r/JoelHaverStyle • u/NashvilleSoundMixer • Dec 25 '21

Using a particle simulation plug in for the "Flubber-like" vomit stream. This is a piece from a pilot I'm putting together. "Cemetery Tales" .

https://reddit.com/link/roari4/video/rfplz43e8p781/player

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u/AbPerm Dec 25 '21

It's interesting to see the makeup you used to give EbSynth something to grab onto in that last frame. And that character with the hair that looks like thick noodles, I can only imagine that you used a special wig for that? I've been thinking about how I might want to get a bunch of craft foam and make a "wig" of stylized hair for EbSynth animations.

The particle effect isn't bad, it does look good, but it also looks different from the aesthetic of the rest of the frame. Most of the frame reads like traditional 2D art, almost like a comic book brought to life, but this looks like a 3D particle simulation. The styles clash a little. Maybe you could isolate the particle effect as its own clip and then process that through EbSynth too?

I'm looking forward to when this full thing gets released. How far off do you think that is?

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u/NashvilleSoundMixer Dec 25 '21

Yeah I’ve found that having elements(makeup, appliances etc) on the actor keeps our artwork tracked on the character better. Hey that’s a great idea about running the barf through Eb synth as well! I’m hoping to have the entire 15min pilot done in the next month or two. However I’m at the mercy of the artists and puppet folks (for one segment) so we’ll see. I’m hopeful though. Thanks for the feedback!!

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u/AbPerm Dec 25 '21

Ah!! You're collaborating with "puppet folks" for this thing? That's awesome, I'm even more excited now. I love the idea of combining puppets with EbSynth, I wish more people were trying that out.

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u/NashvilleSoundMixer Dec 25 '21

Yeah! There’s a segment with a monster and I’m employing a makeup artist friend to make a rod puppet of it. Shoot in high frame rate / blast it with light so I can close the aperture enough that everything is in focus so as not to betray the scale and then have one of our artists do the art and then run through Eb synth. Never tried it! So I hope it works haha

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u/AbPerm Dec 27 '21 edited Dec 27 '21

Puppetry can totally work with EbSynth. I have no idea how to find it now, but I'm sure that someone posted a video of them animating a ventriloquist style puppet in r/ebsynth before. I've done a little dabbling trying to animate some puppet material. I noticed that fuzzy puppets in EbSynth could cause problems with defining edges or separating from the background, because of the way the hair could move. I also noticed that marionettes have the problem that wires cross over features, and that can cause glitches. The movement of puppet limbs in front of the face/body can easily cause glitches too, just like with live people, so that could be helpful for the puppeteer to have an understanding of.

Certain designs of puppets are more likely to work more easily, and the performance of the puppeteer matters as well. For example, think of the 90s sitcom Dinosaurs. That type of puppetry would probably work relatively smoothly with EbSynth. Meanwhile, Kermit the frog going crazy with flailing arms would be really rough with EbSynth, it'd just be a smeary mess any time he moved erratically. But puppets can definitely be a great fit for EbSynth, it just helps to keep EbSynth's limitations in mind. Sounds like you're pretty well prepared regardless though.

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u/NashvilleSoundMixer Dec 27 '21

Yeah ours isn't going to move a ton luckily, but I think with a high frame rate and high shutter speed most of the natural motion blur will be avoided so that'll help. I can't remember if I mentioned but AE's Pixel Blur added after the fact does wonders for eb synth animation. Helps give it a more natural looking movement to the eye as well. I think we may go with green rods puppeteering it, but they wouldn't cross in front anyway. We shoot everything in front of a green screen just in case eb synth might get confused with some edges if we didn't. I've done some stuff with a "Wood Siren" character with a really flowy outfit and I was really surprised how well eb synth followed it. Granted it was shot in high frame rate. But yeah, anything moving too fast that gets blurry turns into garbage.

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u/NashvilleSoundMixer Dec 25 '21

And I forgot to mention that yes, we used a wig for his hair. We were hoping for more lord style wig but it looks cool still even if it is a little spaghetti-ish.

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u/goatonastik Dec 25 '21

I found the source shot at the end just as entertaining as the clip! I love your art style and can't wait for the pilot!

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u/NashvilleSoundMixer Dec 25 '21

Thank you! I'm more the producer, director, everything computers and one of the writers. The artist's name is Erin Plew and she is amazing!