Tornado

Here is an effect shot I finished recently.

My goal was creating a still image to be used in promotion material for CG Protege, the animation school I am currently working for as VFX instructor. In my mind, the still image needs to achieve 2 things:

• Just with one look anyone can tell that it is an effect shot, not a regular photo.
• The image should look good enough to invite interest.

I find the first requirement difficult. I cannot go the route of invisible effect shot: an effect shot in which I composite an object we see daily, say a car, so that viewers cannot tell that it is an effect shot. I thought tornado is a good solution for this requirement. I made it "in your face" even further by adding lightning. The second requirement is somewhat easier. As long as I am careful with quality control, the image should be interesting enough. I hope I achieve these. (Feel free to tell me what you think in the comments.)

Here is the breakdown.

I used 3ds Max and FumeFX to generate the tornado. I used 2 FumeFX simulations: one for the top part of the tornado, another for the funnel shape at the bottom. I rendered the passes using 3ds Max Scanline renderer. I used mental ray renderer only for the lightning glare. Finally, I used Nuke for compositing.

Dream Defenders Reel

Last year I worked as a member of the VFX team for the animated series Dream Defenders. It is an original series developed and produced at Tiny Island Productions (the animation studio I am working at).

My responsibility was creating the necessary VFX elements for the shots assigned to me. In some cases I had the freedom to create a new VFX look (in 3D) based on 2D design paintings (usually effects for the monster of a particular episode); in other cases I simply used existing VFX templates and adjusted the timing for repetitive effects (such as the main characters' blasters). Dream Defenders is a stereoscopic 3D series, so I almost always created the effect elements in 3ds Max (exceptions are 2D elements that I can cheat in compositing such as interlace lines and animated noise for hologram effect). I then rendered the elements in layers and put them together in Nuke. In Nuke I mostly did color grading and color correction.

So, here is a selection of VFX shots I worked on. Feel free to leave comments.

Opening Image

Hi there,

My name is Denny and I am currently working as visual effects (VFX) artist at an animation studio in Singapore. I am starting this blog to share my working life with anyone interested out there.

The way I paved my career so far is perhaps atypical. I changed fields from academic computer science research to programming/software development to 3D animation. I would like to stay in 3D animation for good, but I think I still want to try different specialties in the field. I hope I can share my experience, thoughts, and works with you all in this blog.

If you have been to my old blog and want to go there, you can still do so. Now I call it "PersonallyDish". In case you wonder why the change, I have been thinking hard about what I want to do with my career.
On one hand, I realize that other people (my colleagues at work, my students at CG Protege, my friends and family, as well as other people from industries related to computer graphics and animation) expect me to follow the usual path to develop my career. For example, from late last year until this April, I marketed myself as VFX artist. Unsurprisingly, other people from CG (computer graphics) industry ask me about lighting setup, compositing software, simulation tools, shaders, et cetera. I can have good conversations about these topics, but I find myself internally conflicted. That is because...
... on the other hand, I honestly think being a VFX artist is but a step in my journey. I do not see being VFX artist as the goal of my career.

So, after a few months of not being sure what to do with my old blog, which has a mix of personal and professional things, I decided to start anew. Not just a new blog, but a new thinking behind it. This blog is not about computer graphics and VFX; it is about things I find important from work.

(Meanwhile, I can now continue writing personal writings at PersonallyDish without worrying about how they will affect my professional image, which is also important to me.)