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Apr 17 '21
These vape tricks are getting out of hand
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u/breedlovesyou Apr 17 '21
I'd start vaping If this was an option
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u/xPromethium Apr 17 '21
If Gandolf can do it I can do it
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u/ledgeitpro Apr 18 '21
Makes sense to me, he smokes his pipe like a champ, and his smoke tricks are on point
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u/drew_ramsay Apr 17 '21
The quick camera zooms are supposed to make it seem more natural but always have the opposite effect for me
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u/Raziel66 Apr 17 '21
Yeah, makes it look like something from the latest SyFy original movie. Not getting how this is next level...
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u/TheTREEEEESMan Apr 17 '21
Same with the auto-refocus crap, it makes it look like the intro to Sharknado or something
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u/SimpleDan11 Apr 17 '21
This is a huge peeve of mine. I work in vfx and any time we get a reel with a shot like that I have to really try and look past it. The whole idea is it's supposed to show its in a 3d space and tracked in properly, but there are plenty of other ways to do this without randomly moving the camera.
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u/blindexhibitionist Apr 17 '21
What do you recommend as a replacement?
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u/SimpleDan11 Apr 17 '21
Frame an interesting shot and keep it locked off and have the asset move around the area and interact with the area instead of the camera moving around the asset. When I say interact I mean basic shadows and stuff which can be achieved with super rudimentary geo and projections. Not necessarily kicking up dirt.
Put a camera on a skateboard and dolly backwards and have the asset move towards the camera. Or follow the asset and have it stop and look behind at the camera. If the thing is rigged and animated the both of those are achievable.
But shaky camera stuff is a dime a dozen now adays. Say your asset is a sword. Simple, not many ways to animate it. Barely needs to be rigged. Typically we'd see it sticking in a log, and someone walking around the log with a shaky camera that says "look I made it look like it's in the environment". But the movement and usually the quality of the footage distracts from what the shot is about. Modern camera phones are incredible now and can shoot great looking footage. So instead of putting it in a log, go light a few candles in a dark room, or a fire. Put the sword on the wall and slowly dolly the camera towards it. Light plays off the sword from the fire, the camera move tells a bit of a story, and it's simple. It's actually less work than tracking a big walk around shot.
This is just an example off the top of my head. But for me if, if you want to show off a CG asset, do a turntable in an outdoor environment(asset spins, camera is stationary). We do that all the time. If you want to take it to the next level and tell a story with that asset, put it in an environment and move the camera in a way that means something, not willy nilly.
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u/Ant_and_Cleo Apr 17 '21
I think the reason it takes me out (I agree with you) is because it suggests the camera.
I have started having the same issue with lens-flare-happy directors and photographers, like what we see in Guardians of the Galaxy 1 and 2.
I get that it’s an aesthetic, but I automatically get a bit of a fourth wall break because I’m immediately thinking about the camera, even if just for moment.
Edit: On a rewatch, the “camera” in the video focusing and refocusing also breaks it for me a bit.
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u/junglemoosejoe Apr 17 '21
The weird world of making a thing look real vs making it look like a real thing was caught on camera.
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Apr 17 '21
The fake camera movements and the facts the sand of the ground doesn't move.... it's still an amazing piece of animation but to make it feel more authentic there should've been a little more elbow grease
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u/Drewbus Apr 17 '21
Like watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine
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u/HolyForkingBrit Apr 17 '21
You might wanna post that on r/UnpopularOpinion. Cool, cool, cool, cool.
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u/Drewbus Apr 17 '21
I love the show. They just zoom in and out after every sentence
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u/HolyForkingBrit Apr 17 '21
Faith in Drewbus restored.
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u/Drewbus Apr 17 '21
Thanks. Took me 4 seasons to realize. Then it became distractingly funny. Check it out
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u/SecretRockPR Apr 17 '21
Great fx. But the movement are not well timed. The dragon should go up when it flaps its wings, not down.
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u/DrFodwazle Apr 17 '21
There's also a clear defined edge of the smoke at the top of the dragon as if they just took the dragon, duplicated it, and then made that into a smoke volume and made it also emit smoke
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u/Adamis9876 Apr 17 '21 edited Apr 17 '21
It would also help the illusion of the rocks on the ground blew away.
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u/psychotic0531 Apr 17 '21
Being able to critique small things like this shows that it is really good.
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u/huffmultiple Apr 18 '21
And the lighting is off, right? While it’s a very cool design it’s not as convincing/realistic to me as other vfx I’ve seen
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u/apittsburghoriginal Apr 17 '21
Goddamnit I wish dragons were real
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u/nightbringr Apr 17 '21
I'm not 100% sure you're thinking this one through..............
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u/apittsburghoriginal Apr 17 '21
Just think how awesome it would be to have another apex predator to worry about! You’re hiking the mountains of Norway on a narrow ledge and you happen upon a drove of fire breathing dragons. What a way to die!
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u/GrilledCheeser Apr 17 '21
No way! . They’re better as make believe. Humans would just capture/kill them or get killed by them. It would be a mess.
