8th Hong Kong Alias|Wavefront Users Group Meeting on 23th Ma

[3DMan]

I've been there and feel soooOOOoooo amzing with the making of "Load of the Rings". I know we can't rush to get good stuffs. But in HK, no boss will give u more and more time to do. The schedule is always tight. I mean very TIGHT.

I wanted to ask how they do the effect of the door in "Monster Inc". I'm not clear about that (my english is bad, hehe..... ). Can someone tell me please?

[WOWman]

i agree w/ u guys, those 2 films are very very good, they spent lots and lots of time on testing, you just can't tell that scence was made in CG (for some shots in LOTR), i think everyone knows those company successed because they put efforts on testing, they tried lots of things b4 they make the film, but i just dunno y the boss in HK won't spend more money and more time on making CG film.

[tdk]

that's the style and culture of Hong Kong Business.

Fast money return

Instant Result

they just can't wait for 3 or 4 years. put million of dollars and don't even know whether they can make money with it.


now go back to the stock and land properies market.

I really hope this will change some time in the future.

[Wolf]

Stop blaming it on the bosses. People, ask yourselves one question honestly: today, if the bosses decide to put in the money, do you have what it takes to pull through what Weta had done? Where are the software developers? Has anyone done the kind of development art that Pixar did (71000+ of them!)? Note that what we see today of LOTR is the culmination of work that began more than 4 years ago, in New Zealand, from point zero!

Dreaming about the financial possibilities in the future leads nowhere. Look at Jason Wen, or "The Hunt" featured on the front page of this site. Look at how Bluesky rose from a CG boutique to become a full-fledged CG production studio. I remember reading many years ago about how Bluesky used to go through a particularly hard period when they didn't make any money at all, when they used the time to write their famous renderer. I also remember reading about how after the financial failure of the "Tron" venture (which BTW Chris Wedge founder of Bluesky and director of Ice Age worked on), many companies were devastated and many artists' dreams were shattered, but many of them still worked to lay the groundworks for computer graphics in the future (today). Those guys worked in financial environments and technical tools that were much worse than what we have today. They are my inspirations.

Chris Wedge, in a recent interview, attributed his company's success to Passion, Talent, and Planning. Keep his advice close to your heart. Get prepared for the future, and stop dreaming!

Anyway, just got news that LOTR won the oscar for best visual effects! Too bad Monsters Inc didn't get the animated feature prize - I think it deserves it more than Shrek.

<font size=-1>[ 這篇文章被編輯過: Wolf 在 2002-03-25 14:58 ]</font>

[jly625]

In my point of view, "Monstor inc." technical side is better than "Shrke".
But sometime good thing is didn't mean it can get the award............
Even in Hollywood............

[tdk]

please note that I'm not telling people sit back, do nothing and wait for the change. Actually I'm alway tell people learn more,work hard and get themselve well prepared, when the time come, we will have the required skill to meet the challenge.

I'm just telling the current situation in Hong Kong.

I'm actually agreed with most if not all of your point. I'm just HOPE but not DREAMing of any change.

Anyway, so bad Monster Inc. didn't win. Pixar's story and animation is better in my opinion.

[feverheat]

Hay but the brid gets the award in animated short film.... they suceed anyway. But I watched the bird before, I don't quite follow what the story about ... maybe Pizar always do the stuff in the point view of ART. : )

[tdk]

hmm... try to think about office politic....human relationship......etc..

[Wolf]

Haha, those are sticky issues. People who spend their time playing politics always end up gaining petty powers and losing valuable friends. The important thing is: don't let your employer/workplace take all your time away from you -- set aside a healthy portion of it for your own 進修. Sorry, going off-topic here.

On-topic: someone asked above how Pixar did the alternate-universe door effect. According to the speaker at HKAWUG, they wrote a light shader that "blasts" unwanted objects out of sight. He was deliberately dramatic in his choice of words. I don't exactly know the details of their implementation, but based on my knowledge of PRman and the speaker's hint, I guess it's a kind of spotlight with a projection frustum that corresponds to the pyramid formed by the camera position and the doorway opening. The light shader doesn't emit light; instead it emits a "message" (those of you who know PRman's message passing mechanism would know what I'm talking about) to co-operating surface shaders to control their transparency. If I have time I'll post a test scene of the technique in action.

[3DMan]

Thanks to Wolf so much. I think it's not easy to understand the theory..... Thanks anyway.

In your words, it seems they can render that scene in one pass only (?). I thought they were doing it with few layers.

[Wolf]

Yes. They do it in one less pass (I don't know if they use just one pass, but that's very likely the case). There's an advantage to one-pass rendering -- you can see the whole picture immediately and compose your shot accordingly. Pixar has always been very particular about their shot compositions, so I'm not surprised that they're going the one-pass way.

[3DMan]

http://members.ch.tripodasia.com.hk/Man ... Effect.avi (3.6MB)

This is a test of the alternate-universe door effect. (right click & save to see.)

[Gunsmith]

3DMan, The movie is brillant . Can you tell me more how can you do that . Which software you have used ? Thanks !

[3DMan]

大家不要誤會這片段是用 Wolf 所說的方法完成, (老實說, 我實不太明白當中道理), 我只是用普通的合成 (Compositing) 方法完成, 相信任何3D及合成軟件也可做到, 關鍵只在於如何分配 Layer 罷了. 雖然片中效果看似與 Monster Inc 中的 effect 相似, 但其實兩個空間的光源沒有互相影響, 相信 Wolf 的方法就可達到這點, 當然如果勉強用合成方法亦可做到, 但分 layer 就要花更多心思了.