SMac The Blog

New Course

2012-01-31T06:09:00.001-08:00

Check out my other Blog for all my posts from my new course I'm doing over the next few months.

http://fictiondepiction.blogspot.com/

Miya

2011-11-23T03:42:00.000-08:00

Here's a link to something I worked on. The main character Miya was done by Andrew Hickinbottom - http://andrewhickinbottom.blogspot.com/

I was basically asked to adapt it for the other character Jocaster http://www.miyamackenzie.com/

Aang Tests

2011-10-27T12:05:00.000-07:00

Just a few tests I've been working on & not got around to adding the FX yet.

Endorsed by me ;0). Thanks Allan

2011-02-22T05:30:00.000-08:00

Scroll down a bit & you'll see my quote.
http://www.fumefxtraining.com/

Thanks Allan

Particle_Demo_2011

2011-02-11T09:40:00.000-08:00

I needed to update my reel for job hunting in 2011 so here's the Particle/Fluids Reel.

Week_07

2011-02-02T11:56:00.000-08:00

Week_06

2011-02-02T10:06:00.000-08:00

Week_05

2011-02-01T15:05:00.000-08:00

Week_04

2011-02-01T06:09:00.000-08:00

Week_03

2011-01-31T11:34:00.001-08:00

Week_02

2011-01-28T07:21:00.001-08:00

Week_01_Flaming Torch

2010-10-28T14:15:00.000-07:00

I've just strated doing Allan Mckay's new FumeFX2 course this is the first week a flaming tourch with an old charcater of mine thats still not finished. The course is a bit tough since this time I'm holding down a daily job so work in the day then the course at night! So far there's been a few probs with uploading videos but thats starting to get better. The main thing that makes things really hard is not being able to download the course vids as with the previous courses I've done.

Star Wars Lunchtime

2010-10-26T02:48:00.000-07:00

Just a lunchtime project over a few months, it's taken a while so I've had to give up playing with it anymore but as always a good learning exeperience. I saw this shot in Blur Studio's Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2

RealFlow Swampy Test01

2010-08-19T12:36:00.000-07:00

I haven't used RealFlow in a while so I thought I'd start again this is just a quicky to get back into using it.

SpaceAgeFilms_Eiffel

2010-05-28T10:03:00.000-07:00

This is an animation for a online cartoon for Disney which as I know of hasn't been made but I enjoyed the work.
http://www.spaceagefilms.co.uk/

Vampire_Ash_02

2010-05-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

This is the result of a tutorial DVD I tested for Allan Mckay
http://www.allanmckay.com/allanmckay/
I think it turned out alright, thanks for the Tuts as always Allan.

Winner!!!

2010-01-07T05:09:00.000-08:00

Yup I made it to the end of my first competition & won!!! Thanks to all who voted for me.
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=139&t=833544

Steve

VOTE!!!

2009-12-21T03:05:00.000-08:00

Happy Christmas people!!

I've been working the last 2 + months on a competition animation & now the time has come to vote. I think you have to register with the forum but if you already are registered or don't mind taking the time to register to vote I'd really appreciate it.

Or just look at the animation if you can't do anything else.

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=139&t=833544

To register
1.Go to the top right of the page where it says Members Login & click the word Join.
2.Fill in all the info
3.Wait for an email to be sent to you.
4.Log in with the details that were sent to you
5.Go back to the page & post a reply at the bottom of the page

Best VISUAL EFFECTS
Stephen Macfarlane (StevieMac)

Best WIP THREAD
Stephen Macfarlane (StevieMac)

Thanks guys & gals & have a Happy Christmas & a great New Year!!

Steve

Final Poster

2009-12-15T03:01:00.000-08:00

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=139&t=812280
This is the last poster & it's the end of the competition tomorrow so get ready to vote for me!!!

Thanks

Poster 04

2009-12-15T02:26:00.001-08:00

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=139&t=812280
There's one more poster after this & it's the end of the competition tomorrow so get ready to vote for me!!!

Thanks

Poster 03

2009-12-14T03:29:00.000-08:00

Poster 02

2009-12-13T03:38:00.000-08:00

Bonus Posters!

2009-12-12T04:48:00.000-08:00

As a bonus to the competition I've done 4 posters to lead up to the final dates so keep checking back for the next installment!!!!

These will be available 2000x3000 if I get enough interest. ;0)

Enjoy.

Queen Of The Rocketmen previz

2009-12-08T13:20:00.000-08:00

Here's the previz for my entry please check it out & vote next Wed 16th!!!

