Dungeon Boss Short Videos

Recently I had the privilege to work on short promotional videos for Dungeon Boss, a mobile game by Big Fish Games. Here is the final product.

My involvement was minor, early in the production process and therefore cannot be directly seen in the video. My contribution was lighting the set and recommending ways to texture the set to achieve to look the client wanted. After that texture artists and lighters took over to get the final look seen in the video. Still, I am happy with the final look.

Here is an alternate version with a different opening.


What do you think of the videos? Let me know by commenting below :)

He-Man Game Model

He-Man Game Model from Denny Iskandar on Vimeo.

I created this model when learning about how to create 3D models for games in 2011. Back then I was working on Ben 10: Destroy All Aliens, so I rushed to "finish" the model so that I had the required deliverables for the class and left it alone. Recently, with some reluctance as I have forgotten what I did, I picked  this model up and polished it as far as I can.

Here is the still image presentation.

Main Image

Presentation Shot

Construction Shot

Texture Sheet

Concept Sheet

Bruce Willis Roundtable

I have to admit this post is a bit of embarrassment. This roundtable video is a continuation of my past work I posted here in my personal blog.


Bruce Willis Bust from Denny Iskandar on Vimeo.

I needed "only" 2 years to finish rendering this roundtable. However, while working on this roundtable, I found that I did learn a few things since then:

• I put the camera too close to the subject, causing big perspective distortion on the face.
• The (relatively) bright background interfered with the lighting.
• The Sub-Surface Scattering shader setting that I used was rather harsh.

I thought I made the roundtable better with respect to these factors. What do you think?

Breakdown Example

This week I finished a breakdown example for my class. I wanted to convince my students that working on breakdowns can be as exciting as working on the effect itself.

Here is the video:

Matte Painting Breakdown from Denny Iskandar on Vimeo.

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.