Advanced Production Techniques

Matte Painting & Compositing Series

Six training titles included!

DESCRIPTION
Included Lessons:

Texture Mattes and Camera Projection Methods

Learn to use Vue's normal pass to create unconstrained lighting situations from the original matte render; leaving you free to change lighting at any time, without the need to re-render the original scene. (Technique presented in Cinema4D and xStream, will work will any 3D application supporting normal maps. Will work with any version of Vue that saves a normal pass of the geometry in the scene.)

These techniques allows you to render an entire animation in the time it normally takes to render one frame, by removing all procedural and geometry calculations from the render. This also allows the usage of lower anti-aliasing settings and eliminates any potential terrain flickering during animation.

• Key Topics
  • Learn to incorporate objects into animations and create separate compositing passes.
  • Setup camera projected texture maps.
  • Edit multi-pass render layers and masks.
  • Use the multi-pass to create material maps and projected mattes.
  • Optimize terrains and material layers.
  •  Increase render speed.
  • Optimize terrain exports and explore the available export methods.
  • Separate terrain anti-aliasing from ecosystem anti-aliasing.

ZDepth Scene Control, Editing, and Operations

Explore the many image format options for managing zdepth. Learn how to extract the most definition and detail. Which formats work best for animation and still composites. Learn how you can use the zdepth render pass to create fog, haze, and dof post process effects.

• Key Topics
  • The importance and differences of Z-Depth image file formats.
  • Format comparison and usage.
  • Multi-pass and G-Buffer options
  • Multi-pass Zdepth vs Common Zdepth passes
  • Edit zdepth renders
  • Optimize file sizes and properly convert formats.
  • In Photoshop use the zdepth to create:
    • Fog and haze
    • Dof (Depth of field) effects

Spectral Cloud ZDepth and Masks

Currently vue does not create zdepth for atmospheres, this can make it difficult to modify HDRI images and scene composites. In this section of the training, you will learn to quickly modify scenes to create a fast rendering ZDepth pass, with an unlimited amount of cloud layers.

These techniques are compatible with any spectral cloud scene, as well as spherical, panoramic, and standard aspect cameras. Camera may be placed anywhere in the scene, including in cloud layers. Learn to use lights to cut holes in cloud layers. Setup a color based cloud layer setup, and create a multi-use cloud mask where individual layers are easily extracted and defined.

The cloud mask render pass was added to Vue in version 7.5. If you need more control of the cloud mask output, or you are using a version of Vue between 6 - 7.4, with the knowledge gained from this training, you can gain the benefit of this extremely useful render output.

Displacement Map Exporting and Material Baking

Learn to create displacement maps of procedural terrain elevations. Customize render settings and create perfectly matching displacement maps of your procedural terrains.

Learn techniques to render displacement map images up to 8k in less than a minute. The method is currently the fastest way to export a procedural terrain, it is also the only way to export a procedural terrain without having to bake the terrain to a memory hungry polygonal object. The process of baking a terrain is limited to a single core and will often cause the application to become unresponsive if trying to achieve an image result higher than 2048 x 2048.

Learn to create displacement map variations to create unique "roughness" details. These displacement maps are also an extremely useful solution for terrain export and generating normal maps. This technique can be used with any function, and is not limited to terrain generation or origin.

Learn to bake layered vue materials, creating both color and bump image maps. The maps can then be easily used and edited for painted mattes, export operations, openGL reference, or remapped directly back to the object. This method frees up system resources and eliminated potential ecosystem, material scaling, and material flickering issues. Additionally it allows the easy separation of ecosystem render settings from intensely complex materials. This makes it easier to create composite render outputs and define anti-alias settings specific to the output. Since ecosystem vegetation is primarily alpha and transparency map rendering, which can require higher anti-alias settings on texture maps and fine geometry, you will be able to define terrain and ecosystem render settings independently.

Designing Brushes from Functions

• Key Topics
  • Learn to edit fractals and create create brushes for any painting application.
  • Set up numeric filters.
  • Control function number outputs.
  • Creating fast pure fractal renders.
  • Edit renders for smooth edge brushes.
  • Use photoshop masks and blending modes to customize brush creations.
  • Import the image into ZBrush for use as an alpha brush.

Matte Painting Workflow and Techniques

Learn matte painting techniques that any vue user can benefit from. Explore the process and techniques used to create the image shown on the right.

Mix and blend shadows, composite multi-pass elements, adjust material lighting and simplify ecosystems (painted and generated, global and material).

Learn how advanced masking techniques and projected camera setups can be used to create 3D matte paintings ready for animation.

SPECIFICATIONS

• Run Time - 7h 53m
• Video Resolution - 1000 x 800 px
• Media Codec - Flash MP4
• Instructor - Nick Pellegrino

REQUIREMENTS

• CPU: 1.5 GHz +
• Memory: 512 MB +
• HD Space: 1 GB +
• Any browser capable of running Flash Player 9+.

Dynamic Function Control and Animation

Learn to dynamically control and animate any extractable function operation in Vue Infinite and xStream. Learn to create a complex MetaNode controller, and learn how and why it works. Then learn to use the node in a scene, and create a complex animation with a procedural terrain, and its mixed material.

