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Odddzy posted:Hey Big K and others, I'm trying to learn some maths as I haven't touched them for a very long time to learn a bit of houdini. Do you guys have a book that could make a rusty guy learn the basics? I have a ton of videos on youtube and stuff to plow through but i'd like something to read when I'm tired of being on the PC but still want to be productive/learning. Maybe others could weigh in on its value to VFX stuff, but 3d Math Primer for Graphics & Game Development (Dunn & Parberry) was a great refresher for me. For a 750-page book, it reads unlike any other math text I've ever read. I feel like a huge nerd reading geometry books, but it was actually really engaging.
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Jan 25, 2015 11:02
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cubicle gangster posted:To be contrary to those posts, we only hire people who want to be in a family. Having a stable job does not mean family. Everything is stable until it isn't and you're let go in bad economic times and then the "family" line is actually worthless. Will your boss let you live with him for 4 months while you find a new job? It's loving stupid. You have friends at the company, not a family. Being smart about the realities of employment is also not "negative bullshit" in my opinion. It doesn't make people negative or robotic just because they employ an ounce of self determination about their career and do the career moves to be paid what the industry deems they are worth. I feel like I'm in a similar position to you. I feel safe where I work and it is literally owned by a family toting the family line. But those same people have let entire departments go with no warning, people who were at the company for 15 years etc. They will actually cry when they fire you but their tears do not help you pay the bills, especially if you just had a kid or bought a car, house, etc. [edit] I do agree that not everything in this industry is doom & gloom. But these lessons currently being learned by people in film/vfx all over should be universal lessons learned and not "well it'll never happen to me!", you know? tuna fucked around with this message at 13:12 on Jan 25, 2015 |
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Jan 25, 2015 13:08
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Big K of Justice posted:Houdini 14's looking pretty nice. I haven't had time to try it but the fx guys at work found the new sand solvers too slow to be usable in production for anything other than simple shots. Apparently it is just an OTL rather than a hardcoded new solver. The new viewport is great though, it is not as picky as the past versions with gfx cards and drivers. Love the new UV tools as well.
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Jan 25, 2015 18:36
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In employment, both parties (employer and employee) are looking to further their best interests FIRST. It creates a symbiotic arrangement where we agree that what is good for the employee (money, benefits, a fun place to hang out all day, cool projects, etc) supports what is good for the employer (professional products, increased revenue, etc) and vise versa. As soon as that symbiotic agreement falls out of balance one way or the other, though, whether or not the arrangement continues is at the sole discretion of the one against whom the balance has tipped. In other words, if paying my salary becomes too much of a burden on the company, the company has no more incentive to keep me employed. If the environment at the company becomes toxic or even if it just stagnates or if my life situation changes and the company can't/won't adjust to support me, then I have no incentive to stay either. Basically, everyone who runs a company ever knows that layoffs and firings are a natural part of the landscape and therefore every employee should understand that leaving at will for better places is also a natural and acceptable part of the landscape as well. Any employee that tells you that you owe loyalty (aside from obvious ethical loyalties like not breaking contracts or spreading trade secrets) to an employer is full of poo poo and any employer who resents you for switching companies is also full of poo poo. You look out for yourself and the company will look out for itself. As long as the answer to each of those goals is in harmony, then that's called employment.
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Jan 25, 2015 19:59
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Big K of Justice posted:That's why when you see a film get pushed back on release, the vendors start freaking out [Like what happened with MPC the other day]. Was MPC working on Jungle Book?
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Jan 25, 2015 20:24
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Big K of Justice posted:
Halifax actually. I interviewed at several places in Toronto including some studios from Vancouver that were touring around, but they all balked when they found out I was American. The studio in Halifax was the only one willing to take a risk on hiring a foreigner who only has 10 months left on a post-grad work permit. I can get an extension through NAFTA and hopefully eventually get PR status in Canada, because it'd be pretty sweet to have all of North America as a possible place to work. Anyway the place I work now is good to the employees and I don't have to work crazy overtime. It's a great first job and I wouldn't mind working here for 2-5 years if they keep getting work and I'm allowed to stay.
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Jan 25, 2015 21:44
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Big K of Justice posted:Everyones resorting to hiring TFW's and foreigners because there's not enough Canadians to go around. As a UK guy who's just applied to a bunch of jobs in Canada, this is very promising 
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Jan 26, 2015 01:01
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It also depends on what jobs you are applying to. If it's animation/modeling good luck because there are a million animators in the market with more joining every time a school graduates every 6 months. The best thing I have ever done in my career is to leave animation and focus on more technical stuff.
