the background, and the clean sky.
This is a test to get the motion and grip just right on the awning as the roof falls apart:

These are a few of the models Alex made for me that I’ll be throwing around the set:

And finally, another fire test. Adam managed to figure out how to get the embers I wanted, this is a side view of the flames that will be shooting out of the windows and some doors:

And finally, here is a playblast of the RGD as of now:

]]> http://matthewduvall.com/2010/04/21/studio-1-project-dynamics/feed/ 0 http://matthewduvall.com/2010/04/16/i-think-octopuses-are-interesting/ http://matthewduvall.com/2010/04/16/i-think-octopuses-are-interesting/#comments Fri, 16 Apr 2010 18:22:55 +0000 matthew http://matthewduvall.com/?p=572 I had a post on my old site about a textured octopus I did last quarter in one night, but unfortunately that site was lost, so I’m reposting now with some new ideas.
I came across this video of an octopus stealing a diver’s camera and making a break for it, and it reminded me of that long night, trying to get the look right:

I think they’re quite fascinating creatures, always being described as cat-like in personality. I have a few ideas of what I want to use my texture and model for, maybe it will end up being my Studio 2 project.

clip on the berrics
full entry on Savannahskates.com

I convinced a few friends to all wake up at 5AM and come with me to Adler hall to shoot. Alex Moed helped shoot an HDR (and tried to do a bit of acting), Ibtisam Ahmed helped with timing and orchestration, and Nathan Kudla blessed us with his performance as the main character.

We decided to dress up the main running character in something to add a bit of substance to the shot. After a trip to the costume shop, it was clear that we could easily become carried away, and that simplicity was the best way to go. Thus, we rented a santa belly for the day, and dressed Nate as best we could as a slob. A mysterious, running, slob.

Somewhere along the way we decided that the building should be an abandoned motel, and added a suitcase to fit.

The Match Move:

The shot was surprisingly hard to track; I enjoy dealing with problems, so I refrained from setting up markers on set… and shot at a low shutter speed. I also shook the camera, violently, to ensure I had a challenge. Because the beginning of the plate and Nate running through it are the only life action elements, I could have added the shake in post, but I wanted it to be as realistic motion as possible.

The Textures:

Mikey Rogers and I went out to shoot some nice textures for the decrepit walls and trash. We ventured over near the Savannah Paper Mill in Garden City, where Mike promptly cut his toe on a broken light bulb (I am reporting everything on this project, I wish I’d taken a picture, blood everywhere). And I went on a separate trip to Tybee Island to an old beach motel for more textures and reference.

The Layout:

Alex and I altered a lot of the model to fit into the new motel idea, and added a pool and fence. I plan to continuously build on the scene as we go, the only issue being that the UVs need to be layed out before the simulation is run (nDynamics freaks out when you edit UVs mid-sim). This adds another step and could be a problem with multiple people working on different files.

The Lighting:

I managed to render out a quick lighting test:

The Simulation:

I’ve had some problems breaking the geometry apart. My original plan was to use the Volumebreaker plug in with 3ds Max, but because we aren’t allowed to install plug ins onto the computers at SCAD, I was going to do it on my laptop. Unfortunately, my copy of 3ds Max doesn’t install on the virtual machine I have running XP. I would make a boot camp partition for windows, but right now my hard drive is so fragmented it can’t find space to partition. So I’ll be installing XP onto one of my external drives, or if that doesn’t work, wiping my laptop clean to partition boot camp (which I’ve been meaning to do anyway).

When I realized all of this, I looked around for other options for breaking apart the building. An obvious option was Blastcode for Maya, but I found it to be limited (nurbs only, and it extrudes surfaces for you, so I would have to remodel and convert my geometry).

The Revised Plan:

I am still planning on having pretty much everything 3d done by mid-terms, and rendering and compositing the next half of the quarter. Mikey and I have been debating the correct route to take with textures, and we decided the traditional UV route, rather than camera projections, would be best.

I’ve been watching lots of explosions, real footage and movies, to try and get as much of a feel on how this will look in compositing. I’ve taken note of a few details that are usually missed on CG explosions:

• Embers flourishing from the flames, then turning into smoke
• Poofs of dust from any piece of concrete hitting another
• Tons of smoke, seriously, almost hiding everything

A big fear of mine is spending all this time on details like a pipe bursting from one of the rooms, only to get to compositing and realize the entire thing should be covered in dark smoke. Because of this, I am planning on making an elaborate breakdown that will show any of these hidden details.

The Calendar:

Click the SCAD Studio 1 tag, or this link to look at all of my posts on this project.