Planet Blender

SSS journey coming to an end
Blender Minutes - 2010-09-23 22:16:26

This post marks the end in my various experiments and explorations to get a fairly plausible skin for Ara.

The result you see above is based on the 3 Layer SSS approach. Ben Simonds does a a very good explanation on this topic.

In the comments section of Ben’s post are some interesting links to papers giving quite a  good insight into this problematic area.

The basic setup as described in Ben’s post is here too, but after a lot of experimentation I expanded the nodes a bit:

• I use an additional sss mask for blending a sss version of the subdermal sss layer with a non-sss one. This gave me better control for applying the sss effect.
• I modified the specular term by simulating a type of fresnel specularity. In my opinion this made a huge difference in the skins appearance.

It also took quite some time to develop a workflow for texture painting. I did a basic material setup in blender 2.5x with the 3 layers as texture slots and using the same mode as in the original material setup. Using GLSL materials I could than texture paint relatively easy.

But due to the fact that the 3 layers are combined using the screen mixing mode it took some practise to find the right colors to use. To have at least a bit of a non-destructive workflow, I used various layers for the skin details.

Interestingly the biggest problem in the end was to apply the brow texture. Usually you have a texture map with just the brows painted on an alpha only map. As texture layer you just mix it with 100% on top of the other textures. With the multi material setup where all the layers are cumulative I did not find a way to do this easily.

The node setup right now demonstrates for me that this approach is working. On my todo list for the skin shader is:

• convert all color operations to a linear workflow correct version (screen -> add, …)
• clean up the huge amount of work done by all the extra texture layers by combining them into one or baking normal maps.

The image shown above was rendered at 75% of the final resolution ( 1920×1080) and was slightly over my limit of 3 min per frame ( 3:15). I hope to reduce the render time with some of the cleanups mentioned above, but the biggest part took the hair anyway (~2 min).

I have to confess, that I may have overdone it here in regard to realistic display. I have to render a shot to see if the animation doesn’t look too clumsy now, in which case I even might consider tuning down the skin shader.

And btw, if anyone is wondering, the lashes are still missing.

New rig project
The lowlander's Weblog - 2010-09-23 20:41:47

I haven’t posted anything in a while, which is mostly because I have been busy with work/family/other hobbies/blahblah. But I’ve also been working on this: I have broken open my previous lowpoly rig, and started to rebuild it. I have a kickass rig which is basically ready to use, and has loads of features, while [...]

Blenderart Mag Issue #29 now available
BlenderArt Magazine - 2010-09-23 19:29:16

Welcome to Issue #29, “Industrial Revolution”

Issue 29 is all about machines and gadgets, and since there is no time like the present, let’s get this “Industrial Revolution” started.

So grab your copy today.
Also be sure to check out our gallery of wonderful images submitted by very talented members of our community.

Table of Contents:

• Creating Blender icons for Adobe Flash
• Creating a Forklift
• Rigging an Assembly Line Robot
• Building a Steampunk Engine
• Modeling a Steam Punk USB Flash Drive
• DarkBiome
• Advanced Py Drivers
• Alternative Realities: Steampunk and Dieselpunk

And Lot More…

* Reminder: Submissions for Issue #30 due October 5^th,

Call for Content

Blenderart Mag Issue #29 now available
ThruDreamsgate's Blog - 2010-09-23 19:29:01

Welcome to Issue #29, “Industrial Revolution”  Issue 29 is all about machines and gadgets, and since there is no time like the present, let’s get this “Industrial Revolution” started. So grab your copy today. Also be sure to check out our gallery of wonderful images submitted by very talented members of our community. Table of [...]

The Ian Report #512 - Feedback, ack, ack!
Ian Hubert's Posts - Project London - 2010-09-23 18:10:41

Feedback and thoughts of all different varieties are still trickling in from the test screening a couple weeks ago. There are some totally brilliant suggestions, and we're currently weighing the pros of the ideas against the cons of the work it'll take to implement 'em. There are a couple ideas that are huge plot-altering beauties, and it's a tricky line to walk.