DESCRIPTION
Outline and Overview

• Introduction and Overview
  • Start out by taking a look at how the controller node works, and how it can be used to perform complex operations within scenes in Vue.
• Building the Controller Node
  • Learn how to create MetaNodes, and build and extremely versatile object dependent controller node. Use and test the node throughout the stages of its development. Break down vector information into controllable number ranges, and add internal unit flexibility.
• Building the Controller Node - Increasing Pure Vector Control
  • Add a sensitivity range control to the controller node's vector output. Optimize this control with the pre-origin position starting point offset, created in the previous section.
• Node Application - Animating Functions
  • Now it's time to put the node to good use and animate a procedural terrain and its material. Control the origin of a blender ratio fractal, and animate the terrain eroding and morphing over time. Learn to connect the same function to the material, for a perfect animated match. Use the created range output, to increase the scale of the "Largest Feature" over time.
• Terrain Refresh Macro
  • Learn to create a macro to refresh a procedural terrain, assign a keyboard shortcut to it, and improve performance when working with procedural terrains.

SPECIFICATIONS

• Run Time - 120 minutes
• Video Size - 1280x720
• Media Codec - Flash MP4

REQUIREMENTS

• CPU: 1.5 GHz +
• Memory: 512 MB +
• HD Space: 1 GB +
• Any browser capable of running Flash Player 9+.

Optimization and Dynamic Population

Learn to avoid constant setting tweaks and completely control ecosystems the way you want to. Use density previewing techniques to plan out your scenes. Learn about ecosystem layering structures and advanced controls and to incrementally save at vital points during scene creation.

DESCRIPTION
Productive Planning and Setups

Learn the planning process and stages to achieve optimal productivity when using dynamic population. These methods are also extremely useful for standard population ecosystems. Learn to break apart scenes into groups and improve system response and performance. Create a camera control MetaNode to export and import camera vector data; also allows the locking of cameras to prevent accidental movement. Use pre-viz plants and vegetation planning to speed up the creation process, and provide nearly instant previewing. Learn a powerful technique to correctly convert procedural terrains into a standard terrains, drastically increasing render speeds, and eliminating geometry calculation. Setup custom dependencies and use terrain fractals and material settings to speed up the population process. Plan out ecosystem layers, and know what your ecosystem will look like before populating.

Dynamic Control

Create dynamically controlled population zones to preview your ecosystems in the openGL, without all the guessing or test renders, and without loosing your current geometry. Learn to edit Ecosystem proxies using master objects. Add or subtract from ecosystem populations, by creating metanodes that use objects to control the size and position of density layers.

SPECIFICATIONS
Lessons Included:

• Project Scene and Landscape Overview
• Planning Ecosystem Density Distributions
• Photoshop Layer Comparison
• Creating and Previewing New Distributions
• Terrain Optimization Conversion Technique
• Importing Camera Vectors
• Population Preview Zones
• Preparing Ecosystem Material Layers
•  Converting Prep Layers to Ecosystem Layers
• Previz Vegetation Population
• Choosing Ecosystem Vegetation
• Adding Vegetation to Ecosystem Layers
• Advanced Zones and Controllers
• Editing Ecosystem Proxies
• Zone MetaNodes and Multiple Controllers
• The Final Scene Group
• Analyzing Scene Renders
• Terrain Conversion Technique - Adjustments

REQUIREMENTS

• CPU: 1.5 GHz +
• Memory: 512 MB +
• HD Space: 1.5 GB +
• Any browser capable of running Flash Player 10+.

snowFlaKe - The MetaNode Collection v2

Increase the power of Vue 7, 7.5, and 8 with over 90 MetaNode tools and enhancements. Tools are accessible through the Function Editor right click menus. Or you can use the new Host node. With the host node you can copy any node, or groups of nodes and paste them into your functions or graphs.

DESCRIPTION
What's a MetaNode?

A MetaNode (meta meaning greater, or larger than) is how Vue groups functions and graph setups into one controllable node. MetaNodes can range from a simple numeric entry to extremely advanced control setups. Everything you see in the function editor is node, a way to calculate and transmit data.

What's new in v2.0?

Version 2, now called snowFlaKe, adds 48 primary MetaNodes to the collection - more than doubling the collection. Setups and helpers have also been added, and are available for v1.5 users as well; however v1.5 users will not receive further updates to this node group.

snowFlake includes some very powerful tools to Vue, including:

• Advanced Sphere Zone
• Camera Orbiter
• Camera Master Controller
• Dynamic Range Controller
• 11 Terrain / Fractal or Noise Filters
• Fractal / Terrain Mixer
• Function Preview Scalar
• Matte Painter and Matte Painter - 2Layer
• Vector Lock - Vector Lock 3x3

A few workarounds and fixes for current bug/limitations have also been added; these include:

• NGOS (Numeric Graph Output Saver) NGOS - Sender | NGOS - Receiver
• NGOC - SR (Numeric Graph Output Correction) Sender / Receiver
• Terrain Size Linker