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General Category => General Anim8or Forum => Topic started by: daniel99 on October 23, 2013, 09:47:30 am

Title: Photo-Realistic Aliens :) :) :)
Post by: daniel99 on October 23, 2013, 09:47:30 am
Heeey!
Long time, no see! :D
I've been working for some interesting projects, one of them being an Alien Invarions Short Movie. Since I've just started a few days ago, I want to share with you my first tries creating a photo-realistic alien design.
Just added glow and grain.
What do you think? It really sucks, right ?
Title: Re: Photo-Realistic Aliens :) :) :)
Post by: $imon on October 23, 2013, 10:20:40 am
Haha funny as always .. looking good, daniel! Was missing your stuff.

Is it made/rendered in anim8or?

I can't crit too well, because of the lighting and grain, but from what I can see it is looking really good & scary!
As far as realism goes - especially the skin material doesn't look lifelike yet, the biggest problem being that anim8or can't do SSS. You could fake it using an emissive map on parts where light 'shines through'.. This works mostly for stills though, in an animation the light would be coming from different directions. Not sure how to fix it in that occasion. maybe a very glossy reflective material might give it an interesting effect.

Good job!


btw- this might belong in the WIPs section?
Title: Re: Photo-Realistic Aliens :) :) :)
Post by: neirao on October 23, 2013, 11:02:19 am
Amazing and scary!!
Title: Re: Photo-Realistic Aliens :) :) :)
Post by: ianross on October 24, 2013, 05:32:37 am
Wow! great work well done.
Title: Re: Photo-Realistic Aliens :) :) :)
Post by: dwsel on October 24, 2013, 05:52:38 pm
@daniel99:
Great model - I'm always waiting for more images and videos from you. You combine 3d and video on professional level. Please keep us updated about your project.

@$imon:
As for the SSS - as we can't rely on the presence of this kind of shader yet (or any fast approximation of it) we can simulate the properties to some degree in compositing.

Here are my attempt at skin in Anim8or + simple compositing:
- I substituted the 'diffuse warp' shader ( http://http.developer.nvidia.com/GPUGems/gpugems_ch16.html , http://blog.stevemcauley.com/2011/12/03/energy-conserving-wrapped-diffuse/ ) or Oren-Nayar shader ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oren%E2%80%93Nayar_reflectance_model ) with very soft shadows combined with brilliance < 1
- to let some light through and lighten shadows I've used 0.1 dark red ambient and 0.9 transparency
- during compositing I've blured the red (the most) and green layer (a bit) to make sharp shadows disappear and to soften the light terminator (simplified version of what's described here: http://http.developer.nvidia.com/GPUGems3/gpugems3_ch14.html )
- I've used curves to make terminator more red and hilights colder/more blue

I hope my test will be somewhat useful.
Title: Re: Photo-Realistic Aliens :) :) :)
Post by: cooldude234 on October 25, 2013, 04:23:00 pm
The models look great :D
But the lighting is a little off (in respect to the windows).
Also the grain looks digital and not natural at all.
My two cents.
Title: Re: Photo-Realistic Aliens :) :) :)
Post by: johnar on October 26, 2013, 04:36:49 am
Can't fault it daniel99  Looks great. I'm sure with content like this your short movie has great possibilities.
 Do you have the storyline?  You probably do..... ;)
Title: Re: Photo-Realistic Aliens :) :) :)
Post by: daniel99 on November 03, 2013, 02:33:26 am
Yes, Simon. The render is made in Anim8or, but Scanline render, as I always do. I don't really use Art Ray Tracer too much.
I still have problems trying to find a technique for Image Based Lighting for anim8or, even though I made some tests in the past. I had to use some point lights in theese renders.
Title: Re: Photo-Realistic Aliens :) :) :)
Post by: davdud101 on November 26, 2013, 07:02:31 pm
Very cool! you said photo-realistic, they definitely appear to be (although yeah, it hard to see past the grain)! Ever tried some kind of subsurface scattering? I never have, but I figure having a slightly 'smaller' version of your model underneath a somewhat transparent normal-sized layer of epidermis would look decent. Worth a shot.
Title: Re: Photo-Realistic Aliens :) :) :)
Post by: daniel99 on November 27, 2013, 02:55:24 pm
Thanks, davdud101. That is a nice idea. Would be nice if that could work for human skin. But aliens...they might not have the same skin type as humans. Anyways, a fine technique for something that would resemble subsurface scattering would also be useful.