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=139&t=812280&page=1&pp=15

Update Nov 27th

2009-11-27T03:37:00.000-08:00

Not much of an update today I've been rendering a lot & calculating explosion for the final shots. We've been given an extra 2 weeks so hopefully I can get it all finished in time & use some left over time to re render some bits I'm not happy with & work more into the comping.

Animated Storyboard.

2009-11-17T15:14:00.000-08:00

This is an animated Storyboard for myself to help with my entry to the latest CGTalk FXWars Challenge. I used a few of my favorite artists see the list below.
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=139&t=812280

Artists I used...........
JollyJack - http://www.collectedcurios.com/
Porco Russo - http://www.ghibli-museum.jp/en/
The Rocketeer - http://pulpsunday.blogspot.com/2008/06/pulp-pinup-rocketeer-1.html
The Rocketeer - http://seane.deviantart.com/art/The-Rocketeer-43334048
StevieMac - http://www.steviemac.co.uk/

Update 17th Nov

2009-11-17T08:42:00.000-08:00

Not long left to go now & I'm starting to panic! It takes so much time to set up Scenes, Materials, Lighting then render it all I haven't even started on any explosions yet!

So here's another update of some rendered scenes.

Update Oct 31

2009-10-31T14:36:00.000-07:00

Updates 17th Oct

2009-10-17T05:10:00.000-07:00

Just some screen grabs I got a lot of animation done this week but there is of course still major amounts to still do!!!
Hope you enjoy peeps.

Robofoot Design

2009-10-14T10:16:00.000-07:00

This is for a shot in the competition.

Competition.

2009-10-11T15:17:00.000-07:00

I've started an entry for the latest FX wars challenge take a look at the link below but here's what I've got so far.
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=139&t=812280

3D!!! Testing 1 2 3

2009-09-30T13:49:00.000-07:00

Get your 3D glasses out this is just a quick test with a model of Aang the last Airbender running.

Just another test using particle Cubes

Car Smash

2009-09-29T03:33:00.000-07:00

This was only supposed to be a test to learn Box Tools #2, so I was expecting it to take a few days, in the end it took a week to finish! Box Tools #2 still has a lot of bugs in it in my opinion & corrupted a few of my max files so most of the weeks was spent finding a work around. I was working between Max x32 for Box Tools #2 to work with PhysX & Max x64.

Originally I started out crushing the car & using Particle Skinner in Box #2 to collapse the mesh as the Engine falls onto it. This too a few attempts but the info on Orbaz's site is quite hidden but when found is really helpful! The idea did work but as you read on it might be better just to use an FFD box or something else.

The problems arose after cracking the ground using Rayfire & using the pieces as PhysX collision objects. This seems add something to the Max file which you can't delete. If you delete everything in the scene (except the ground pieces) & all PhysX links etc, when you open the file in Max x64 the PhysX comand prompt would emerge stating PhysX was in the scene somewhere. This on its own didn't cause problems but later on when using FumeFX. I found that FumeFX would not Sim passed frame 30 even tho the PFlow I was using to emit FumeFX Smoke from had no PhysX on it! In the end I had to re build the scene but still had problems after merging the ground peices in.

So after all the problems, I got what I could out of the experiece & this is the result. I'm not happy with it & I don't think I'll be using Box Tools #2 in rush again. Don't get me wrong the Box is a great idea but I think it still has a shed load of bugs that need to be ironed out. Keep up the good work tho Orbaz!

Just finished this.

2009-09-13T11:21:00.000-07:00

Final

I'm Back!

2009-08-29T04:12:00.000-07:00

Just a little something I'm working on. ;0)

New Job

2009-05-27T01:07:00.000-07:00

As some of you may of heard I'm now working for Prime Focus London doing Fluid/Particle FX. So I won't be posting as much anymore but when I can I've got a few test I'll post up.

Stevie

Mortar Attack!!!

2009-04-21T08:15:00.000-07:00

This one posed a problem for a while due to my collision plane being too complex but after shifting a few things around & knocking back the detail a bit I managed to get some decent render times.

FumeFX Explode Smoke Plume

2009-04-07T09:13:00.000-07:00

I think this one came out ok it's a bit boring but when I tried to add to it like a background some Afterburn particles etc my PC just couldn't take rendering it all out so I moved on. If or when I re do this again I'll start with a background image & work with the scale of that & sort the lighting out before doing a final sim since my PC seems to be getting on a bit now!

