Patreon

USD in depth, part 03 /  by Xuan Prada

Hello patrons!

USD in depth part 03 is here. This is where the action starts to happen.
We will spend around 3 hours in Houdini Solaris talking about asset creation.

I have a bunch of different scenarios that you will face while working with USD and assets. From very simple assets to more complicated ones with multiple variations for geometry and lookdev.

While exploring all the different options, we will create a re-usable template that you can use to standardize all your assets very quickly. We will also take a look at the component builder provided with the latest versions of Solaris that can also help you to prototype assets quickly.

As I said, about 3 hours of professional USD content that I'm hoping it can be useful for you when dealing with USD in the future.

This is the third video in a row about USD. Still a bunch of videos left to cover everything that I want to cover about USD at this point. But I'm thinking that we should take a break from USD in the next video. I know not everyone is super keen to learn USD (but you should!). I was planning to do one or two videos about professional photogrammetry, covering cross polarization and multiple cameras setup, surface scanning for PBR materials, drone photogrammetry and photometric capturing. Let me know what you think.

All the info on my Patreon site.

Thanks!

Xuan.

USD in depth, part 02 /  by Xuan Prada

Hello patrons,

USD in depth part 02 is here.
This is another dense video, about 3 hours long talking about USD.
In the first video we talked about data and structuring, in this second video we will be talking about composition in USD.

USD layers can be written and read in different ways, it is very important to know how to use the different composition arcs, specifiers, and everything else that composes a USD file. This will dictate the way you structure your assets and your whole USD pipeline.

Another heavy video, so be patient and drink coffe, you will need both.

All the info on my Patreon.

Thanks!
Xuan.

USD in depth, part 01 /  by Xuan Prada

Hello Patrons,

I'm starting a new series called "USD in depth", where I will be exploring everything USD related. As you probably know USD is a new standard pipeline system/file format based on layers that contain scene descriptions. It is supported by the VFX platform and is or will be the core of many visual effects studios and animation companies around the globe.

In this first video (more than 3 hours) we will be talking about what defines USD. Type of data, USD structure, terminology, attributes and layers. This is a very dense video, so grab a pot of coffee and enjoy.

All the info on my Patreon.

Thanks,
Xuan.

Deep compositing - going deeper /  by Xuan Prada

Hello patrons,

This is a continuation of the intro to deep compositing, where we go deeper into compositing workflows using depth.

I will show you how to properly use deep information in a flat composition, to work fast and efficient with all the benefits of depth data but none of the caveats.

The video is more than 3 hours long and we will explore:

- Quick recap of pros and cons of using deep comp.
- Quick recap of basic deep tools.
- Setting up render passes in a 3D software for deep.
- Deep holdouts.
- Organizing deep comps.
- How to use AOVs in deep.
- How to work with precomps.
- Creating deep templates.
- Using 3D geometry in deep.
- Using 2D elements in deep.
- Using particles in deep.
- Zdepth using depth information.

Thanks for your support!
Head over to my Patreon for all the info.

Xuan.

Mix 04 /  by Xuan Prada

Hello patrons,

First video of 2022 will be a mix of topics.

The first part of the video will be dedicated to talk about face building and face tracking in Nuke. Using these tools and techniques will allow us to generate 3D heads and faces using only a few photos with the help of AI. Once we have the 3D model, we should be able to track and matchmove a shot to do a full head replacement or to extend/enhance some facial features.

In the second part of the video I will show you a technique that I used while working on Happt Feet to generate foot prints and foot trails. A pretty neat technique that relies on transferring information between surfaces instead of going full on with complex simulations.

This is a 3.30 hours video, so grab yourself a cup of coffee and enjoy!
All the information on my Patreon channel.

As always, thanks for your support!

Xuan.

Scan based materials on a budget /  by Xuan Prada

Hello patrons,

Last post of the year!

In this two and half hours video I will show you my workflow to create smart materials based on photogrammetry. A technique wideky used in VFX and the game industry.

But we won't be using special hardware or very expensive photographic equipment, we are going to be using only a cheap digital camera or even a smartphone.

In this video you will learn:

- How to shoot photogrammetry for material creation.
- How to process photogrammetry in Reality Capture.
- How to bake textures maps from high resolution geometry in Zbrush.
- How to create smart materials in Substance Designer for Substance Painter or for 3D applications.
- How to use photogrammetry based materials in real time engines.

Thanks for your support and see you in 2022!
Stay safe.

Xuan.

