Author: Lauren Brady

After four weeks of hard work; Joe, Dani and Flora have successfully graduated from the first REALTIME Academy!

They have each gained invaluable industry experience at our Lancashire studio, working alongside world renowned artists, preparing them for life outside of the lecture theatre. The academy offered a perfect opportunity to dip their toes into the pool of professional artistry, and a “peak into the real world” (which they found isn’t all that scary).

During their time here, they were briefed with a challenge to test both their creative and technical skills. Joe, Dani and Flora had to create an environment that intrigued the viewer, which would then force them to ask a question. Each environment also had to feature a hero asset, a vignette set around the hero asset, a digital matte projection and two atmospheric FX elements. One of our Senior Artists, Chris Scubli, responded to seeing their final pieces; “The best part was seeing how each of them reacted differently to the same brief.” You can see the impressive results below.

It’s brilliant to see how much they enjoyed their time here, and how they are keen to recommend their experiences to others looking to develop their skill set. As Dani from Hertfordshire University said, “It’s a very good experience in terms of being in a studio with actual professionals around you. I think that it’s the best way to learn.”

It’s not just the students who are benefiting from the academy though. Our Recruitment Manager, Pete Leonard, has found that the responses from the universities themselves has been excellent. He hopes to develop further collaborative strategies with more educational institutions in the future.

We can’t wait to host some more incredible talent at next year’s REALTIME Academy.

Make sure you follow us on our Twitter and Facebook pages so you don’t miss out on any amazing opportunities.

 

 

This weeks Top Tip on Houdini substeps comes from our very own Graham Collier!

Houdini – Substeps!!!

When running simulations with Houdini substeps, it’s always a good idea to check if your emitter and collision object are setup correctly.

Under Global animation options, switch off Integer Frame Values. Now you can scrub through subframes in the viewport.

Switch on Display point trails in the viewport to check your velocities.

No velocities on your animated geo? Then try using a trail SOP set to Compute Velocity. If your point count is changing and you have IDs then switch on Match by Attribute and set it to id.

If your geo is not updating during substeps then try using a Timeblend SOP. This can be used to compute fractional positions within a frame.

If you have deforming collision geometry, then make sure you have Re-evaluate SOPs to Interpolate Geometry switch on. You can switch on the Collision guide geo to check it updates.

 

Take a look what Graham had to say about his latest VFX work in SMITE:

 

 

 

 

BRINGING THE DIGITAL WORLD TO LIFE

With seamless visual effects, cutting edge in-game cinematics and compelling storytelling, we help immerse gamers in fantastical digital worlds. Our cutting-edge visuals and engaging storytelling can set moods, create emotional connections and drive a storyline forward – all while helping to bring digital worlds to life. This can be combined with character design, helping to inspire belief further and turn players into fans.

As well as pre-rendered footage, we also deliver in-engine, live action and 2.5D solutions; all created by the same highly skilled team. Our highly adaptive production pipelines ensure an efficient, high quality and transparent creative process.

Please get in touch with Callum if you have any questions on how we can help you, [email protected]

 

Houdini Top Tip – This week’s REALTIME Top Tip we had a question posted on our YouTube Channel asking how we got the mud to flick from the wheels on our latest Farm Simulator trailer.

Adrian Vickers kindly answered this one for us!

“It was done in Houdini using pops. The wheel geometry was used as an emitter with the points stuck to it. These points then get passed onto another group by random age which then fly off using a custom velocity setup. This velocity setup enables them to fly off the back as they get flicked off and fall at the front of the wheel. It also affects how far they get flicked sideways. The mud then collides with basic tractor geometry and the ground. Using a copy sop random mud geometry was then copied onto the points using basic stamp functions for random sizing, rotation, etc. We were also able to lift the geometry up or down using an attribute vop based on the pscale attribute. This was then exported back into 3dsMax via V-Ray alembic and rendered.”

Take a look at the trailer and VFX breakdown by clicking the images below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

CAPTIVATE YOUR AUDIENCE

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.

 

3dsMax Top Tip – Each week one of our artists is going to share a REALTIME Top Tip with you, some will be simple and others a tad more complex, but we hope you like them all the same!

This weeks tip is from Chris Scubli, you can read more about Chris in his latest interview and he will be making an appearance at some events soon so keep an eye out for him!

REALTIME First Top Tip – From Chris Scubli

In 3dsMax, if you’re doing test renders, make sure to set rendering to Iterative Rendering Mode. This way you won’t accidentally overwrite existing files and you will always render the current active frame in the timeline even if the output is set to a certain range. When you’re ready to write outputs, simply switch back to Production Rendering Mode. (Extra tip: if you submit to Deadline for rendering on a farm, you don’t need to worry about switching away from Iterative)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CAPTIVATE YOUR AUDIENCE
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.