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General => Terragen Animation => Topic started by: Hannes on October 26, 2018, 05:32:18 AM

Title: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on October 26, 2018, 05:32:18 AM
A setup made up of twelve cloud puffs (localised cloud layers) with differently animated cloud fractal shaders. Nitpicking myself, if you look closely there's a visible (smooth) transition between the puffs.
Nevertheless I like it, but unfortunately it's quite useless unless the smoke source is exactly at 0,0,0.
So this is a good example for the need of grouping things and linking this group to a dummy, which can be positioned anywhere in the scene without having to type in different values for each item.
This would be an incredible improvement.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: luvsmuzik on October 26, 2018, 05:57:21 AM
that is still pretty impressive!  :)
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Dune on October 26, 2018, 06:15:54 AM
Quite incredible anyway!
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: DocCharly65 on October 26, 2018, 07:21:21 AM
Oh WOW!

Excellent animation - I could never get to work something like this!

Besides are these kinds of tgd's or tgc's I would pay money for on NWDA without reserve.
Some things are just too complicated for blue node-noobs like me.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: j meyer on October 26, 2018, 12:50:12 PM
Very promising.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Oshyan on October 26, 2018, 02:27:48 PM
Doc, that's probably not even using blue nodes...

Hannes, object grouping/parenting/etc. is in the plans for upcoming development, this year or early next...

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on October 26, 2018, 04:43:44 PM
No blue nodes, and Oshyan, I love to hear that!!!!
Testing some tornado stuff at the moment...
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: dorianvan on October 26, 2018, 11:12:15 PM
Quote from: Hannes on October 26, 2018, 05:32:18 AM
it's quite useless unless the smoke source is exactly at 0,0,0.
I like it, but could you explain what you mean?
So the pillar could not travel or move positions?
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on October 27, 2018, 03:30:27 AM
Quote from: dorianvan on October 26, 2018, 11:12:15 PM
Quote from: Hannes on October 26, 2018, 05:32:18 AM
it's quite useless unless the smoke source is exactly at 0,0,0.
I like it, but could you explain what you mean?
So the pillar could not travel or move positions?

Sorry, I did not make myself clear. Of course, the whole stuff could be anywhere, but it's useless (at the moment!!! See Oshyan's comment :)), because each and every cloud puff needs to be replaced by hand, and this is quite tedious.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: WAS on October 27, 2018, 06:39:36 PM
Wow that's really good so far, billows pretty nicely besids the small blank areas that transition in and out.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hetzen on October 27, 2018, 09:04:29 PM
Great work Hannes. Love the 4d animation as well as the Y work.

There is possibly a simpler way, in which you define an inverted cone in one cloud layer, then modulate it's extents. ie altitude * scaler = x & z width mask. Maybe throw a little wind in there to shift x and z over altitude.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on October 28, 2018, 06:17:59 AM
Quote from: Hetzen on October 27, 2018, 09:04:29 PM
Great work Hannes. Love the 4d animation as well as the Y work.

There is possibly a simpler way, in which you define an inverted cone in one cloud layer, then modulate it's extents. ie altitude * scaler = x & z width mask. Maybe throw a little wind in there to shift x and z over altitude.

Thanks, Jon. I thought about that as well (in a much more simple way!!!  ;)). But I guess my way has some more control over the different areas. The upper cloud fractals are animated different (slower) than the lower ones. Also the size is larger in the upper areas.
Nevertheless thanks for the idea!!
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on October 28, 2018, 06:32:25 AM
Here's a twister. 24 cloud layers. All differently animated.
Now I wonder, if it's really possible to animate the fractals like this, when the source of the twister is not at the origin 0,0,0. I'll do a test.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Dune on October 28, 2018, 07:04:39 AM
Cool! I like the guy being swooped up  ;D
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on October 28, 2018, 07:07:44 AM
Quote from: Dune on October 28, 2018, 07:04:39 AM
Cool! I like the guy being swooped up  ;D

Thanks Ulco.  :) I had the idea after 80 rendered frames, so it had to happen afterwards.

By the way, I just did some tests. You can move the puffs to another place, but "Move texture with clouds" has to be checked, otherwise the rotation of the fractal goes wild, because it's far away from the axis.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Oshyan on October 28, 2018, 05:02:19 PM
Wow, that's really impressive!