Dealing with lidars /  by Xuan Prada

Hello patrons,

We haven't talked that much about lidar scanning, and it is time to say a few words about it. Lidar scans are a fundamental piece of the VFX pipeline, used by every single visual effects studio on the planet and counted by dozens on every film or tv show.

Sooner or later you would have to deal with lidar scans, that's why I have recorded this video, more than 3 hours of professional vfx training about how to use lidars scans.

In this video we will learn:

- What is lidar scanning.
- How we use lidars in VFX.
- How lidar technology works.
- Basics of working on-set with lidars.
- Lidar hardware.
- Lidar software.
- How to process point clouds.
- How to generate meshes for 3D work.

All the information on my Patreon feed.

Thanks!

Xuan.

Deep compositing /  by Xuan Prada

Hello patrons,

In this 2 hour video we are going to be talking about deep compositing workflows.

I will show you how to use deep compositing and why you should be using it for most of your shots.
I will explain the basics behind deep rendering and compositing techniques and also we'll go through all the deep tools available in Nuke while comping some simple shots. From volumes and atmospheric effects to solid assets.

Video and downloadable material will be included in the next posts.
All the information on my Patreon.

Thanks for your support!

Xuan.

Lookdev rig for Houdini /  by Xuan Prada

Hello patrons,

In this video I show you how to create a production ready lookdev rig for Houdini, or what I like to call, a single click render solution for your lookdevs.

It is in a way similar to the one we did for Katana a while ago, but using all the power and flexibility of Houdini's HDA system.

Talking about HDA's, I will be introducing the new features for HDA's that come with Houdini 18.5.633 that I think are really nice, specially for smaller studios that don't have enough resources to build a pipeline around HDA's.

By the end of this video you should be able to build your own lookdev tool and adapt it to the needs of your projects.

We'll be working with the latest versions of Houdini, Arnold and ACES.

As usually, the video starts with some slides where I try to explain why building a lookdev rig is a must before you do any work on your project, don't skip it, I know it is boring but very much needed. Downloadable material will be attached in the next post.

Thank you very much for your support!

Head over to my Patreon feed.

Xuan.

Small dynamic clouds /  by Xuan Prada

Hello,

I don't think I will be able to publish a video this month, let's see, but in the meantime here you can download five caches of small dynamic clouds that I simulated in Houdini.
They are a 1000 frames simulation and should work pretty good to create vast cloudscapes.

They are .bgeo caches, feel free to convert them to .vdb if you want to use them in any other software.


The videos below are flipbooks of the animated clouds, not renders.

The downloadable link will be published in the next post.
This is free of charge for all tiers with downloadable resources.

Thanks,
Xuan.

Mix 03 /  by Xuan Prada

Hello patrons,

This month I have another mix video for you. In this case I'm talking about two different ways of using the camera frustum to optimize your scenes. The first method is using the camera frustum to control the amount of subdivisions, a very common practice when dealing with large terrains that need a lot of displacement detail. We will use Houdini and Arnold, but this technique can be used in any DCC that supports Arnold. Other renderers have similar features.

The second method will use the camera frustum to blast parts of the scene not seeing by the camera. This is a tool that we will build in Houdini and can be used with any render engine.

Then we will move to another important topic in VFX, motion blur. I will show you how to use it properly to achieve photo realism. Motion blur should be taken very siriously, specially by lighters and FX TD's.

All the information on my Patreon.

Thanks!
Xuan.

Camera projection masterclass, episode 03 /  by Xuan Prada

Hello patrons,

I'm about to post "Camera projection masterclass, episode 03".
In this episode we are going to create a nested projection setup, where the camera is moving from far away at the begining of the shot, to end up closer to the subject by the end of the shot. A very common setup that you will see a lot in matte painting and environment tasks.

Then, we are going to take a look at the concept of overscan for camera projection. I will show you different ways of creating overscan, I will explain why overscan is extremely important for all your camera projection setups, and finally we will do a complex overscan camera projection exercise, using an impossible camera.

Make a big pot of black cofee because this is around 5 hours of professional training divided in two videos. Oh and remember that you can download supporting files if your tier includes downloadable material.

All the info on my patreon feed.

Thanks!
Xuan.

Houdini scatterers 2/2 /  by Xuan Prada

Hello patrons,

This is the second (and last) part of Houdini scatterers. We are going to take the tools that we made in the first video and see how we can use them to create complex and efficient scattering systems for your VFX shots, specially useful when dealing with huge environments.

I will show you some of my favourite worflows and share some techniques that I've used in the past in combination with the HDAs that we created in this series.

For those of you in tiers with downloadable material, you will have access to another post with some links to get the files.

As usual feel free to contact me with questions, suggestions, ideas, etc.
And if you like my content, please help me out and recommend it to you work mates.

