7 hours 53 minutes of training and lecture for Vue, Photoshop, Cinema 4D, and general 3D applications.
Instructed by Nicholas Pellegrino.
The asileFX Matte Painting and Compositing Series includes:
Texture Mattes and Camera Projection Methods
Run Time: 156 Minutes
Learn to create material maps from multi-pass renders, improving render speed and system performance. Render one frame, then apply materials to converted low-res terrain objects, for high quality, fully 3D digital mattes.
Learn to use Vue's normal pass to create unconstrained lighting situations from the original matte render; leaving you free to change lighting at any time, without the need to re-render the original scene. (Technique presented in Cinema4D and xStream, will work will any 3D application supporting normal maps. Will work with any version of Vue that saves a normal pass of the geometry in the scene.)
These techniques allows you to render an entire animation in the time it normally takes to render one frame, by removing all procedural and geometry calculations from the render. This also allows the usage of lower anti-aliasing settings and eliminates any potential terrain flickering during animation.
Key Topics:
- Learn to incorporate objects into animations and create separate compositing passes.
- Optimize terrains and material layers.
- Setup camera projected texture maps.
- Edit multi-pass render layers and masks.
- Use the multi-pass to create material maps and projected mattes.
- Increase render speed.
- Optimize terrain exports and explore the available export methods.
- Separate terrain anti-aliasing from ecosystem anti-aliasing.
ZDepth Scene Control, Editing, and Operations
Run Time: 50 Minutes
Explore the many image format options for managing zdepth. Learn how to extract the most definition and detail. Which formats work best for animation and still composites. Learn how you can use the zdepth render pass to create fog, haze, and dof post process effects.
Key Topics:
- The importance and differences of Z-Depth image file formats.
- Format comparison and usage.
- Multi-pass and G-Buffer options.
- Multi-pass Zdepth vs Common Zdepth passes.
- Edit zdepth renders.
- Optimize file sizes and properly convert formats.
In Photoshop use the zdepth to create:
- Fog and haze
- Dof (Depth of field) effects
Spectral Cloud ZDepth and Masks
Run Time: 74 Minutes
Currently vue does not create zdepth for atmospheres, this can make it difficult to modify HDRI images and scene composites. In this section of the training, you will learn to quickly modify scenes to create a fast rendering ZDepth pass, with an unlimited amount of cloud layers.
These techniques are compatible with any spectral cloud scene, as well as spherical, panoramic, and standard aspect cameras. Camera may be placed anywhere in the scene, including in cloud layers.
Learn to use lights to cut holes in cloud layers. Setup a color based cloud layer setup, and create a multi-use cloud mask where individual layers are easily extracted and defined.
The cloud mask render pass was added to Vue in version 7.5. If you need more control of the cloud mask output, or you are using a version of Vue between 6 - 7.4, with the knowledge gained from this training, you can gain the benefit of this extremely useful render output.
Displacement Map Exporting and Material Baking
Run Time: 88 Minutes
Learn to create displacement maps of procedural terrain elevations. Customize render settings and create perfectly matching displacement maps of your procedural terrains.
Learn techniques to render displacement map images up to 8k in less than a minute. The method is currently the fastest way to export a procedural terrain, it is also the only way to export a procedural terrain without having to bake the terrain to a memory hungry polygonal object. The process of baking a terrain is limited to a single core and will often cause the application to become unresponsive if trying to achieve an image result higher than 2048 x 2048.
Learn to create displacement map variations to create unique "roughness" details. These displacement maps are also an extremely useful solution for terrain export and generating normal maps. This technique can be used with any function, and is not limited to terrain generation or origin.
Learn to bake layered vue materials, creating both color and bump image maps. The maps can then be easily used and edited for painted mattes, export operations, openGL reference, or remapped directly back to the object.
This method frees up system resources and eliminated potential ecosystem, material scaling, and material flickering issues. Additionally it allows the easy separation of ecosystem render settings from intensely complex materials. This makes it easier to create composite render outputs and define anti-alias settings specific to the output. Since ecosystem vegetation is primarily alpha and transparency map rendering, which can require higher anti-alias settings on texture maps and fine geometry, you will be able to define terrain and ecosystem render settings independently.
Designing Brushes from Functions
Run Time: 30 Minutes
Key Topics:
- Learn to edit fractals and create create brushes for any painting application.
- Setup numeric filters.
- Control function number outputs.
- Creating fast pure fractal renders.
- Edit renders for smooth edge brushes.
- Use photoshop masks and blending modes to customize brush creations.
- Import the image into ZBrush for use as an alpha brush.
Matte Painting Workflow and Techniques
Run Time: 75 Minutes
Learn matte painting techniques that any vue user can benefit from. Explore the process and techniques used to create the image shown on the right.
Mix and blend shadows, composite multi-pass elements, adjust material lighting, simplify ecosystems (painted and generated, global and material).
Learn how advanced masking techniques and projected camera setups can be used to create 3D matte paintings ready for animation.