It's actually an interesting concept. Take a film which is considered complete, then subject it to a bunch of brilliant critique, and it will just keep evolving into a more and more developed and (hopefully) improved film. The flexibility of a movie with minimal tweaks is proving to be pretty amazing.

The biggest goal, of course, is getting the whole picture locked so that sound design can really start!

So! We'll see how that goes.

Ian Hubert
Writer Director

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Premiere schedule
Sintel, the Durian Open Movie Project - 2010-09-23 13:25:26

If you visit the premiere in Utrecht, monday 27 september, here’s the schedule:

19:15h Team arrives for original Red Carpet event at Rembrandt theatre. Screaming fans and flashing cameras welcome!
19:30h Short intro of film by me.
19:33h Sintel screening
19:48h I call the makers to the front for a round of applause
19:50h Start of main film “Happily ever after” (“Lang en gelukkig”)

21:15h Everyone welcome to join with team in the Festival Pavilion,  close-by on Neude.

-Ton-

Implications of social media - Examining past footprints
Aligorith's Lair - 2010-09-23 12:01:00

BlenderVen + BlenderPro
malefico's spot - 2010-09-23 11:36:09

First two weeks of October I’ll be visiting Venezuela and Brazil in two important Blender events.

BlenderVen 2010 is the first Blender conference held in Venezuela, organized by my friends at Macuare Producciones, whom I was working last year . This year Pablo won’t make it (busy with Sintel) but I’ll see Daniel Salazar and other talented pals like Carlos Morcy Morcillo, whom I personally met in the latest Blendiberia.

At BlenderVen I’ll be talking about film production using FLOSS, talking about my experience with Mercator Project and Sintel and I will also give a character rigging workshop.

Afterwards I’ll be heading to Fortaleza, Brazil to be part of BlenderPro 2010, the brazilian Blender conference !

I’ll be in BlenderPro for a couple days talking again about Mercator Project and what we did at Licuadora Studio for Sintel (ex Durian Project).

And then come back home to take a breath and prepare for B-Conf… but that’s another story

BlenderVen + BlenderPro
malefico's spot - 2010-09-23 11:26:08

Las primeras dos semanas de Octubre estaré visitando Venezuela y Brasil en dos eventos blendereros. BlenderVen 2010 es la primer conferencia de Blender hecha en Venezuela, organizada por mis amigos de Macuare Producciones, con quienes estuvimos el año pasado trabajando juntos. Este año Pablo no puede ir, pero nos reuniremos Daniel Salazar y otros chamos talentosos [...]

Sintel Release Expected Thursday, September 30th
BlenderNation - 2010-09-23 06:07:03

Tension is mounting: in a press release, the Blender Institute has announced that Sintel will be released on line next week Thursday, September 30th. The official movie poster has also been released....

[read the full article on blendernation.com]

Series: Creating a Stylized Dragon – Part 10
Blender Cookie - 2010-09-23 03:51:26

In this multi-part series, I’ll be covering how to box-model a stylized dragon, making heavy use of the various sculpt tools. The texturing will cover creating tangent normal maps and using the “toon shader” to get a nice cel-shaded look. I’ll also go into some intermediate rigging with some nice animations; from walking to pouncing [...]

http://blendercookie.com

Weekly update September 1-21
Freestyle integration into Blender - 2010-09-23 01:27:39

Over the last three weeks, the dev team was working on two things.  One is integration of the new Parameter Editor mode into Blender’s animation system, and the other is a preliminary study on improvement of line drawing quality. When we started adding the new graphical user interface (GUI) component, we had two implementation goals in [...]

Smooth tools expands Blender smoothing
Blender 3D Architect - 2010-09-23 00:04:22

As an architectural visualization artist, we have to work on the design of objects that have a more organic look like furniture. This is a very different type of workflow, that requires skills on tools to add and manage small details. One of those tools in Blender is the Smooth. If you only work on [...] Related posts:

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