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Jan 26, 2015 04:24
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On that subject, I'm still looking around for a job around Montreal with no one calling back. Could some of you guys drop some comments on my portfolio? I'm really starting to wonder if it's my work that's bad or just bad timing that's not making me find a new job. https://www.polycritters.carbonmade.com Edit: Thanks Handiklap for the book recommendation, the sample pages seemed like exactly what I was looking for. It's in the mail right now!
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Jan 26, 2015 04:54
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Odddzy posted:On that subject, I'm still looking around for a job around Montreal with no one calling back. Could some of you guys drop some comments on my portfolio? I'm really starting to wonder if it's my work that's bad or just bad timing that's not making me find a new job. Are you applying to games/film or archviz? You are not a bad modeler but your work is not showing any focus. If you want to do modeling for games do models for games. Same with vfx if you want to do film vfx work show some nice high poly modeling. I would recommend modeling known landmarks if you are aiming to be a film modeler because those commonly come up during a production. Nothing under the film/design section of your portfolio would be fitting for a vfx modeling reel. Most look unfinished and the rest simply don't show you have modeling skills that would fit in a vfx production. Basically look at the work coming out of the place you want to work at and try to get to that quality or better. I would also recommend working on your composition and presentation. Don't think I am making GBS threads on your work, you are almost there you just need to polish your reel a little and add new stuff and you will start getting calls back.
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Jan 26, 2015 05:36
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keyframe posted:Don't think I am making GBS threads on your work, you are almost there you just need to polish your reel a little and add new stuff and you will start getting calls back. Don't worry about that, I'm in need of real crits so it's quite welcome.  Is there any website online that offers free tracked video footage for people that want to work on VFX portfolios?
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Jan 26, 2015 05:45
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There are a couple here: http://www.hollywoodcamerawork.com/greenscreenplates.html Can't vouch for their quality I never used em. I would honestly recommend just shooting a still and camera projecting it. Saves you time dealing with tracking and all the headaches that come with it.
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Jan 26, 2015 08:11
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keyframe posted:There are a couple here: Not bad advice either, thanks for the link!
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Jan 26, 2015 08:36
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Another one from the Getty Villa.
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Jan 27, 2015 03:46
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 Pooped this out in like an hour
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Jan 27, 2015 07:08
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Ccs posted:Halifax actually. I interviewed at several places in Toronto including some studios from Vancouver that were touring around, but they all balked when they found out I was American. The studio in Halifax was the only one willing to take a risk on hiring a foreigner who only has 10 months left on a post-grad work permit. I can get an extension through NAFTA and hopefully eventually get PR status in Canada, because it'd be pretty sweet to have all of North America as a possible place to work. I was thinking of applying there because I was kicking around this summer over in Newfoundland just hanging out before I hit my green card snafu which caused me to have to get work in Canada until its resolved.. hopefully in a few months. DHS media? I like Nova Scotia. I was going to mention that guys like cubicial gangster has the ideal... where you get to create images as part of a normal job. Illustration, industrial educational videos, accident recreations, architectural visualization, etc. All great fields with a better work/life balance than film VFX. When I do get out of VFX I plan to get back into just doing art again for the sake of it rather than being a hired pair of wrists. I was too optimistic on H14. My fast viewport instancing using instancepoint attributes doesn't show geometry So much for that.
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Jan 27, 2015 08:31
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So how's that contest going?
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Jan 27, 2015 08:34
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Got the urge to pick this bedroom scene I started working on a while ago back up and shot off a quick test. Rendered in Maxwell. I know you can't see much of it but the one thing I'm really not digging is the rug. I want a really soft and shaggy look but it just looks rough and patchy now. The problem is I don't really have a good hair / fur setup - Maya hair isn't really getting the results I want, and the only other hair system Maxwell supports in Maya is Shave & Haircut which I don't have a license for and am not really willing to shell out for at the moment. On the other hand, Houdini has a great fur system which I would love to use but unfortunately you still can't use external renderers in Houdini without a full commercial license. I think I might just render something in Mantra and try my best to match the lighting which isn't all that complex. Anyway, I would really appreciate any other thoughts / critiques you guys have on this as well. 