All the info on my Patreon feed.

Thanks a lot for your suppor!
Xuan.

Real time rendering for vfx, episode 04 /  by Xuan Prada

Happy New Year!

Real time rendering for vfx episode 04 is here!
This is a long one, around 4 hours split in two different videos, both of them available already for you.

In these two videos I cover a lot of things related with lighting and rendering in Unreal. We will cover all the rendering methods, rasterization, raytracing, hybrid rendering and path tracing.

Some of the topics covered in this video are:

- Rendering methods in Unreal.
- Lightmass.
- Type of lights.
- Volumetric lighting.
- Modulate lighting.
- Global illumination.
- Mesh lights.
- Reflection methods.
- Post processing volumes.
- Particles lighting.
- Blueprints for lighting.
- Light function.
- Core components of a lighting scene.
- Neutral lighting conditions.
- Rasterization.
- Raytracing.
- Hybrid methdos.
- Path tracing.

All the info on my Patreon.

Simple spatial lighting /  by Xuan Prada

Hello patrons,

I'm about to release my new video "Simple spatial lighting". Here is a quick summary of everything we will be covering. The length of this video is about 3 hours.

- Differences between HDRIs and spatial lighting.
- Simple vs complex workflows for spatial lighting.
- Handling ACES in Nuke, Mari and Houdini.
- Dealing with spherical projections.
- Treating HDRIs and practical lights.
- Image based modelling.
- Baking textures in Arnold/Maya.
- Simple look-dev in Houdini/RenderMan.
- Spatial lighting setup in Houdini/RenderMan.
- Slap comp in Nuke.

Thanks,
Xuan.

Head over my Patreon site to access this video and many more.

Houdini scatterers, part 1/2 /  by Xuan Prada

Hello patrons,

This new video is part of the "little project" I made in Houdini and Redshift a while ago. In this part 1 of 2 video I show you how to create efficient tools in Houdini to deal with scattering, specifically focusing on environments. We are going to create a setup that takes care of randomization while using scattering techniques. Random rotation, random scale, random assets, etc.

Once the setups are done we are going to create tools or "digital assets" so you can re-use these tools as many times as you need in future porjects without re-doing the setups. We will create an interactive user interface to manipulate the tools.

In part 2 of this video I will show you different scattering techniques using these tools that we are going to build today.

The video is available on my Patreon site.

Thanks for your support!
Xuan.

Real time rendering for vfx, episode 03 /  by Xuan Prada

Hello patrons,

Real time rendering for vfx episode 03 is here!
In this episode we will spend around two and a half hours inside Unreal talking about textures, materials, shaders and everything related to the material system.

Some of the topics we are going to cover.

- How to work with textures.
- Shading models.
- Using instances and exposing parameters.
- Fresnel effect.
- Emission.
- Transmission.
- Opacity.
- Multi-channel masks.
- Modulate.
- Displacement.
- Vertex shading.

All the information on my Patreon feed.

Thanks again for your support!
Xuan.

Camera projection masterclass, episode 02 /  by Xuan Prada

Hello Patrons,

Camera projection masterclass, episode 02 is here! In this video, we are going to be doing two different exercises involving camera projection work in Nuke. The first exercise is a simple one, but also one you'll be doing all the time, a layering camera projection.

The second exercise is a more complex one, we'll be dealing with multiple geometries, different footage, and different approaches to set up our camera projection setup, this will be a coverage projection exercise.

More than two hours of content, also providing working files for you to practice.

As always, I can't thank you enough for your support.

Questions, suggestions, and critiques are always welcome.

All the info on my Patreon site.

Thanks!
Xuan.

Real time rendering for vfx, episode 02 /  by Xuan Prada

Hello Patrons,

It's been a while since I posted a video here. I did a little bit of traveling (not for fun though) and I've been super busy at work, but I finally managed to put something together for you guys.

Episode 2 of "real-time rendering for VFX". This episode is boring, really boring but also very much needed. If you really want to get into real-time rendering you need to go through everything that I explain in this video. I will cover very important topics that you need to know before starting to create any content for real-time.

Concepts like occlusion, overshading stages, lightmapping, vertex shading, distance culling, rasterization, and many other fancy terms that you necessarily need to understand. This video is almost 5 hours long so I hope you don't fall asleep and learn a few things to put in practice soon.

As usual, please let me know if you have any questions, concerns, suggestions, feedback, etc. And also, thank you very much again for your support.

Right now we are 199 patrons, let's get up to 200 and do something to celebrate it.

All the information on my Patreon site.