Wow fantastic. A couple of questions, though. When you were talking about your comp tricks, you mentioned "irradiance falloff". What exactly do you mean by that? Also, could you perhaps post a screenshot of your AE comp to better look at what you are doing? Your stuff looks so realistic, and I'd love to know how to emulate that effect in depth. If it's too much work, don't worry about it.
Also, how are you doing the anamorphic flares without plugins? How are you getting the lens elements to shift relative to the light source?
Wow fantastic. A couple of questions, though. When you were talking about your comp tricks, you mentioned "irradiance falloff". What exactly do you mean by that? Also, could you perhaps post a screenshot of your AE comp to better look at what you are doing? Your stuff looks so realistic, and I'd love to know how to emulate that effect in depth. If it's too much work, don't worry about it.
Also, how are you doing the anamorphic flares without plugins? How are you getting the lens elements to shift relative to the light source?
irradience falloff is just the way less light gets through at the edges of a lens, think of it being a bit like a vignette, but it's very subtle, most of the time you won't even see it, I don't know if that's the proper name for it but that's what newtek call it so it's good enough for me
unfortunately it's impossible to take a helpful screenshot from the AE project file, I have several layers in the render comp, and all of those are comps made up of dozens of other comps, it wouldn't make sense seeing a screenshot of one on its own, they all work together to make the final image
as for the flares, it's quite complex because there are a lot of different elements, but to simplify it I've just done a lot of duplicated layers and a lot of blurs, you're pretty handy with this sort of stuff so I'd expect you to be able to do similar things
it would be much easier and faster to use plugins but there are none that let me do flares realistically, I've had a peek at optical flares and I feel they haven't fully grasped what's needed for a top flare plugin, for me it's just a snazzed up knoll light factory and nothing more, I would love to speak to the developers and tell them where I think they've gone wrong, or if I had the skills I'd even make my own
irradience falloff is just the way less light gets through at the edges of a lens, think of it being a bit like a vignette, but it's very subtle, most of the time you won't even see it, I don't know if that's the proper name for it but that's what newtek call it so it's good enough for me
unfortunately it's impossible to take a helpful screenshot from the AE project file, I have several layers in the render comp, and all of those are comps made up of dozens of other comps, it wouldn't make sense seeing a screenshot of one on its own, they all work together to make the final image
as for the flares, it's quite complex because there are a lot of different elements, but to simplify it I've just done a lot of duplicated layers and a lot of blurs, you're pretty handy with this sort of stuff so I'd expect you to be able to do similar things
True, but for my needs, I suppose Optical Flares is good enough. Really cool that you can "roll your own" though. I admire that.
it would be much easier and faster to use plugins but there are none that let me do flares realistically, I've had a peek at optical flares and I feel they haven't fully grasped what's needed for a top flare plugin, for me it's just a snazzed up knoll light factory and nothing more, I would love to speak to the developers and tell them where I think they've gone wrong, or if I had the skills I'd even make my own
If you don't mind elaborating, what do you feel they lack? Optical Flares, as far as I understand, works in 32 bit-float, and I'm not sure what it's missing that you would need. I feel it's very full featured, but like with any software, there is probably room for improvement.
Also, are you working with a correct linear workflow in all of your renders? Looks like you are, but I thought I'd ask. Lighting falloff looks very natural.
Oh, and I forgot to mention earlier, but I love the music choice in your piece. Very nice.
If you don't mind elaborating, what do you feel they lack? Optical Flares, as far as I understand, works in 32 bit-float, and I'm not sure what it's missing that you would need. I feel it's very full featured, but like with any software, there is probably room for improvement.
