Art of Destruction (or Art of Blowing Crap Up) Destruction pipelines today are key aspects of any major visual effects pipeline. Many current pipelines are based on Rigid Body Simulations (RBS) or otherwise referred to as Rigid Body Dynamics (RBD), but a new solution – Finite Element Analysis (FEA) – is beginning to emerge. In this ‘Art Of’ article, we talk to some of the major visual effects studios – ILM, Imageworks, MPC, Double Negative and Framestore – about how they approach their destruction toolsets. In VFX and CGI, RBS is most often relevant to the subdivision of objects due to collision or destruction, but unlike particles, which move only in three space and can be defined by a vector, rigid bodies occupy space and have geometrical properties, such as a center of mass, moments of inertia, and most importantly they can have six degrees of freedom (translation in all three axes plus rotation in three directions).
The ‘explosion’ in destruction tools A scene from '2012', visual effects by Digital Domain. Another scene from 2012. The Science of Fluid Sims. Fluid sims have become such a vital part of so many visual effects films, yet are not well understood by most general artists. We try and explain the science behind the fluid sims, and look at one in particular closely: Naiad, with help from our friends at Exotic Matter. Introduction One of the most significant and commonly requested areas of real world simulation is fluid simulation. From pouring shots to ocean vistas, directors and artists have come to rely on computer simulated water and similar fluids. Fluid dynamics is a complex area and fluid simulations are notoriously computationally expensive, yet when they work they can provide magnificent production value and breathtaking visual effects. Fluid sims are not confined to just fluids either, they can be used to achieve fire and flames - the fluid being simulated in this scenario is the air itself (a gas).
Fluid simulations (fluid sims) have many applications outside visual effects. History - Watch Jerry Tessendorf talk at TED. Ryan Hurd | FX Portfolio. Tutorials | A Pile Of Grains. This post will try to explain how to write and install your own VEX DSO plugin for Houdini, written in C++. The included example project creates a plugin called VexImageReader. This plugin can be used to read all sorts of images, including psd and dds files.
The reader can be used in all vex context layers and is added as a function called: readimage. The function takes as input arguments a U and V coordinate, an input string (image name) and a wrap mode. By calling the function Houdini evaluates the image at that specific coordinate and returns an interpolated color value (RGBA). Before we start, download the necessary files right HERE. As mentioned above, I included the compiled plugin. The code should be cross-platform compatible. Notes on compiling the VexImageReader DSO Compiling a VEX DSO is pretty much the same as compiling any other DSO. After compiling the project VexImageReader.dll should be stored in the Output directory specified for the project. Famous Last Words Links. Houdini Ocean Toolkit for H12 at Christian Schnellhammer . TD Blog.
Houdini Documentation. Houdini - Explosions (R&D-01) Fx & Hair Demoreel_2011. BlackHawk_VFX_Sequence 2011. PQ Houdini Tutorial.