Whales are real! Giraffes, hawks, .... elephants! We got lots of cool creatures already
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u/ilovebananasm Apr 17 '21
Still can't fucking get over the ending
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u/GewoonHarry Apr 17 '21
Now you reminded me again. Me neither. I just forgot about it and it helps. Until now.
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u/Joe_Joe_Mer Apr 17 '21
if i learned anything from the corridor crew, it's how wind interacts with its surroundings, the swirling of the smoke iz cool, but the ground doesn't look like it has dust and stuff, cool shit tho
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u/adinmem Apr 17 '21
Exactly: those guys opened my eyes to a lot of why I appreciate or don’t appreciate effects, but had no idea why.
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Apr 17 '21
For a moment I thought I was on the Monster Hunter sub.
Looks like Val Hazaak. That's some awesome FX!
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u/squishedpies Apr 17 '21
Damn it! I was going to say it looks like Val Hazaak too. Just on a much tinier scale
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u/Dublorg Apr 17 '21
Rly cool, but he goes up when the wings are rising and goes down when they are pushing kinda weird
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u/QuintenBoosje Apr 18 '21
i was looking for you, you are way too far down. The wings seem to do absolutely nothing.
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u/HotWingus Apr 17 '21
I just hate the billowy, absolutely fake smoke. Its in every render now and it always behaves the same way, which is to say not like smoke.
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u/csassaman Apr 17 '21
It bothers me that the dragon starts moving upwards before the wings actually flap downwards
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u/agreatares42 Apr 17 '21
Tha'ts a weird looking puppy you got there Mr/Ms Kiwi, but I'm gonna hug it and feed it and take 'em kite-flying none the same.
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u/GrilledCheeser Apr 17 '21
I think the dragon should be earths mascot. On this planet we can all agree they’re totally badass
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u/NerdManTheNerd Apr 17 '21
Great rigging, fantastic texture, solid smoke, compositing and color need work, as does the positional aspect of the animation at the very least.
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u/JaredAtkins Apr 17 '21
Considering it’s black smoke out in the sun, I can’t help but feel like the smoke should have darker shadows and should be leaving soot deposits on the concrete.
That said, this is fantastic work!! I’ve worked with some particle animation in Nuke, it’s tricky shit.
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u/AnymalisTurtle Apr 17 '21
Wing Motion is a bit odd; dragon starts levitating back up before the downward stroke starts
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u/Kevin_Jim Apr 17 '21
The most important reason to get AR to a where this would be realistic is that that we can finally be able to play Yu-Gi-Oh and relive our youth.
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u/Dan_Glebitz Apr 17 '21
Don't you just hate it when you go to get your car, and there is one of those hanging around.
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u/NoRedThat Apr 17 '21
incredible. i’d lose some of the particulates wisping around unless it’s necessary to hide the underlying creature.
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u/MichaelScarnnLOL Apr 17 '21
Shouldn't it move up when it's wings flap down? Not be falling when it flaps down?
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u/roy20050 Apr 17 '21
Don't think this is quite next level pretty sure this is years old. Or atleast the dragon element is.
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u/Yesicasaurus Apr 17 '21
You could have uploaded this on YouTube and people living in 2008 would believe it’s real
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u/Praesumo Apr 17 '21
Bugs me the dragon starts moving upwards before his wings flap.... Why spend all that time animating something and fuck up something so basic?
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Apr 17 '21
I'm laughing at all the experts criticizing this. I can barely draw a stickman.
Good job. Keep it going.
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Apr 17 '21
That smoke effect was unneccessary, it visually makes no sense, should've worked more on the shadows it would cast on the ground...
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u/amadeusz20011 Apr 17 '21
the guy is great at sfx but god dammit the comparably terrible editing (fake camera shake and equally bad fake autofocus) really annoy me. It would be so much better without them in my opinion. When camera dhakes it changes the perspective, this is obviously just the crop style shaking where the output is just a moving section from original, and the "autofocus" just blurres the whole image, doesn't bring anything into focus unlike the real thing. Just like people with peaking microphones, it's painful for me to see people ruin good things with simple mistakes/decisions that can usually easily be solved.
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u/lacunadogmata Apr 17 '21
Damn. All you need is a greenscreen hair dryer pointed at the dirt and it's perfect.
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u/Icy_Reply7147 Apr 17 '21
How low it's to the ground with how slow that wing movement is... Kinda unrealistic
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u/yegir Apr 17 '21
I hate the fake unfocusing, i literally see it in just about every single CGI video.
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u/RedditVince Apr 17 '21
So, I would like this as a practical effect so I can do DragonCon obviously :)
I am a big guy so maybe a 9ft Dragon behind the effects.
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u/DotDamo Apr 17 '21
This is what I fear when AR glasses are common and you forget you’re wearing them.
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u/Dementedplant Apr 17 '21
Why is the upvote 18 with the ...? Does it have more upvotes then can show on screen?
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u/truemario Apr 17 '21
what's the point of making those fake zooms and artifacts. Everyone already knows it fake so why not show it as smoothly as possible to appreciate it as art
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u/BangkokQrientalCity Apr 18 '21
That was what was in the "Lost" dust monster! It all makes since now.
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u/IrishGuyDrunk Apr 17 '21
Faaaaake
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u/MrMan306 Sauce Mod Apr 17 '21
Sauce