Author: Lauren Brady

This weeks Ornatrix Top Tip comes from our Lead Artist, Scene Dev Tom!

He’s here to share with you some interesting information about Ornatrix that could help you out when it comes to perfecting hair and fur…

You can use multiple stacked OX_surface_comb modifiers masked by the region you want to apply to. There is a tick box for use shape and for use direction. Using several of these modifiers with direction turned off but shape on allows you to assign different hair curves (flat, tufty, etc) to different areas. Finally put an OX_surface_comb modifier at the top with only direction ticked to use the sinks to comb the direction of your hair.

Note:  The shape graphs on the comb modifier are additive, so if you overlap them they will flatten hair more.

 

 

As the trusted partner for world-renowned games companies for over 20 years, we have the experience, expertise and passion to deliver engaging and immersive trailers for upcoming releases.

With specialist creative teams working with the latest CGI tools, we create cutting-edge visual communications that captivate audiences, engage viewers and inspire belief. Whether it’s an online marketing trailer or TV commercial, we’ll create fantastic digital worlds that deliver tangible real life results.

Through individual and team expertise, our highly adaptive production pipelines add efficiency, quality and transparency to our creative processes.

This week’s Top Tip comes from one of our Lead Artists, Graham Collier!Here are a few methods that we use for pre-fracturing geometry before a rigid body simulation. I have included the Houdini scene file to help you get started, and you can also download the latest non-commercial edition of Houdini from here.

1. The simplest method of fracturing geometry is to scatter points on the surface of your geometry and then plug these points into a Voronoi fracture node.
2. A better method, if you want nicer internal fracturing, is to use an ISOoffset node to convert your geometry into a volume and then you can scatter your points into this volume. You can then plug these points into your Voronoi fracture node.
3. If you want to create long fragments like wood splinters you can do this by simply adding a scale node before the fracture and then shrink the geometry along one axis. Then you invert this transformation afterwards.
4. If you want more interesting fractures then use the Voronoi fracture points node. This lets you create controlled areas of detailed fractures. Each point going into the node will create multiple points within a fracture radius. Switch on Visualise Points to see the point clusters before you fracture the geometry.
5. Adding displacement to your geometry before fracturing will help break up the straight lines that Voronoi makes. You can use a rest node to save the original point positions and then add noise with a pointvop or mountain node. After the fracturing you can move the points back to their original non displaced positions by binding the rest Attribute back to the position in a pointVOP.
6. Use interior detail on the Voronio fracture node to create more interesting internal detail to your fractured geometry.

And here’s a video showing you the fracturing in action:

You may have previously heard that we’re going to be sponsoring this year’s TIGA Awards. If you have, you’ll probably know that we’re pretty excited to be doing so. And that’s partly to do with the amazing, super awesome, brick-tastic idea that we have been creatively brewing for our table gifts (which we hope that you’re excited to be receiving too).

You’re probably thinking… ‘But Jess, what is this amazing, super awesome, brick-tastic idea that you are talking about?’ Well I’ll take you all the way back to the beginning…

Once upon a time, at the start of September… The RealtimeUK Marketing Department congregated around the ‘great boardroom table’ to try and come up with the ultimate award evening table gift. It was much like the meeting of ‘The Fellowship’, but with less people.

We debated what makes a great gift; practicality, shininess, collectability… but one word kept coming to mind- fun. And from fun we found colourful blocks of joy… Lego.

But Lego alone wasn’t enough. We felt like we needed the statement scarf to match our already chic outfit. Fortuitously, it was at that moment that we found out about the success of our Jurassic World Evolution trailer – Dinosaurs!

The RealtimeUK Lego Challenge was born.

On the night of the TIGA Awards we’ll be placing a giant brick on each of your tables. Much like a Russian nesting doll, the giant brick will be filled with lots of regular sized bricks. And this is where you’ll come in.

We’re challenging you to get creative, to let your imaginations run wild; by creating the greatest Lego dinosaur known to man, and reptile alike.

It’s a big ask, I know. And that’s why we have been busy making these informative yet cute videos of the RealtimeUK Dinos being built. Let me introduce you to our resident Dinos;

 

Meet Darius: The dotty Diplodocus. He is a keen train spotter, loves drinking hazelnut lattes and wearing odd socks.

 

 

Meet Jeff: The short tempered but warm hearted T-Rex. Jeff loves reading Nordic spy novels, doing some *rad* stunts on his skateboard, but he also knows how important it is to relax with a Bublé Bath.

 

 

Meet Susie: The cheerful Triceratops. She likes laughing, watching Criminal Minds and participating in bi-monthly tug of war contests.

 

 

Meet Greg: The chill Stegosaurus. He’s a big fan of David Attenborough, a proud Ravenclaw, and he is also a strong believer in the theory that Keanu Reeves is an immortal.

 

They’re going to be up to quite a lot over the next week; meeting Stormtroopers, going on hobbit like adventures and even playing a bit of FIFA. You can follow their adventures over on our Twitter page.

You can build one of the RealtimeUK Dinos or you can go off-piste and do your own thing. Either works for us.

But whatever you do, we want to see your masterpieces! You can do that by tagging the pictures with our marvellous hashtag #RTUKLegoChallege over social media platforms, where we’ll be eagerly awaiting to see what you have created.

Not attending the awards? Don’t worry. Gather together your own brick supplies and make some fabulous dinosaurs, and send them to us with the hashtag. The more Dinos the better.

TIGA Awards here we come!