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: WAS on October 28, 2018, 06:49:33 PM
Wow this is really cool twister! I love twisters, in fact Twister (1996) is a favorite film of mine.

I'm curious what this would look like utilizing Voronoi Ridges for noise or Perlin Ridges. I notice as it twists, along the boundary you can see "circular" plumes spin, which I'm not sure is too conducive with a twister, at least with the main column (not the outer effect).

Otherwise though this is really amazing work. :O
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: DocCharly65 on October 29, 2018, 04:42:07 AM
Wow again! Great work and creepy look!

What about render times with all these cloud layers?
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on October 29, 2018, 09:36:16 AM
Quote from: DocCharly65 on October 29, 2018, 04:42:07 AM
Wow again! Great work and creepy look!

What about render times with all these cloud layers?

Thanks a lot! In this low quality and resolution it took three minutes per frame.

Quote from: WASasquatch on October 28, 2018, 06:49:33 PM
Wow this is really cool twister! I love twisters, in fact Twister (1996) is a favorite film of mine.

I'm curious what this would look like utilizing Voronoi Ridges for noise or Perlin Ridges. I notice as it twists, along the boundary you can see "circular" plumes spin, which I'm not sure is too conducive with a twister, at least with the main column (not the outer effect).

Otherwise though this is really amazing work. :O

Thanks Jordan. Oh yes, I really enjoyed this movie as well, and watched it several times.

You may be right about the billowy shapes. In the meantime I made the same animation with vortex shaders put behind each cloud fractal and animated the center according to the center of the puffs.
I used only a vorticity of 1, so it's quite subtle, but I'll sure test some other noise flavors.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: WAS on October 29, 2018, 09:20:42 PM
The depth, even in such small resolution, just looks so nice with the effect. Really like it still.

I've tried to do twisters with a single cloud and a inverted cone shape but the issue I get is it seems nye impossible to actually add plumey definition alone the cone.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on October 30, 2018, 10:24:41 AM
Thanks Jordan.
I think you were right about the noise flavor. I did a test overnight with the exact same settings like before, but with perlin ridges instead of billows. Looks a lot better to me. Vorticity in the vortex shaders is still at 1. Did a test with 2, but it didn't look good.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: WAS on October 30, 2018, 02:23:08 PM
Oh wow, yeah it really brings it together, all the shapes look cut and warped by the high winds direction.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: DocCharly65 on October 31, 2018, 06:06:50 AM
Quote from: Hannes on October 29, 2018, 09:36:16 AM
Thanks a lot! In this low quality and resolution it took three minutes per frame.

Ok that will be surely more than 1 h per frame in 720p @ Detail 0.5 / AA 5! ;)

Great latest version!
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Oshyan on October 31, 2018, 04:55:46 PM
That's really damn impressive!

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: WAS on October 31, 2018, 06:22:34 PM
I am certainly interested in a high quality animation of this, I really want to investigate the depth and scale of the detail in the formations, as this really has level of realism to it.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Tangled-Universe on November 02, 2018, 07:55:52 AM
Awesome twister Hannes :)

How would it look if you also animate some movement on Y for the noise and use 4D, pretty similar to your smoke column?
It looks like rotating noise, but not very "sucky" yet :P
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on November 03, 2018, 04:12:46 AM
Thanks guys!!!
Actually the noise is already animated on Y, maybe not enough. I increased it in the latest version.
At the moment I'm testing a twister scene in a suitable environment including the sky. Not that easy. In the meantime I did a lot of tests. I'll show it as soon as it's ready. It's still low res of course, but when I'm really satisfied I'll render it in better quality.
I'm planning to add some more stuff like a road maybe.
Here is a frame of my actual animation.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on November 05, 2018, 08:37:59 AM
I reworked the whole thing and after endless testing of the funnel's and the sky clouds' movement I added some environment. The camera is slightly animated to give it some handheld feeling.
Rendering a low res animation right now. Here's the first frame.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Dune on November 05, 2018, 09:35:04 AM
Can't wait!
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on November 05, 2018, 09:49:21 AM
You'll have to...  ;)
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Dune on November 05, 2018, 10:05:47 AM
 :(
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: DocCharly65 on November 05, 2018, 12:00:03 PM
Quote from: Dune on November 05, 2018, 10:05:47 AM
:(

