Destruction is one of the key aspects of visual effects. This report describes the work that was done to create a production ready pre-fracture modelling plug-in for Maya. It provides information on what methods that can be used to create a robust plug-in and various techniques for sampling points to create interesting fracture patterns using the Voronoi diagram. It also discusses how this work can be further built on to create an even better plug-in.

Creating photorealistic animals in computer graphics is common within the VFX industry and is increasing as the technology advances. With CG you can nowadays create almost realistic and believable animals. One of the biggest challenges in creating a realistic animal is creating realistic fur. The question is what challenges poses creating realistic fur and what is the process to achieve it? How does groom affect the other departments in the pipeline such as modeling and texturing, what are things you need to keep in mind when creating fur? In this thesis, the study of recreating a realistic fur for a lion was conducted while examining the challenges posed while creating it. The study shows that grooming demands more out of the other departments and while creating realistic fur is one thing, accomplishing realistic hair within a context such as for a specific animal is an elaborate process which demands both technical and artistic skills in conjunction with a structured approach.

<p>Today almost every artist has a music video. With today’s technology it has become a lot easier for smaller companies or amateur filmers to produce and distribute their work. But how important is an artist’s music video and where do people find their music these days? Other questions we wanted to answer were if there is a typical way a music video looks like based on its genre. And is it possible to break these stereotypical ways of producing music videos and thereby create a higher level of enjoyment from the viewer? Our main idea of achieving this was by the use of visual effects in a genre, which in our opinion usually don’t showcase these types of effects. The genre we decided to work with was singer/songwriter, which we think is one genre that doesn’t typically use visual effects. To back up our opinions we studied a lot of music videos from different genres to really see what was typical for each of them. Furthermore we made a survey to find answers for our questions about people’s views on the importance of a well-made music video and where they watch and find them. After we had found some of our answers we produced a music video, one with, and one without visual effects. We then showed these to a number of people and asked them questions about their opinions. Based on our results from studying different music videos and the surveys we came up with a conclusion. And we can say that using visual effects in a genre were they typically aren’t used is possible and it can enhance a viewers enjoyment of the music video. Although we also found out that it should be done with moderation and in good relations with the specific genre.</p>

This thesis will go over the typical structure of a pipeline for a VFX company. The report will then compare this structure against a real VFX company’s own pipeline and discuss the choices that may push a company make unique changes to the typical pipeline structure. The goal of this thesis is to understand how a typical VFX pipeline is structured and to gain an understanding of the choices that leads to unique situations. • What does a typical VFX pipeline look like? • What can a real-world example look like? • What affects the structuring of a pipeline? / Denna rapport kommer att gå igenom den typiska strukturen av en pipeline hos ett VFX företag. Rapporten kommer sedan att jämföra denna strukturen emot ett riktigt VFX företags egna pipeline och diskutera dom val som leder till att företag ibland gör unika förändringar av den typiska pipelinen. Målet är att ta reda på hur en typisk VFX pipeline ser ut och få förståelse för dom val som leder till unika situationer • Hur ser en typisk VFX pipeline ut? • Hur kan en implementering av en pipeline se ut? • Vad är det som påverkar struktureringen av en pipeline? / <p>The VFX company and its employees which I had contact with wanted to remain anonymous.</p>

Match moving är ett av de steg inom en vfx produktion som avgör och skapar intergrerandet mellan filmat material och filmiska effekter gjorda i 3D.  Redan under en inspelning förekommer förberedande arbete och dokumentation för att i ett senare stadie underlätta för match moving. Detta för att utesluta specifika problem som kan uppstå under match moving processen då det är väsentligt att skapandet av en virtuell kamera är korrekt i förhållande till det filmade materialet. Detta för att vfx ska kunna adderas senare. Detta arbete tar upp den problematik som kan uppstå när förberedelser och dokumentation saknas för det filmade materialet. Arbetet fokuserar på tester av olika arbetsmetoder för match moving samt analyser av det filmade materialet. Detta för att klargöra hur en vfx artist ska gå tillväga för att göra valet av arbetsmetod beroende på hur det filmade materialet ser ut. De arbetsmetoderna som tas upp i detta arbete är automatic tracking, tracking med enbart 2D feature points samt planar tracking och dess förberedande steg. Resultaten visar även på att olika arbetsmetoder ska behandlas på olika sätt av vfx artisten samt att de kan ha olika resultat beroende på hur det filmade materialet ser ut. Klargörandet av dessa arbetsmetoder och det filmade materialet med hjälp av tester gör valet av arbetsmetod simplare när det kommer till match moving. / Match moving is one of the steps within a vfx production pipeline that decides how filmed material and 3D effects will intergrate with each other. Already on set preparations and documentations are made to make the match moving process less problematic later in the pipeline. It is essential that the filmed material match the virtual created camera from the match moving process to make the intergration happen. This report discusses the problems that can arise when needed preparations on set are missing and how they can be solved by studying different methods for match moving. The report focuses on these methods compared to the filmed material and how a vfx artist can choose a method to work with depending on that material. The methods that are discussed in this report are automatic tracking, tracking with feature points only and planar tracking. The results also show that different methods should be treated differently from each other by the vfx artist and that the result can differ depending on how the filmed material looks. Clarifying these methods and filmed material with tests will make it easier to choose a method to work with while match moving.