FumeFX ManOn Fire

2009-04-04T03:40:00.000-07:00

This one took about 37 Gb of sim data on a spare HD & that wasn't a really detailed sim!

FumeFX Flamethrower

2009-03-28T17:46:00.000-07:00

I think this is the first time I've finally got something I feel is really decent out of FumeFX. The hype about the plugin is way too high & I think a lot of people just open it, fiddle with the settings & think thats it, but if you really think about how the fire is growing & burning you get such a much more realistic flame as you can guess I liked this one!!!! More to come.

P.S. The guy with the flamethrower is just a character I made under 5000 Polys a few year back but didn't get around to finishing. I'm hoping to do a lot more with him in the future so keep an eye out for him ;0)

FumeFX Torch

2009-03-28T17:27:00.000-07:00

Just picked up a DVD at the beginning of the week from my buddy Alan. So this week I've been doing some of the tutorials on there. Stay tuned for more!!!

Week 08

2009-03-14T16:13:00.000-07:00

Here's the final Vid. I'm quite happy with the end result & the nuke but I'm sure one day I'll expand on it for a close up.

Week 07 Nuke San Francisco!

2009-03-13T06:22:00.000-07:00

This is the last 2 weeks so I really wanted to get something that looks good. On the course I didn't feel the look of the nuke was going the way I wanted so I tried a different approach which turned out ok. The pictures here are of the initial concept, the back plate & the aftermath plate which I painted for after the Nuke has gone off.

Week 06

2009-03-01T14:05:00.000-08:00

At the end of week 6 it's been tough & I didn't really think about how built up London was before I did this so you can't see the ground explosions very well. I'm not too happy with it but it is only 2 weeks.

Week 05

2009-02-16T10:48:00.003-08:00

Ok we've got 4 weeks left to do twice as much as the first 4 weeks!! So here's the next concept.

End Of Week 04

2009-02-14T17:28:00.000-08:00

Ok its the end of week 04, I had a few problems here & there but I made it in the end.

I found Fusion a bit of a pain since I'm used to AfterFX but after persevering I managed to do what I wanted in the end.

I think I'll prob add some clouds maybe some birds & I really want to add something to the foreground but that'll take time so I'll leave it for now.

3rd Week

2009-02-06T04:42:00.000-08:00

I'm in the third week of my course now & things have been hard. Mostly scale issues but I've managed to get things working how I want now.

New Course

2009-01-19T15:53:00.001-08:00

Today I started my new course in FX. This ones working with real footage & its looking good so far !!!

<----- This is a before & after concept fingers crossed I'll get it to look just as good in 3d!

Steve

Max to Houdini

2008-10-21T11:10:00.000-07:00

Yup thats right guys while learning Houdini I'm going to try to make it easier for you to do it too. So the plan is to do stuff in Max & try to make the same FX in Houdini then explain it in REALLY simple terms since everything I see out there feels/looks like it's written in code!

So keep checking back for updates hopefully I'll have something up soon.

Stevie

San Francisco!!!!

2008-10-14T10:08:00.000-07:00

Ok its been a while I know but the Bug shots took up all my time & then straight after that I was offered a job in San Francisco doing Particle FX for a TV show so how could I resist!

Anyway I'm in San Francisco until the 24th Nov & in between being a tourist & working my arse off, I'll be leaning Houdini. No not the magician tricks, a 3d Program used in the UK a lot by Framestore & the Mill etc. Its a tough program to learn but work in the UK is slow for Max users & I would love to have at least one of the companies under my belt if not just for the experience of working for the Pixar's of the UK.

If you want to see our (mine & my fiancee's) travels in San Francisco check out the Blog......
http://www.offexploring.com/mandyandsteve/home

Stay tuned for the bug shots (prob after the 24th Nov).

Steve

Update

2008-08-20T11:06:00.000-07:00

I've been a bit bogged down lately (maybe I should say Bugged down) by doing crowd simulations for a friends film called PIXEL
http://web.mac.com/trissirt/Doctor_Versluis/Pixel.html
The film required crowds of 3d bugs in certain shots so it was my job to put them there. Stay tuned for more updates & pics of the shots I may also make a video tutorial on how to create bug simulation & crowds.

Helicopter Landing

2008-07-29T05:02:00.000-07:00

After finishing the FX courses I started to think about how to show off complex FX animations. So what this project was about was to show a Helicopter landing where 3 orange/red smoke flares were with some landing dust & small debris. So the ground has no colour/texture neither does the Helicopter this is why the dust is a blue is could to match the ground.