ECHO!!!  :( :(

Really looking forward to the result - the miniature preview looks already promising :)
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on November 06, 2018, 08:42:01 AM
Here is an animation. I rendered 128 frames in eightteen and a half hours. I'm quite happy with it except the transition between the funnel and the vortex in the sky. It's OK, but it could be better.
It's really tough, because it takes countless test renderings to see, if it's OK or not. The RTP is a good help for testing the static cloud formation, but you can't see there how it looks animated.
However, it's a start.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Dune on November 06, 2018, 11:00:34 AM
It's awesome!!! Worth the wait  ;D
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: DocCharly65 on November 06, 2018, 11:20:11 AM
Echo Ulco! :)

The low resolution and AA combined with the shaking cam makes it even looking more realistic. Could be a real live video from YT :)
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: j meyer on November 06, 2018, 01:34:00 PM
 8) Pretty impressive already.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: otakar on November 06, 2018, 03:59:37 PM
Awesome!
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Oshyan on November 06, 2018, 11:56:49 PM
Pretty impressive indeed! I imagined you'd save a good deal of render time not having RT reflections on the road though. I actually find them a little distracting and unrealistic (that they're so clear). Specular only might not look much better, to be fair, but as a test of mainly the cloud workings I'd let go of the RT.

Are you planning to keep fine tuning this?

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on November 07, 2018, 09:41:21 AM
Thanks again!
Oshyan, the road is meant to be wet from rain. I think it's not too reflective. The reflective shader is already broken up, so it's not a perfect mirror. Maybe I can add some more displacement to make it look better. Anyway, I won't uncheck ray trace reflections. I like the reflections of the objects very much. I already did some tests adding rain to the scene by using my own rain clipfile, but haven't found a good look so far.
I haven't tested it, but as far as I can see rendering times weren't too high compared to a version without any reflections.

And yes, I'm going to finetune this thing some more. From time to time I need a break from a scene I worked on for a long time to get some fresh eyes, hoping I don't forget how I did things...

At the moment I'm rendering a different view just for fun looking upwards. And I found out, that for the last 100 frames of this (originally) 200 frames animation the connection between the funnel and the sky looks way better.
So maybe next time I'll render the other half.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on November 07, 2018, 12:35:27 PM
As I wrote: another view.
Don't take it too serious... ;)
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: DocCharly65 on November 07, 2018, 12:51:53 PM
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
;D ;D  Cool!  ;D ;D
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: luvsmuzik on November 07, 2018, 01:41:25 PM
Amazing! :)
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Oshyan on November 07, 2018, 02:36:06 PM
Hah! That's fantastic. Lots of great video humor today. :D

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on November 07, 2018, 04:39:48 PM
Thanks!!! I know, the cow is way too large, but otherwise it was just a dot. It was just a joke anyway.  ;)
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Dune on November 08, 2018, 01:10:48 AM
Nice start of my working day, Hannes! Love it.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: WAS on November 08, 2018, 04:55:16 PM
Wow Hannes! Serious evolution going on here! Love the scene setup with the twister and the road, it looks fantastic!

Perhaps more subtle road reflections with a more patchy drying look (a smooth perlin like roughness 0.75), it'd probably help cut on visible RT and render time, though not sure.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on November 09, 2018, 09:00:03 AM
Thanks!!
Next iteration (only 60 frames). More vegetation and I added rain using the same method I had in my "No umbrella" clip:
https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,21058.0.html

I guess, this makes the reflections on the road more appropriate.
Nevertheless I'm not entirely happy with the result. The terrain and the plants except the road look completely dry like a desert. The trees are animated, but it looks more like a gentle breeze, and the rain could be warped a bit, so that it doesn't fall so straight.
Not sure, if I'll keep the rain at all. I'll see, where this leads to...
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: luvsmuzik on November 09, 2018, 09:13:00 AM
From this POV, if you are not going to do long twisting grasses :P, a simple greenish surface layer PF would do wonders for the desert ....
Better and better and better. :)
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Dune on November 09, 2018, 10:02:51 AM
I like it very much already. Keep the rain, I'd say. You could add a dog blown across the road in front as a little extra fun (like you did your toad being squashed).
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on November 09, 2018, 10:33:18 AM
Quote from: Dune on November 09, 2018, 10:02:51 AM
I like it very much already. Keep the rain, I'd say. You could add a dog blown across the road in front as a little extra fun (like you did your toad being squashed).