Today almost every artist has a music video. With today’s technology it has become a lot easier for smaller companies or amateur filmers to produce and distribute their work. But how important is an artist’s music video and where do people find their music these days? Other questions we wanted to answer were if there is a typical way a music video looks like based on its genre. And is it possible to break these stereotypical ways of producing music videos and thereby create a higher level of enjoyment from the viewer? Our main idea of achieving this was by the use of visual effects in a genre, which in our opinion usually don’t showcase these types of effects. The genre we decided to work with was singer/songwriter, which we think is one genre that doesn’t typically use visual effects. To back up our opinions we studied a lot of music videos from different genres to really see what was typical for each of them. Furthermore we made a survey to find answers for our questions about people’s views on the importance of a well-made music video and where they watch and find them. After we had found some of our answers we produced a music video, one with, and one without visual effects. We then showed these to a number of people and asked them questions about their opinions. Based on our results from studying different music videos and the surveys we came up with a conclusion. And we can say that using visual effects in a genre were they typically aren’t used is possible and it can enhance a viewers enjoyment of the music video. Although we also found out that it should be done with moderation and in good relations with the specific genre.

No description available.

Fluids are important to the Visual Effects Industry but extremely hard to control and simulate because of the complexity of the governing equations. Fluid solvers can be divided into two categories, those of the Eulerian point of reference and those of the Lagrangian. Both categories have different advantages and weaknesses and hybrid methods are popular. This thesis examines Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics, a Lagrangian method for physically based uid simulations. To allow the artist the exibility given by shorter simulation times and increased number of iterations, the performance of the solver is key. In order to maximize the speed of the solver it is implemented entirely on the GPU, including collisions, volumetric force fields, sinks and other artist tools. To understand the implementation decisions, it is important to be familiar with the CUDA programming model. Thus, a brief explanation of CUDA is given before the exact implementation of the methods are explained. The results are presented along with a performance comparison as well as a discussion of the different parameters which can be fed to the solver. Some thoughts on possible future extensions can be found in the conclusion.

[pt] Esta dissertação faz um estudo sobre a geração de efeitos visuais (VFX) a partir da captura de objetos em movimento como nuvens muito densas de pontos utilizando múltiplas câmeras RGB-D de baixo custo. Para este estudo, são utilizados um software comercial para renderização de partículas e alguns módulos já desenvolvidos pelo Departamento de P&D em VFX da TV Globo em parceria com o laboratório ICAD/VisionLab para a captura simultânea de múltiplas câmeras MS Kinect. No pipeline de produção proposto, um servidor sincroniza os disparos das várias câmeras, unifica as nuvens e gera um arquivo em formato padrão (PRP ou PLY). Este arquivo é, então, utilizado para a renderização de partículas volumétricas com adição de efeitos visuais utilizando o software Krakatoa MX para o 3DS Max. O objetivo é filmar cenas de maneira que o diretor possa posteriormente definir as cenas finais com qualquer trajetória de câmera e adicionar efeitos visuais. / [en] This dissertation is an investigation on the generation of visual effects (VFX) from the capture of moving objects as very dense point clouds using multiple low-cost RGB-D cameras. For this investigation, we use a commercial software for particle rendering and some modules already developed by the Department of VFX R&D of TV Globo in partnership with ICAD/VisionLab laboratory for the simultaneous capture of multiple MS Kinect cameras. In the proposed production pipeline, a server synchronizes the shooting of multiple cameras, unifies the clouds and generates a file in standard format (PRP or PLY). This file is then used for volumetric particle rendering with added visual effects using the Krakatoa MX software for 3DS Max. The goal is to shoot scenes in such a way that the film director can later define the final scenes with any camera path and adding visual effects.

[pt] Esta dissertação de mestrado apresenta um método para simular cenas de mar para TV/Cinema com um grande número de agentes de vários tipos (embarcações, portos, pessoas, ...) para produções com elevado grau de realismo de imagem e comportamento dos agentes. Este método usa modelagem em lógica nebulosa (fuzzy) e programação no sistema MASSIVE de maneira a integrar os resultados com sistemas de rendering e composição de imagens de alta resolução. Um objetivo importante desta dissertação é criar um sistema que facilita o trabalho de modeladores e designers envolvidos no pipeline de produção. / [en] This MSc dissertation presents a method to simulate sea scenes for TV / Film with a large number of agents of various types (vessels, ports, people ...) for productions with a high degree of realism in both image and agent s behavior. This method uses modeling in fuzzy logic and programming in the MASSIVE system as the main approach to integrate the results with rendering systems and high-resolution images composition. An important goal of this dissertation is to create a system that facilitates the work of modelers and designers involved in the production pipeline.