David Henion Blog - Radiant VFX

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU

2010-10-12T18:53:00.000-07:00

Ummm, yea - crazy, but crazy cool - just watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuGaqLT-gO4

Updated recommended RAM settings for After Effects CS5

2010-10-11T07:08:00.001-07:00

Check out this article on RAM settings for AE CS5:

http://tiny.cc/75zkb

Very cool.

Digital Domain job fair

2010-10-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

Digital Domain will be having a job fair in Port St Lucie for their new facility there:

http://www.ddhfl.com/

Good luck!

Cool AE/Particular smoke tutorial

2010-08-07T09:14:00.000-07:00

Check out this tutorial to make some nice looking whispy smoke in AE using Particular 2:
put-out-realistic-candle-smoke
Don't worry - if you follow the tutorial the smoke you end up getting looks better than the preview, and with some simple tweaks you can make it more scattered, or more whispy, etc. Enjoy!

I always suspected as much...

2010-07-15T16:13:00.000-07:00

I wouldn't normally put political related posts on here, but it was on the news tonight that Dick Cheney has no pulse..... OMG that's just too funny on so many levels. But, I guess I'm not really all that surprised!

If you read this, say hi

2010-07-09T09:16:00.000-07:00

Just started this blog so not sure how many visitors are reading - if you read this, leave a quick comment - thanks!

New Old Spice commercial

2010-07-01T08:09:00.000-07:00

They've done it again, another very well done, and funny, Old Spice commercial:

Old Spice commercial

This one I think is still mostly practical photography, but this one certainly has some heavy vfx going on. At the very least he had to be wearing a wire rig since he clearly doesn't jump off the falls - so they had to paint out the harness and wires (or can the whole harness fit under his shorts?) Then, the change to pants and boots at the end is either cg replacement on his lower body, or it was a separate take? There's some spots that look fishy - like when the two sections separate at the opening - the shadows under the sections as they move away don't look right - that section may have been composited over a lake background, or maybe they had to paint out some of the rig to carry the sections.

Either way - another fantastic spot!

My Howler at Universal's Wizarding World of Harry Potter

2010-06-28T09:53:00.001-07:00

I love that some people have taken and posted videos of my Howler at Universal's Wizarding World of Harry Potter! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14OEf4JBJkc

I've seen some videos people have taken inside the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride, but they are mostly too dark to see the Floo Network or the Dark Mark, oh well! :)

Simple but useful tool in After Effects

2010-06-22T20:35:00.000-07:00

I've recently discovered a very simple little tool in After Effects that I never noticed before, but now having found it - I'm using it all the time.

Animation -> Keyframe Assistant -> Time Reverse Keyframes

Select a range of keyframes on a layer and it reverses them. I often may animate a layer coming in, and then later may want to have the same animation going out, only in reverse. Even if its as simple as two opacity keyframes its way quicker to copy/paste the keys from the fade in, then just reverse them.

Everyone else on the planet probably already knows about this little tool, but just in case you hadn't noticed it before (like me,) I thought I'd pass it on. :)

Harry Potter attraction at Universal official opening tomorrow

2010-06-17T16:21:00.000-07:00

I must admit to feeling a tiny bit glum about the official opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando tomorrow. I've been working with them for the past 6 months or so to create some of the media you'll see both in the ride and in Hogsmeade village. So, as part of that work I had access into both the village and ride as needed to go in to review media on-site, etc. Although I'm sure there were hundreds of other construction workers, engineers, and artists who had the same access, being part of a comparatively small group of people who had seen (and even ridden the ride) months before the open felt good. Now, it will be open to everyone and will soon be flooded from people all over the world, and alas, my 'special' access is gone. :) But that said, I guess I feel how a playwrite before opening night must feel - wondering how their work will be judged by the public. I look forward to reading people's thoughts on the park and hope to see comments about the small portions that I created. The whole process was a new type of project for me which I very much enjoyed - and to compensate for the loss of my special access, I'll know that now my work will be seen by thousands of guests every day for years to come!

IK for After Effects

2010-06-08T12:45:00.001-07:00

Haven't tried using this yet, but looks cool to add IK to articulated joints in After Effects!

http://duduf.com/ressources/duik/en/index.html

Coolest photos ever

2010-06-08T10:03:00.001-07:00

I don't know what it is about these photos, but they are just amazing:

http://www.nevadasurveyor.com/atomicbomb/

Yay - new software!

2010-06-07T18:07:00.001-07:00

Within the past month or so I've gotten upgrades to the two main software apps I use every day: After Effects and Maya.

First - the After Effects CS5 upgrade is a breath of fresh air. I was in the middle of a large project with long shots (ie: many minutes long each, which after effects doesn't really do well with) and AE CS4 was just killing me with lots of slowness and crashing. I was a little nervous to make a major switch to CS5 mid-project but I was desperate to get better performance. CS5 certainly delivers. Now, finally, being 64bit AE uses system resources much better and has been quick and stable since day one. The only drawback is that you can't use any of your old 32bit plug-ins. So in addition to the cost of the upgrade, you'll have plug-in upgrades as well. Some are free (Video Co-pilot Optical Flares) others are fairly cheap (Trapcode plug-ins.) I'm still waiting for a few plug-in vendors to release 64bit versions, but overall I'm very happy with CS5. Haven't played with many new features, but the tool to bend a layer in 3D space I think will be very handy. The new roto-paint/brush thing looks cool - I imagine it makes for good demos, but we'll see how well it works in practice. I tried it very briefly on some greenscreen footage and I can't say it gave a good result - and that was with a green screen, yikes.

The other major upgrade is Maya 2011. I'm a huge fan and lover of Maya - but I must say this is the first upgrade that I find more frustrating than I find things to like. The new file browser I find cumbersome and slow. There are even more 3DSMax-ish type things creeping in - yea, Max has a lot of nice tools, but the subtle things they are putting in Maya from Max are just annoying. And, still - Maya with a floating license still give you only 5 network licenses for Mental Ray rendering while Max still has unlimited. Guys - you (Autodesk) are licensing the same software (Mental Ray) from the same company (Mental Images) for two of your products (Max and Maya) at very similar price points and feature sets - why such a disparity on Mental Ray licensing?

In the end I haven't really had time to explore the new features in either of these packages yet - but minor annoyances aside, yea - its always fun to get new toys!

Some random inspiration

2010-06-07T18:02:00.000-07:00

Here are some cool spots I had to share if you haven't seen:

I LOVE this spot! Amazing use of color, animated flawlessly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nBbNo92grs

Probably the best seatbelt PSA ever:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-8PBx7isoM

And just a well-done funny spot - no green screen, shot in a single take:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE&feature=channel

And here's a free modeling/sculpting tool - I'm sure not as extensive as ZBrush, but in the 5 minutes I've played with it, its very easy to use and I think would be useful for some quick organic modeling:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DNRg6pdNeE
http://www.sculptris.com/

DMAF Convergence event June 8th

2010-06-07T17:55:00.000-07:00

Next DMAF Convergence event is tomorrow:
310 Lakeside - 301 East Pine Street, Orlando
June 8, 2010 6:30-8:30 pm
See you there!

Blog intro

2010-05-25T06:10:00.001-07:00

Hello all - My name is David Henion, welcome!

I've set up this blog as a way to share info about community events, network, and any other random thoughts I may have on software, the industry, work, or life in general. :)

Please enjoy and feel free to comment.

Thanks for stopping by!