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Jan 27, 2015 09:51
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Big K of Justice posted:I was thinking of applying there because I was kicking around this summer over in Newfoundland just hanging out before I hit my green card snafu which caused me to have to get work in Canada until its resolved.. hopefully in a few months. DHS media? I like Nova Scotia. Yeah, DHX. The salary will probably be really low compared to the big Vancouver studios. It'd be cool if someone with your experience comes to work here though. I dunno how many projects they have lined up though, it's all confidential.
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Jan 27, 2015 14:08
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Ccs posted:Yeah, DHX. The salary will probably be really low compared to the big Vancouver studios. It'd be cool if someone with your experience comes to work here though. I dunno how many projects they have lined up though, it's all confidential. They also do production in their Toronto office, keep in mind; they're working on a few new IPs here, as well as a reboot of something older.
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Jan 27, 2015 14:42
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Cool, hopefully some of that gets sent up to Halifax. I really hope I get the NAFTA extension haha.
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Jan 27, 2015 15:13
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What's rigging like as a career? Is a lot of scripting involved? I really like character animation, but so does everybody else, so eh
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Jan 27, 2015 23:49
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02-6611-0142-1 posted:What's rigging like as a career? Is a lot of scripting involved? I really like character animation, but so does everybody else, so eh Lots of stuff like this.
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Jan 28, 2015 02:44
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Interesting, I'll check it out. Crossposting from the animation thread: 02-6611-0142-1 posted:This indiegogo needs some exposure:
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Jan 28, 2015 04:35
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Does anybody here know anything about CG in the music industry? I've been lucky enough to have consistent CG work since I've started, however being a musician is still a big passion of mine. I see a lot of really creative work being done in music videos/tour posters/album covers/live shows these days, but I have no idea how people are finding these jobs. I can easily find a million "3d modeler" openings on any random CG board, but I have not once seen any listing specifically for the music industry, even though I see so much new CG stuff coming out in that industry every day 
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Jan 28, 2015 10:12
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They're done by vfx studios and illustration houses that dont just specialize in music, they'll also do ads of other kinds. some companies might specialize but larely the best results will b coming from places that also direct ads and do illustrations for whoever. Search for 'vfx animation studio & music video' and you'll find studios with that in their list of 'what we do' I doubt it's any different to working on any other 3d job. the chances of you working with your favorite band are pretty slim.
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Jan 28, 2015 17:01
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Travakian posted:as a reboot of something older. Gadget? http://www.regularcapital.com/2014/12/new-inspector-gadget-cgi-series-air-boomerang-worldwide/
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Jan 28, 2015 17:23
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Travakian posted:Lots of stuff like this. Or this....  http://vimeo.com/24624719
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Jan 28, 2015 17:25
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cubicle gangster posted:They're done by vfx studios and illustration houses that dont just specialize in music, they'll also do ads of other kinds. some companies might specialize but larely the best results will b coming from places that also direct ads and do illustrations for whoever. That's pretty much what I assumed. I guess where my confusion started is that it's pretty easy to check out the credits and see who worked on what movie, but music videos rarely come with credits or any sort of crew notes that don't relate to the songs producer or artist. One reason I ask, is because I see a lot of REALLY bad cg stuff when it comes to musicians, and I wonder who they got to do that, and I how I could help do it better. for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLx11xq6X7Q  cubicle gangster posted:Search for 'vfx animation studio & music video' and you'll find studios with that in their list of 'what we do' This was really helpful. It helped me find this: http://www.framestore.com/work/fka-twigs-throughglass
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Jan 28, 2015 22:32
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SVU Fan posted:That's pretty much what I assumed. I guess where my confusion started is that it's pretty easy to check out the credits and see who worked on what movie, but music videos rarely come with credits or any sort of crew notes that don't relate to the songs producer or artist. One reason I ask, is because I see a lot of REALLY bad cg stuff when it comes to musicians, and I wonder who they got to do that, and I how I could help do it better. Eh, keep in mind that these are guns for hire type of contracts, and the houses responsible likely know that the product looks off and either a) weren't given enough time by the client to do it right or b) the client specifically wanted it to look that way whether it looked "good" or not. It's ok to look at something and say "I could do that better" but the real soul-searching question that will be more informative when picking commercial art as a field is "Would I be willing to force myself to NOT do that better?"
