Client: AOA Access
Production company: Solutions by Design
Original Concept: Solutions by Design
All Post work by: Sateesh Malla
Music: premiumbeat.com
Particles
Orthia – VTOL – Thesis opening shot
This is the opening shot for my thesis. The full version will be released soon.
The hovercraft (drone machine) was modeled in Maya, textured and lit with Renderman. The background matte painting was done in Photoshop and Nuke. The foreground trees are paint effects in Maya. The final composite was all done using Nuke and some minor fixes in AE.
Tools Used:
Photoshop, Maya, Renderman, Nuke, After Effects
Orthia – Wall Blast Simulation
This is another shot from my thesis – A projectile crashes into the wall leaving a gaping hole with smoke billowing outward.
The brief first part of the shot was done by Chris Messineo, with whom I collaborated with on the thesis.
All of the compositing was done in After Effects. The effects are a combination of live action elements and CG elements. The wall was shattered using a plugin in Maya called Shatter Plus (the best one I’ve used so far). I used another tool that parents the shattered pieces onto particles at the center of each fragment. I wrote some particle expressions to control the behavior to simulate Rigid Bodies. I also created a couple passes of billowing smoke in Houdini.
Tools Used:
Maya, Houdini, After Effects
3D Text shatter – Title Sequence Animation
The 3d text model was fractured using the shatter plus plugin for Maya (it only works in 32-bit). Then I wrote some python to animate the pieces to fly inwards and come back together. Final Composite in After Effects. I also used trapcode form at the end.
Tools Used:
Maya, After Effects
I had some requests for the script that I used to create the animation for the pre-fractured pieces. Here is the python code to do this in Maya. Copy and paste this into the script editor:
import maya.cmds as cmds
import random
foo = cmds.ls ('polySurface*')
print (foo)
for i in foo:
xRand = random.uniform(-50,50)
yRand = random.uniform(-50,50)
zRand = random.uniform(-50,50)
cmds.xform(i, ws=True, r=True, t=(xRand ,yRand ,zRand ), ro=(xRand*10 , yRand*10 , zRand*10 ))
cmds.setKeyframe (i, t='1.0')
for i in foo:
xRand = random.uniform(-10,10)
yRand = random.uniform(-10,10)
zRand = random.uniform(-10,10)
cmds.xform(i, ws=True, t=(0,0,0), ro=(xRand*5, yRand*5, zRand*5))
cmds.setKeyframe (i, t='50.0')
for i in foo:
cmds.xform(i, ws=True, ro=(0,0,0))
cmds.setKeyframe (i, t='60.0')
}Particle Ink – Title Sequence simulation
This was created by emitting a massive number of particles from a texture. Then I used a 3d fluid to push the particles upward – a bit like ink in water, but reversed. Final composite in After Effects. Additional motion blur using rsmb plugin which works really well.
This is actually an intro for my final thesis project called Orthia which will be released later this year.
Tools Used:
Maya, After Effects
Maya Fluids simulation
Another maya fluids simulation – this is a cross between fire and cigarette smoke.
Tools Used:
Maya, After Effects
Maya Fluids – Fire simulation
A fire simulation done with a high resolution Fluid container in Maya. Some re-timing done in post. The particle embers were added later using particular.
Tools Used:
Maya, After Effects
Crazy Donuts – Motion graphics
This animation was done in Houdini. The bouncing effect was created with expressions in VOPS and CHOPS.
Tools Used:
Houdini, After Effects
Hulk – wall blast simulation
This scene is a recreation of a segment from the first Hulk movie trailer. The simulation was done with Maya with particle expressions and some rigid bodies. The main crack on the house was animated manually, along with some of the pieces inside the house flying out.
Tools Used:
Maya, Nuke
Water Fountain Simulation
Screenshots:
A water fountain simulation – this took a long time to get the water to feel right. This was also a few years ago when I still learning Houdini. I used metaballs with a particle fluid sop to create a more elasticity. The pool of water has a ripple sop applied to it.
Tools used:
Houdini, After Effects
The Sky is Falling
Screenshots:
This was my final in a shake compositing class from a few years ago. Unfortunate my footage was bad, so the green screen key was a big challenge – ended up doing a lot of unnecessary roto. I also had to recreate the shadow cast on the wall also. I reshot myself on location and extracted the shadow that way. I guess I was half successful at that. The floor crack, anvil, debris, and smoke simulation was all done with Houdini Rigid Bodies.
Tools Used:
Houdini, Shake
Bee Swarm
Screenshots:
A simulation of a bee swarm – all done using Houdini particles. The background plate is just an image. Final camera shake and composite in AE.
Tools Used:
Houdini, After Effects
Missile Trail
Screenshots:
This is a quick simulation of rockets flying through the air. I used sprites and a custom vex shader in houdini to create the trailing smoke.
Tools used:
Houdini, After Effects
Day to Night – Vegas Reloaded
Screenshots:
This is a still to life or day for night shot. I took a picture on a Vegas trip from a few years ago, and brought it back to life. I didn’t plan on it, but the washed out highlights on the buildings give it somewhat of a sin city feel. Originally I had snow in the foreground that I made using Houdini, but I changed it to rain now (done in Maya). For the sky, I used two images rotating on top of each other to create a more surreal sky scene.
Tools Used:
Shake, Maya, Houdini
Pic Function – Genie
Screenshots:
This was made with Houdini and copy stamping. Actual video footage was mapped onto plane geometry and then some expressions applied to it to extract color and give it a rolling look. Copy stamping was used to replace the points with disc geometry. The final composite was all done in After Effects.
Tools Used:
Houdini, After Effects