;D ;D ;D
Thanks!! Oh yes, something like that would be cool! Yes, I like the rain somehow. Trying to improve it.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: DocCharly65 on November 09, 2018, 10:50:38 AM
Quote from: Hannes on November 09, 2018, 10:33:18 AM
Quote from: Dune on November 09, 2018, 10:02:51 AM
I like it very much already. Keep the rain, I'd say. You could add a dog blown across the road in front as a little extra fun (like you did your toad being squashed).

;D ;D ;D
Thanks!! Oh yes, something like that would be cool! Yes, I like the rain somehow. Trying to improve it.


What can I say...  Do it! :)
Great changes!
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Oshyan on November 09, 2018, 05:46:45 PM
I like the rain too, especially on the road. And it does help with the IMO overly sharp reflection (previously). Looks promising! Not sure why that guy is standing out in the rain though, I'd be in the truck. ;)

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on November 09, 2018, 07:19:00 PM
Simple answer: he's an Idiot.  ;)

Thanks again.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on November 12, 2018, 08:41:22 AM
Next step: reworked the rain and made the weather even worse.

On my to do list now: animating the bushes in the foreground as well, they seem like statues. Maybe replacing the idiot by someone or something more suiting.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Dune on November 12, 2018, 09:06:55 AM
Great update! Rain is really good now, especially with the moving wet haze. Perfect. Yeah, bushes need some movement. Maybe one or two can even get dis-rooted and blown away. And yes, the guy needs an umbrella! (which can blow way too)  ;)
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Kadri on November 12, 2018, 10:56:34 AM

Looks great Hannes.
A small addition of a farmhouse breaking apart by the tornado maybe?
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: sboerner on November 12, 2018, 11:53:25 AM
QuoteSimple answer: he's an Idiot.

Believe me, there's nothing unusual about this kind of behavior. I'm surprised he's not driving toward the funnel. (Maybe you could have him holding up an iPhone. Or driving toward the funnel and holding up an iPhone.)

Rational folks are crouched against the west walls of their basements right now.

This is looking truly amazing. The foreground rain and mist give this clip a lot of depth and sophistication. Great work.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: archonforest on November 12, 2018, 01:31:32 PM
Ohh I missed this amazing stuff! Absolutely great stuff. 8)
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: DocCharly65 on November 12, 2018, 01:59:33 PM
Great! Growing to perfection! :)
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Oshyan on November 12, 2018, 06:16:47 PM
God damn, this is incredible! All the little touches, the lightning, the movement on the trees (you really nailed that). So cool! Looking forward to whatever you do to finalize it.

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Matt on November 12, 2018, 06:37:12 PM
This is looking really awesome. Is the foreground rain and mist going the right direction, considering the rotation of the tornado?
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on November 13, 2018, 05:01:13 AM
Thanks!!!
Quote from: Matt on November 12, 2018, 06:37:12 PM
Is the foreground rain and mist going the right direction, considering the rotation of the tornado?

This is a good question. The answer is: I have no idea. Does the wind's direction have an influence on the direction of the twister's rotation?
Well, if only you'd asked me this question earlier, Matt! I just took a look at some tornado movies (which I did before), and now realised that all the tornadoes I've seen here are rotating counterclockwise.

Mine doesn't.

It's rotating clockwise.

That's typical: two possibilities, and I choose the wrong one. The notion of touching the twister's setup scares me. But (taking a deep breath) it's probably only setting (or removing) a "-" here and there.

...going to cry a little ...
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on November 13, 2018, 05:32:01 AM
Thank god I found a website that saved my day!!!!