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Jan 29, 2015 00:35
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I worked for a small team that mostly did small time TV commercials, they were thankful to get off doing music videos because there was absolutely no money in them. Most of the budgets for even big artists are slimmer than you'd think, so vfx isn't usually a priority. The ones with good vfx probably had an artist or artists that took a massive paycut.
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Jan 29, 2015 03:17
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I just bought Qubicle which is a fun little Voxel creating program so really looking forward to messing about in it. You can export to OBJ or straight to Unity as well so I'm planning on making a little Commando-esque isometric game. Just messing around with a character but I think I'm going to make a range of different styles from Sword and Sworcery all the way to CubeWorld and see what I like the most. 
concerned mom fucked around with this message at 10:52 on Jan 29, 2015 |
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Jan 29, 2015 10:50
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For those interested, there's a free session about doing Sci-fi in modo starting at 2PM east coast time. No idea if Forelle is involved! http://www.thefoundry.co.uk/events/sessions/creating-sci-fi-with-modo/
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Jan 29, 2015 17:32
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Downloading Zbrush 4r7! Since no one took leadership role on the thunderdome challenges maybe I'll do it? Any opposition or suggestions before I waste my time putting some poo poo together?
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Jan 29, 2015 19:00
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I remember before I even got a job as a designer I'd see ads or whatever and think "who is making this poo poo? I can do way better." Now when I see sub-par work I instead think "hey, the designer was probably given an hour to do that, cut him some slack". Or "I bet the client pushed for it to look that way." Things we think look bad are often not mistakes, they're stylistic choices. When I look at the video for Black Skinhead, for example, I don't think "man, that 3D sucks! Kanye needs to hire some better people." I think it's far more likely that Kanye wanted it to look exactly like that.
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Jan 29, 2015 22:12
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raging bullwinkle posted:I remember before I even got a job as a designer I'd see ads or whatever and think "who is making this poo poo? I can do way better." Now when I see sub-par work I instead think "hey, the designer was probably given an hour to do that, cut him some slack". Or "I bet the client pushed for it to look that way." Things we think look bad are often not mistakes, they're stylistic choices. When I look at the video for Black Skinhead, for example, I don't think "man, that 3D sucks! Kanye needs to hire some better people." I think it's far more likely that Kanye wanted it to look exactly like that. Yup. Remember that even really basic CG / design stuff is sorcery to most people outside of the field, so they'll probably be amazed at anything you make as long as it achieves a basic level of competence and looks like what they wanted.
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Jan 29, 2015 22:27
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Cyne posted:Yup. I was at CES and this was never more apparent than at the 3D scanning area. A lot of the scans looked loving amazing/high detail, but that was just a photograph texture, the underlying mesh almost always sucked (unless the system was $20k or higher). They did have some mind blowing 3D prints on display though... that impressed even the most hardened/jaded nay-sayers (my CTO). Also, if a designer is making some poo poo, and the client really sucks rear end to work with, chances are they'll feel okay with cutting a few corners because the client is stoked and finishing this gig probably means another gig and hopefully that one is better/more interesting.
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Jan 29, 2015 22:34
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RizieN posted:I was at CES and this was never more apparent than at the 3D scanning area. A lot of the scans looked loving amazing/high detail, but that was just a photograph texture, the underlying mesh almost always sucked (unless the system was $20k or higher). They did have some mind blowing 3D prints on display though... that impressed even the most hardened/jaded nay-sayers (my CTO). A lot of the scanning solutions and even scanning processes out there right now are from people just trying to cash in on the craze to scan + print something. You can get really solid scans with a great underlying mesh and 8k texture with only a few hundred dollars in photography equipment, but it requires a solid understanding of photography and the photogrammetric process. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of resources out there to learn the proper foundational aspects of photogrammetry, so the only way to really understand it is to just do it and figure it out as you go along.
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Jan 30, 2015 00:23
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Gearman posted:A lot of the scanning solutions and even scanning processes out there right now are from people just trying to cash in on the craze to scan + print something. You can get really solid scans with a great underlying mesh and 8k texture with only a few hundred dollars in photography equipment, but it requires a solid understanding of photography and the photogrammetric process. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of resources out there to learn the proper foundational aspects of photogrammetry, so the only way to really understand it is to just do it and figure it out as you go along. Is there a photogrammetry program that isn't cloud based?
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Jan 30, 2015 00:26
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32MB OF ESRAM posted:Is there a photogrammetry program that isn't cloud based? Agisoft PhotoScan seems to be what most people are using these days.
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Jan 30, 2015 00:29
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