10/30/2023 0 Comments Pixar renderman breakdownThe sand dunes were sculpted in Mudbox and the resulting displaced mesh drove the sand generation in Houdini using a Poisson Distribution model. Each sand grain was modeled like the real thing Displacements were the first option for creating the sand, but after many tests, the required displacement detail needed to convey the sand closeups were approximately 36 times the normal displacement map resolution used in production, which made displacements inefficient and started to make sand instancing a viable solution. ![]() No bumps or displacements were used in the grains, just procedurally generated Houdini models. ![]() “Traditionally, we would have used displacement maps and shading tricks to accomplish such an intimate and finely detailed beach,” said Brett Levin, Technical Supervisor on Piper, “but we decided to see what RIS could do.” And they did…the team decided to fill the beach with real grains of sand, all of it…Įvery shot in Piper is composed of millions of grains of sand, each one of them around 5000 polygons. The team was able to light shots and approach shading in a completely physical manner, so much so, “that the approach to many of the usual technical challenges had to be completely different” he adds. “Our initial images with RIS were very promising, the characters and their environments looked integrated, like they belonged in the same world,” said Erik Smitt, Director of Photography on Piper, “We no longer had to approach our shots with per-character lighting rigs in order to create cohesion in the shot, this was very creatively liberating, because we could get close to a finished shot much quicker.” Houdini Viewport Final image Development was done very early on with REYES’ plausible hybrid-raytracer.Īt the time, the team was getting interesting results and traditional shading and lighting methods were beginning to be deployed, such as reliance on displacement maps, shadow maps and point clouds for global illumination and subsurface scattering, but when the team got their hands on RIS they were sold. Piper was also the only short at Pixar which was started in REYES and transitioned into RIS. Piper tells the story of a daring bird who is confronted with a tough problem as it tries to approach it creatively and collaboratively, a fitting parallel for the challenges and solutions the development team faced as they approached the beautiful golden sun-drenched beach of Piper.įor the first time, this project came from Pixar’s tools department, which is in charge of creating the cutting edge technology responsible for the wonderful imagery present in all Pixar films. As with any Pixar film, the focus is on the story, and this is where RenderMan was able to help the artists and the tools development team with the creative edge that the Director needed to tell this remarkable story. ![]() ![]() Piper is the kind of film that elicits disbelief, a film that allows you to admire the beauty of the imagery and yet also marvel at its technical prowess. Story written by guest writer Leif Pedersen, edited by fxguide.
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