cebas Rocks the Last of The Twilight Saga Series: Breaking Dawn II

 

 

 

 Will Wallace is an FX Artist currently working at Hydraulx  Vancouver, Canada. Originally from a small  town in  Massachusetts, he went to school for Digital Design in 2005.  

 From there, he worked with motion graphics, design and 3D,  where he eventually moved to California in  2010 to tackle  VFX.

 He is now a Senior FX artist at Hydraulx Vancouver,  experimenting on his own and working on  commercials  and  web projects.

 His passion now lies in destruction, fluids and  particles...  Creating badass'ry!

 

 

 

cebas:  It seems that The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn II was an important project for you and Hydraulx. Can you tell us how you were involved?

At Hydraulx, we knew there were going to be a lot of shots involving collapsing rock simulations so we started RnD early. I worked on a most of the RnD for the ground collapse and ended up simulating to the final shots.

 

 

cebas: Which shots/images/sequences in particular were you involved in?

I was involved with most of the ground collapse sequence. Almost all the rocks were rigid body simulations. A few of the shots required specific direction and were hand animated by one of our animators. The very beginning of the sequence was all procedural with art direction right out of thinkingParticles.

  

 

cebas: What cebas software did you use and why?

The Rigid Bodies was done all through thinkingParticles 4. Two words – Speed and Control. I would add the most ridiculous amount of geometry and have moments of disbelief at how fast tP could handle it.

 

cebas: How did you use our software to achieve the effects?

We started with modelled ground and rocks. Some shots were fully dynamic out of tP and then polished with animation after. Some were the other way around; the base rocks were given an animation and then brought into tP for dynamics and secondary effects.

 

 

 

cebas: What features in particular helped you achieve your goal and how?

I'm a gluten for control so I needed to be able to change all the dynamic aspects effecting the simulation. The rigs I built weren’t overly complex and had all the control I needed.
Also the Shape Collision engine always proves to produce a hyper natural look, which we needed since the majority of the sequence was earth tearing open.

 

 

 

cebas: What was the most difficult aspect of this project and how did you solve it?

Cross-platform was a challenge - Getting the Simulations out of 3ds Max to Maya since we light and render everything in Maya. Most geometry was baked and exported. For changing topology with volumeBreaker we used Thinkbox XMesh.

 

 

 

cebas: What was a step-by-step breakdown of a typical shot/image/sequence?

Once the lookdev and modeling was done for the environment, it was either given a base animation or exported straight to thinkingParticles for dynamics. Once Simulated and approved, the geometry was put back into Maya for shading, lighting, and rendering.

 

 

 

cebas: How did the cebas tools perform for you and how was the experience of working with them like?

For me, thinkingParticles is always fun to work with. It's extremely robust and flexible, which means I can throw anything at it and it slaps me back in the face with stability. I have 100% control which is sexy! It does what I tell it, no questions.

 

 

 

cebas: How did it compare to other software you may have used?

As it goes for particles and simulations, the only package I've used is 3ds Max. I started with it and don’t see any need to use anything else. For FX, 3ds Max and tP, along with other awesome plugins, are a superpower capable of creating anything with almost no limits.

 

cebas: How did cebas software integrate into your production pipeline? How straightforward was it? 

Integrating tP is seamless. tP has a mind of its own but plays well with others.

 

 

 

cebas: What was the most fun or rewarding part of this project for you?

The results! Nothing is more satisfying than knowing what you want to create, and then watching it behave even more interesting than you thought it would. Top it off with a voice over yours saying, " Yo, that looks badass".

 

cebas: What do you wish cebas software did that it's not currently doing for you?

I've been seeing some promising teasing from tP6, but Softbodies would be my number one request. tP5 softbody rope is wicked nice but would love to have control like that with straight up objects. Also more options with the volumeBreaker node; more of a variety in shapes, fracture types, etc. Last would be some kind of visual reference with the voxels surrounding the geometry. It’s just nice to see how the simulation is working with boundaries.

 

cebas: What new projects can we expect from you in the future (if you're able to tell us).

At Hydraulx, we're working on some pretty awesome projects with a ton more thinkingParticles.

 

 ...And we can't wait for more from Will Wallace's AWESOMENESS!

Stay up to date on Will's latest work HERE and Hydraulx cool projects HERE