Quote:
"The direction in which a tornado twists depends a lot upon which hemisphere you're in. In general, most tornadoes in the northern hemisphere rotate cyclonically, or counter-clockwise. Only around five percent of tornadoes in the northern hemisphere rotate clockwise, or anti-cyclonically. In the southern hemisphere, however, most tornadoes rotate clockwise."

So, mine is either one of those rare ones that rotate clockwise, or it's placed in the southern hemisphere. It doesn't look like somewhere in the southern hemisphere, so I decided it's a rare one!!!

So far so good. But what about the direction of the wind? I guess, if most tornadoes in the northern hemisphere rotate counterclockwise doesn't mean, that the wind is always blowing in the same direction. So I'll defiantly leave the tornado and the wind as it is, since changing the wind's direction would look weird compared to the movement of the clouds, especially the distant ones, and I'll desperately take care of the animation of the closer bushes now, which is a tough one, since bending of objects in a population is another problem. I rotated the trees slightly on the X-axis to fake some swaying, but for small bushes this might look strange.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Dune on November 13, 2018, 05:40:54 AM
Just inverse the animation  ;D
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on November 13, 2018, 06:11:49 AM
 ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Matt on November 13, 2018, 01:01:08 PM
I didn't mind the direction of the tornado itself (because it could be either hemisphere) - just the self consistency.

It's up to you ;D But here's my thinking. The tornado is the centre of a huge rotation of air. What would cause the strong winds in the foreground if they are not rotating with that vortex? If the foreground winds are moving contrary to the vortex, at what point between the camera and the tornado does the direction flip to be consistent with the tornado? There would have to be another powerful vortex at the midway point (not impossible, just very unlikely IMO).

Good idea to consider whether it would look strange against the movement of the clouds. But I think that is what tornados do - the front moves in the opposite direction to the back.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Jo Kariboo on November 13, 2018, 05:27:07 PM
Congratulations Hannes,your results are very impressive !!!
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on November 13, 2018, 06:07:38 PM
Of course the wind in the foreground looks contrary to the rotation, but behind it it's moving wth it, so I'm not sure, what would be the right direction. It's tricky.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: WAS on November 13, 2018, 06:42:38 PM
Would you be able to warp the rain/wind by a vortex following the path?
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: KlausK on November 14, 2018, 08:06:47 AM
HOW the hell do you do this!
It`s really amazing what can you do with TG.
Another thing is your (to me) quite short iteration cycles.
You sure know how to optimize the scenes.

Curious what`s next...

Cheers, Klaus

ps: if you ever want help rendering something - I`d be happy to assist.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Oshyan on November 14, 2018, 04:57:02 PM
Some people seem to really just have this incredible ability to create and then iterate/improve quickly, especially (I think) with animation. DocCharley shows this as does Hannes. And it blows me away too, even knowing what I know of Terragen, and having seen 1000s of people using it over the years. These people are special if you ask me. :D

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on November 17, 2018, 10:18:13 AM
Wow, thank you all for your kind words!!!!!!!
I was offline for a few days (visiting relatives) and now found your nice comments.
I'm not sure about those (short??) iteration cycles. To me it feels like ages.... ;)

However I'm still working on it, and I'll show you the results as soon as possible.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on November 18, 2018, 06:14:20 AM
I have to say THANKS!!!!!!!!! to you, Matt, to point out, that the rotation direction looks weird somehow. I was so afraid of touching the setup, that I was hesitating to change anything.
But finally I did. It wasn't difficult at all. I only had to insert some "-"s and uncheck "reverse direction" in the vortex shaders. It was so easy, and in my latest tests I found that it looks so much more plausible. Initially I thought, that it may look weird if the rain was blowing from left to right and the clouds in the background move vice versa. But it's really working!!
In the meantime I animated the bushes, added an animated character and replaced the car by another one. I'll post it asap. You'll have to wait until my "short iteration cycle" is finished  ;). Gonna take a few days...
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: WAS on November 18, 2018, 03:00:34 PM
Quote from: Hannes on November 18, 2018, 06:14:20 AM
I have to say THANKS!!!!!!!!! to you, Matt, to point out, that the rotation direction looks weird somehow. I was so afraid of touching the setup, that I was hesitating to change anything.
But finally I did. It wasn't difficult at all. I only had to insert some "-"s and uncheck "reverse direction" in the vortex shaders. It was so easy, and in my latest tests I found that it looks so much more plausible. Initially I thought, that it may look weird if the rain was blowing from left to right and the clouds in the background move vice versa. But it's really working!!
In the meantime I animated the bushes, added an animated character and replaced the car by another one. I'll post it asap. You'll have to wait until my "short iteration cycle" is finished  ;). Gonna take a few days...