yes and no, it works in the sense you can set AE to 32bit and optical flares will still run, but that's about it really, if you try to track flares on a HDR image it can't do it, and it gets the colours and brightness completely wrong, and it doesn't work correctly with AE set to linear either
auto tracking hotspots for flares isn't the way I like to do them, even if you can get it to work it's not correct - if you have a lot of tiny lightsources then fine, but when you have a large lightsource it just tracks that and increases the scale of the flare, this isn't how it should be done - you don't put different scale reflection elements together like that because flares are created by the camera lens and you can't have different lenses making one image
that's just the application of the flare, I also feel they've not thought much about getting the flare itself to be more advanced, individual elements behvaing more dynamically etc, they've got some 'dynamic triggers' or something like that in there but you can't do much with them
seems like their development goal was just to build something better than knoll light factory, and it is, but that's all it is - they've not nearly been innovative enough, I feel a bit strongly about this mainly because optical flares has turned lens flares into.... the new lens flare I spent ages researching mine to try and get them believable, but now anyone thinks they can chuck an anamorphic flare into their footage and they've become pretty lame once again, lots of people going "anamorphic!!111, now I can make my videos look like michael bay!!!11one" and they can't see the problems with it, if I had any coding skills I'd be on this in a flash, i'd make the best flare plugin there is, but I don't have any coding skills so it's not going to happen
Also, are you working with a correct linear workflow in all of your renders? Looks like you are, but I thought I'd ask. Lighting falloff looks very natural.
Oh, and I forgot to mention earlier, but I love the music choice in your piece. Very nice.
I am indeed - in both after effects and lightwave, I moved to that 2 or 3 years ago so I'm pretty comfortable with it now, it was easy enough in AE but it was a pain in LW, I'm glad I did it though
the music was chosen for its subtlety mainly, it's called welcome aboard from the first contact soundtrack, I just thought it was a perfect fit
... if I had any coding skills I'd be on this in a flash, i'd make the best flare plugin there is, but I don't have any coding skills so it's not going to happen
Even a good deal as a consultant for a group with an existing plugin wouldn't be half bad. Would certainly help the "Dave needs a new Aï¿¡4000 workstation" fund.
Just watched this again and it was great. If you were to return to this, there are a few things I would look into fixing. The first 2 shots are very "CG" to me and don't flow as well as the rest of the piece. In those shots the camera moves and then stops and holds for a bit, whereas it feels like it should fade to the next shot while moving at the least. Another option would be to slow them down and when the camera stops do a tiny zoom or some small movement so it's not just sitting there. Also, around :55-:58 there are some strange blue streaks on your flares that look strange. I don't know if that is an actual effect or if it's just not composited correctly. One more thing ,the blue engine glow that comes on at :58 is a bit too flat. It makes me think of a bluescreen. In my head I'm thinking "he didn't key out the blue! But then I remember it's all CG ). These are really just nitpicks and I really love what you've done!
That's awesome, dude. I watched the animation and I was floored. I swear I could just about reach out and touch some of that stuff. I'm also really glad you posted on Vimeo, I think their quality is much better than YouTube, even at 720p VS 1080p on YouTube.
That's awesome, dude. I watched the animation and I was floored. I swear I could just about reach out and touch some of that stuff. I'm also really glad you posted on Vimeo, I think their quality is much better than YouTube, even at 720p VS 1080p on YouTube.
yeah I've noticed this too, vimeo only let me go up to 720 but it still looked better than 1080 on youtube, must be the compression
there are some things I'd like to change but by the time it was finished I couldn't be bothered to go back, I ended up with about 103gb worth of frames so I had to delete some, it was supposed to be like 30 seconds long but it just kept getting longer haha
the youtube quality is pretty poor even with the 1080p version, the vimeo one is better but only 720p I think
How do you get the light from the nacelles to shine on the hull @ about 10 seconds when you pan up to the windows... without making the whole hull blue...
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Ya know, I came back and re-watched this animation tonight when saw all this posting.
Since TNG has been put up on netflix I've been watching it alot lately, and I realized that this animation really makes me sad. It represents trek that was once the pinnacle of well... trek. The future that it once was will never be again, it's been replaced by what we see now in the latest star trek movie. It all used to have a really romantic simple quality and everything on screen was imbued with everyone's best efforts and imagination.
Most of those qualities just weren't really there in the new stuff for me, alot of it just had, what felt like to me, the mass produced holywood special effects that for some reason nowadays equals blockbuster money maker. I guess as much as Roddenberry held things back sometimes he also made what was so good about star trek so. Too bad he's not around to give input and be pissed at people anymore.
How do you get the light from the nacelles to shine on the hull @ about 10 seconds when you pan up to the windows... without making the whole hull blue...
Fav'ed. I'd say more, but I'd just be nerdgasming. It seems like work this beautiful should be put to use in a larger project of some sort.
I usually have the "That's CG sense" even if I don't know why, and I really didn't get that at any point. I would dearly love to learn how to do this level of work.
