New and Improved version of my Lip Synch

New and Improved version of my Lip Synch
Tell me what you think  :)
Higher Quality link: https://vimeo.com/145836061

Beastly 3D CGI History

Came accross this piece of CGI history: a pencil test for the(?) first scene where Disney used a 3D CGI background in an animated feature.

Beauty and the Beast (1991) dance sequence rough animation pencil tests by James Baxter from Living Lines Library on Vimeo.

Soft Shadows

As you know, you can render soft shadows from a spotlight using shadow maps in stead of ray traced shadows. By increasing the filter size you can blur the shadow.

The downside to shadow maps is that they do not support transparency, as only a single depth value can be stored per pixel (the distance to the closest object). Here is a rendering with a single spotlight using shadow mapped shadows, rendered using Maya 2015 (Metal Ray version 3.12.1.18)

Image my surprise when in class last week, when explaining how shadow maps work, they seemed to support transparency. Here is the same scene rendered with the same settings in Maya 2016 (Mental Ray version 3.13.1.9):

It turns out that if you switch the shadow map format to Detailed Shadow Map you get the same result in Maya 2015. From the Mental Ray manual:

Mental ray also supports an advanced detail shadowmap algorithm that collects and stores more information about shadow-casting objects. It combines features of standard shadow maps and ray traced shadows. It will call shadow shaders if present, thus capturing even custom shadowing effects. Since shadow shaders return transparencies, detail shadowmaps do not store a single depth value, but a sequence of depth values together with the light transmission coefficients at each depth.

So you can have the best of both worlds! Well, it seems you currently cannot use regular shadow maps in Maya 2016, changing the shadow map type setting has no effect…

Klaus teaser ©2015 Sergio Pablos Animation Studios, S.L. & ANTENA 3 FILMS, S.L.U. All rights reserved from The SPA Studios on Vimeo.

Jiggle It

Ptex

I have been talking about pTex in class but have not been able to show it. I have it working at home on my PC no problem but not have been able to get anything but a black render on my Mac. Here is a movie explaining the technique developed as Disney Animation.

Pixar exhibit in NYC

Wired: Perfecting Pixar’s Movies Takes a Crazy Amount of Research.

Via Marla Schweppe (RIT), FB