Oh nice, I can't wait to see this. Glad you got it working, and wasn't a hassle.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Ariel DK on November 18, 2018, 08:05:55 PM
I almost missed this topic. outstanding work Hannes!
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on November 23, 2018, 01:06:00 AM
After endless tweaks and rerenderings it's done (I think...).
As I wrote, the twister's rotation is inverted, and I think this was really important. The bushes are animated and there's another car and another guy. Also an idiot, because he didn't stay in the car.

I had to cheat a little: I added the splashes on the car, which are basically the same objects like the splashes on the road, but unfortunately after adding those, TG crashed each and every time after 5 to 10 frames, no matter what I did. I paused the preview, I restarted TG, I even restarted Windows and didn't touch anything but TG's render button. No chance.

So I deleted most everything in the scene and rendered the splashes separately, and comped them in later.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Dune on November 23, 2018, 01:20:13 AM
I can keep on watching this! Magnificent footage, Hannes. The behaviour of this other idiot is great, I love it. The way he turns his head to look after his hat, beautiful find. And the movement of the bushes and so on really makes it perfect.
Another highlight in your TG accomplishments, for sure.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: DocCharly65 on November 23, 2018, 02:15:35 AM
F.A.N.T.A.S.T.I.C. !!!  :)

I can even hear the news anchors of NBC and CBS leak storm warnings and then continue the program with "War of the Worlds"
(Could be that NBC had a commercial break at just this moment... if I remember correctly ;D )

Really fantastic! :)
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: luvsmuzik on November 23, 2018, 07:44:01 AM
Cheat or not, those splashes pelting the Chrysler trunk lid are awesome! Marvelous animation overall!
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Kadri on November 23, 2018, 12:13:45 PM

Sweet :)
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: sboerner on November 23, 2018, 12:47:41 PM
Just keep watching this over and over. Amazing work.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: j meyer on November 23, 2018, 12:58:03 PM
So  8), all thumbs up.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: archonforest on November 23, 2018, 02:47:55 PM
OMG! This is AWESOME STUFF!!!! WOW!!!!! 8)
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Oshyan on November 23, 2018, 10:58:49 PM
Stupendous Hannes! Do you feel finished with it now?

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on November 24, 2018, 08:33:58 AM
Thanks a lot, guys!!!
I think, there's nothing more to add for this animation. But I'm thinking about optimizing the scene to make a better quality version of this. I did a test with higher resolution and better quality and found, that the rain itself looks a bit noisy. So, maybe rendering different passes and comping them together might be a solution.
But rendertimes are a big issue. There are lots of cloud layers, as you can imagine, and at this resolution (800X450px, 0.4/4) it takes about 25 minutes per frame. So, rendering in full HD and with better quality might be a nightmare. Klaus generously offered to help me out here. I'll see, what can be done.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Ariel DK on November 24, 2018, 01:48:04 PM
Impressive Hannes!
The guy is kinda: I should run for my hat, or for the tornado?  :D  is your animation, or mixamo maybe? looks great btw.
I was also going suggest the addition of some debris, but if you feel this finished with this, what can i said? ::)
I also was think that the bushes was animated outside of TG, but i notice that they go with the wind direction, and they are clearly random rotated...
As nobody mentioned this, maybe i just missed something important here??
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: Hannes on November 24, 2018, 03:08:44 PM
Thanks Ariel!!!
Yes, the guy is Mixamo-animated.
The (two sets of) bushes are animated within TG.
There's an animated PF for the Mesh deformation and the instances' Angles (x) are animated as well.
Since there is a random rotation in the y-axis, there is some fake randomness in the movement.
Title: Re: Pyroclastic smoke column
Post by: WAS on November 24, 2018, 11:45:42 PM
Great work, Hannes. Love the 1950's style of this one a lot more as well.