Hope you like it, I changed the final look on my show reel to give it an old Vietnam look to make it look a little more believable.

End Of Week 08

2008-06-03T03:30:00.000-07:00

Wow what a week, again this is one of the tutorials I joined the course for & I think it turned out great. I already knew most of what were taught but it was nice to pick up some good tips & I even worked out some very good processes for creating fire without FumeFX!

Steve

End Of Week 07

2008-05-21T10:07:00.000-07:00

This weeks tutorial was a storm system using PFlow & Afterburn. This was interesting since its not all about Particles creating other particles something I found out before while working on 'Kid Samurai'. When a raindrop falls if Max has to calculate every particle reaction for a splash things start to get heavy so you use a few Particle systems to create the overall effect. I used Cebas's FinalDOF for this which caused a few problems since it wouldn't export(or I couldn't find a way to) the DOF to effect every layer rendered out by 'Render Elements' in Max, it works great on single framed shots but on animations you can't apply it to all the layers in post. I also used Cebas's PSDManager which is a great idea but again so many different layers have so many tweaks to Alpha channels or DOF it was easier to render separate layers out. I do wish it would have worked with the FinalDof plugin, you would think that Cebas since they make both plugins would have sorted it out.
In AfterFX I added the drops on the camera lens to add more depth.

Steve

End Of Week 06

2008-05-21T10:00:00.000-07:00

This week was a bit frustrating since we were doing crowd simulation using a demo of a plugin called 'Box tools #1'. This tutorial was one of the ones I signed up for the course in the first place. Overall the tutorial was good & easy as usual but when we started to use the plugin everything went wrong & I spent the whole week talking to people in America at 3am. I finally sorted the problem out by actually buying the plugin luckily with the course you get a discount so it ended up being about £35 instead of $200!!!!!

I'll post some pics when I actually do something with the tutorial since I'm working on a friends film making bugs using a crowd system!!!!

Steve

End Of Week 05

2008-05-10T04:56:00.000-07:00

This week was all about Bullets & Grenades. We did 3 tutorials one on a gun firing with muzzle flash & smoke using PFlow & Afterburn. The other was on Bullet Ricochet, after a bullet hits a wall sprinkles of debris are produced & smoke. I took this 1 step further & made a system which spurts blood from some surfaces & debris from another. I'm hoping to take this further later with blowing up a car using FumeFX too. The last tutorial was about a Grenade explosion.

THE NEW WEBSITE IS NOW UP & WORKING!!!!! Check it out.
www.steviemac.co.uk

Steve

End Of Week 04

2008-05-03T10:09:00.000-07:00

This week we did a hand smashing up through the ground I think the motion came out really well & the background didn't take too long but got the right mood for the scene. Since this week didn't take me too long to get a decent result I was able to sort out my new website so its nearly finished now just a few tweaks are needed.

Steve

End Of Week 03

2008-04-25T04:46:00.000-07:00

Hi guys,
This week we had to do a Twister I think the end result turned out pretty good! I used an old model & fragmented it using Thinking Particles. I then used Particle Flow to control, when the fragments fly off into the Twister. The twister itself is done using Particle Flow & Afterburn it took quite a long time to render the actual twister but i think it was worth it.

Steve

End Of Week 02

2008-04-21T10:12:00.000-07:00

This week we went straight into explosions using a missile with a particle smoke trail to blow up a bunker. I ran out of time this week due to rendering but I'm hoping to use Thinking Particles, FumeFX & PFlow to blow up a Police car in the same way we did this tutorial.

Steve

End Of Week 01

2008-04-10T13:11:00.000-07:00

Ok its the end of the first week of my course. This week was a few general tuts to get into PFlow & Afterburn creating Clouds, Cigarette Smoke & Steam. This was pretty tough for a first week but very interesting for week one.

I've also been learning Thinking Particles a very powerful program for creating particle FX. It's a bit complicated in some respects but in others it makes work flow a lot easier.

Update

2008-04-06T16:48:00.000-07:00

Today I start my course in PFlow (Particle Flow) FX in 3DS Max. I'm really looking forward to this I've already done a course in FumeFX & that went pretty well.

The website is going well but i still need to sort a load of work to put on it. I'm tempted to just put it up & add to it as i get it done.

Steve

Testing Testing 1 2 3

2008-04-01T16:12:00.000-07:00

Hopefully my new website will be up by the end of the week.