Breakdowns

PURA - THE SHORT MOVIE

Recently Started working for a Short movie named "Pura" Directed by TDK Siva Kumar.

The movie is Still in initial stage of the shoot.Its an Fantasy Plot which got Lots of scope to explore and scale my knowledge in the area of FX.
I will be mostly contributing in developing the FX elements for the movie. Will be using this page to update the happening of the movie.

Stay Tuned ......

On the Set :

Flocking / Crowd System

 My first Task is to develop a Flocking system which can be used as a asset in various shots of the movie.

Task:

1.Flocking / Crowd System.
2.It should be developed as an asset to avoid re-working on each shot.
3.Should be flexible for creative changes.
4.Easy to integrate into Pipeline.
5.Cost effective
    - Integration into existing Pipeline
    - Time required for research and Development
    - Time Required for Training artist

  
Flocking Requirement :
1.Populate
2.Follow specified Path.
3.Morph from one shape to other 2D and 3D .
4.Integration with Rigid Body and Particles.
5.As it involves some close up Shots ,I thought it should have some decent amount of collision avoidance.
6.Obstacle avoidance.
7.Adding additional effects for crowd like Dust ,Cloth ,Fur and Hair in procedural fashion.

Choosing the Right tool:

Based on the above requirement i started to explore the right tool to meet the requirement.


Softimage :

I am not a softimage user but one of my friend suggested me about the new features of crowdFX in softimage.

http://www.mootzoid.com/wb/pages/softimagexsi/emflock2.php


Definitely it was outstanding.

But I was not comfortable and my knowledge is limited with it as it will take some time to explore the ICE Module and to make something out of it.

So didnt go further deep into it.

Houdini : Procedural

I have been using Houdini for the past 3 Years.Possibilities in Houdini is not Limited  if you understand it well.
Still i am in Learning phase to Master this great Tool.I Learnt a lot about this Tool during my tenure with Double Negative.

So for this flocking system I am planning to go with Houdini as it will help me achieve the Task,But before
Taking the final call want to explore the possibilities in Maya.

Maya :

I have been using Maya for the last 6 years to create FX elements.I am a great fan of Maya too. But it got its own restriction.And for this huge Task Maya might / may not be the right tool without Third party plugin support / without writing our own Plugin as I need more creative control.

Example : http://www.basefount.com

Recently I came to know about the crowd plugin for Maya called Miarmy.

So thought of giving it a Try before taking the final call.

After exploring the website I decided to try out 3 Test Based on the requirement of the Project.

1.Morphing of crowd in 3D Space
2.Rigid Body Interaction
3.Integration with Pipeline

So will be doing the Test on the above three Requirement and Post the WIP on this Blog.