Absolutely stunning. I thought that stuff was your "Reference" material. I went to the last page looking for "your" version then came back to page 1 to see it was all your work all along.
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Also, how are you doing the anamorphic flares without plugins? How are you getting the lens elements to shift relative to the light source?
unfortunately it's impossible to take a helpful screenshot from the AE project file, I have several layers in the render comp, and all of those are comps made up of dozens of other comps, it wouldn't make sense seeing a screenshot of one on its own, they all work together to make the final image
as for the flares, it's quite complex because there are a lot of different elements, but to simplify it I've just done a lot of duplicated layers and a lot of blurs, you're pretty handy with this sort of stuff so I'd expect you to be able to do similar things
it would be much easier and faster to use plugins but there are none that let me do flares realistically, I've had a peek at optical flares and I feel they haven't fully grasped what's needed for a top flare plugin, for me it's just a snazzed up knoll light factory and nothing more, I would love to speak to the developers and tell them where I think they've gone wrong, or if I had the skills I'd even make my own
Ok, I get it now. Thanks for the explanation.
I figured that would be the case. It's alright.
True, but for my needs, I suppose Optical Flares is good enough. Really cool that you can "roll your own" though. I admire that.
If you don't mind elaborating, what do you feel they lack? Optical Flares, as far as I understand, works in 32 bit-float, and I'm not sure what it's missing that you would need. I feel it's very full featured, but like with any software, there is probably room for improvement.
Also, are you working with a correct linear workflow in all of your renders? Looks like you are, but I thought I'd ask. Lighting falloff looks very natural.
Oh, and I forgot to mention earlier, but I love the music choice in your piece. Very nice.
auto tracking hotspots for flares isn't the way I like to do them, even if you can get it to work it's not correct - if you have a lot of tiny lightsources then fine, but when you have a large lightsource it just tracks that and increases the scale of the flare, this isn't how it should be done - you don't put different scale reflection elements together like that because flares are created by the camera lens and you can't have different lenses making one image
that's just the application of the flare, I also feel they've not thought much about getting the flare itself to be more advanced, individual elements behvaing more dynamically etc, they've got some 'dynamic triggers' or something like that in there but you can't do much with them
seems like their development goal was just to build something better than knoll light factory, and it is, but that's all it is - they've not nearly been innovative enough, I feel a bit strongly about this mainly because optical flares has turned lens flares into.... the new lens flare
I am indeed - in both after effects and lightwave, I moved to that 2 or 3 years ago so I'm pretty comfortable with it now, it was easy enough in AE but it was a pain in LW, I'm glad I did it though
the music was chosen for its subtlety mainly, it's called welcome aboard from the first contact soundtrack, I just thought it was a perfect fit
Cause this...is awesome.
(besides, it did go up in february)
lol. i just noticed! (and the first guy who sees it posts it!
I like their player too
So do I. To me, Vimeo as a whole seems like a "more mature" YouTube.
However, some their limitations on free accounts are less than enticing... like the 500MB max uploads a week...
How do you get the light from the nacelles to shine on the hull @ about 10 seconds when you pan up to the windows... without making the whole hull blue...
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Yeah, as often as you upload animations, that wouldn't be practical. However, for some of us it's plenty.
Since TNG has been put up on netflix I've been watching it alot lately, and I realized that this animation really makes me sad. It represents trek that was once the pinnacle of well... trek. The future that it once was will never be again, it's been replaced by what we see now in the latest star trek movie. It all used to have a really romantic simple quality and everything on screen was imbued with everyone's best efforts and imagination.
Most of those qualities just weren't really there in the new stuff for me, alot of it just had, what felt like to me, the mass produced holywood special effects that for some reason nowadays equals blockbuster money maker. I guess as much as Roddenberry held things back sometimes he also made what was so good about star trek so. Too bad he's not around to give input and be pissed at people anymore.
ahh, ok... I've just never had any luck using specular lighting in this manner... I can never get to the look right.
Gigabyte RTX 3080 Gaming OC 12GB
1TB NVMe SSD, 2 x 1GB SATA SSD, 4TB external HDD
32 GB RAM
Windows 11 Pro
I usually have the "That's CG sense" even if I don't know why, and I really didn't get that at any point. I would dearly love to learn how to do this level of work.
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