Planetside Software Forums

General => Open Discussion => Topic started by: ajcgi on June 28, 2017, 08:52:29 AM

Title: I have a new showreel! It includes (some) Terragen work! :D
Post by: ajcgi on June 28, 2017, 08:52:29 AM
Hi all,

Long time no speak. I really need to keep track of this place better!
As some of you may already know, I freelance in VFX as a generalist. A lot of that involves environmental work, be that asset creation, particle systems, shot layouts, lighting or the kind of thing one can achieve in Terragen!

I have a new showreel! Link to video below, further details below that.
https://t.co/jtaBxNbfOM (https://t.co/jtaBxNbfOM)

So,  a few extra details are here:
http://www.ajcgi.co.uk/blog/?p=1209 (http://www.ajcgi.co.uk/blog/?p=1209)

And a PDF Breakdown of shots explaining my contribution is here:
http://www.ajcgi.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/AlexJevonReelBreakdown2017.pdf (http://www.ajcgi.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/AlexJevonReelBreakdown2017.pdf)

Terragen-wise, Teletubbies and Mars are probably stars of the show there.

The reboot of Teletubbies was intended to have Terragen set extensions here, there, and everywhere. In the end I used it for the opening and closing titles and made a panoramic image based on that which could be slotted into most static shots in the comp. For the motion-controlled crane shots I had to come up with another system that would be fast to render so projected that onto a cyclorama, with ground textures, trees, and extra carded elements being added into the mix in Softimage. Yup, that's Terragen, Softimage, and Teletubbies in the same paragraph.

Mars was a similar beast oddly enough. I believe I wrote about this before but here goes anyway. My first task was to come up with a huge panoramic image, similar to the one in Teletubbies, but less cuddly, and hotter. It was based on MOLA data of the Valles Marineris (Wiki here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valles_Marineris (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valles_Marineris)), eroded with the fantastic erosion plugin, then passed through several other systems below that, coloured similarly to certain matte painting elements. In the end, it itself became a matte painting element, and alongside several large cliffy rocks that I put together, became useful for filling up many shots, or the so the compositors said to me. ;)
The second Terragen task was a full size planet. Most of this was so I could pass convincing atmospheric layers to the Nuke lead who was using those in conjunction with my 3D cameras and a textured sphere in Nuke, to fake distant establishing shots with fast render times. The detail was useful though, as the planet was used for the landing sequence in the first episode, part of which made it into my reel. Blurred, shaky, in the background. ;)

Each of those two projects began with a huge task in front of us, a large variety of tools, and no idea as to which direction things were going to go on set, creatively, or in the edit, so this is why in my experience Terragen often crops up early on and then gets reduced to background stills or matte painting elements. In fact, the matte painters were really thrilled to discover the software existed and I can see why. It's excellent at creating all kinds of things to work in among those on set or other CG or photographic elements.

Anyway, there's other stuff in there of course! Hope you enjoy it! I'm now going to cruise the forum seeing what you've all been up to while I've been making this. :D

Alex
Title: Re: I have a new showreel! It includes (some) Terragen work! :D
Post by: Dune on June 28, 2017, 09:28:49 AM
Cool! Thanks for showing.
Title: Re: I have a new showreel! It includes (some) Terragen work! :D
Post by: luvsmuzik on June 28, 2017, 10:35:35 AM
Excellent integration of multiple assets!
Title: Re: I have a new showreel! It includes (some) Terragen work! :D
Post by: Kadri on June 28, 2017, 07:06:43 PM

Just saw this on Facebook. Great work :)
Title: Re: I have a new showreel! It includes (some) Terragen work! :D
Post by: ajcgi on June 29, 2017, 06:41:33 AM
Cheers all!