jasonfugh.com: The Blog

Update and Coming Soon

2011-05-23T20:42:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone just a keep update of what is to come. Working Several things right now. I'll be posting some new logo designs hopefully this week if not next. As for my effects work, I'll be starting on an fx shot using my rain tool. Also I am going back to a fx shot I worked on in college. Creating a blood clot simulation. Hoping to have both of those in 2 or 3 weeks. After that going to work on some flash, AE and either C4D or Softimage; if I have time.

Update: Projects and Viemo

2011-04-14T09:29:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update. Took out the trail and cache SOP's from the fx tool. Check out the video in my projects page and my vimeo page (under links). This video now shows the render POP and the mantra ROP that are created. Also has a test render at the beginning and end. Let me know what you think.

Python/Houdini FX Tool Finished. Start Making it Rain.

2011-04-03T13:40:00.000-07:00

Finally after editing the layout, parameters and fixing all the errors the "Rain" effects tool is FINISHED. Below is a link to my vimeo page where the demo video is. Sorry for the poor quality. Because of the quality of the video I will breakdown what each parameter does.

"Rain System Tool"
parameter 1. Rain System: click the create system button or "Make it Rain" button. This simply creates a geo node with 4 sop nodes inside it (grid, popnet, cache and trail SOPs). Inside the popnet there are 4 POP nodes (source(the grid is the source by default), force(gravity and particle speed), drag and an optional collision POPs).

parameter 2. Amount of Rain: This controls the constant birth rate of the particles in the source POP.

parameter 3. Rain Speed: Controls how fast the particles fall in the force POP.

parameter 4. Wind Speed: Controls how strong gravity is. (parm name will be changed to gravity).

parameter 5. Life: Controls the how long the particle live.

parameter 6. Collisions: There are 3 controls here. First is the on/off switch. Check the box to turn them on. Next is a "collide with" button. This allows the user to add a collision object to the collide POP. Lastly you have six behavior to choose from. Die, Bounce, Stop, Stick, Slide and Continue.

parameter 7. Bounce: Controls how hard the particle will bounce. (will be changed to a text box soon. wxpython only reads whole numbers.)

parameter 8. Trails: On/Off switch. And "clear cache" button. Clears all simulation data that was cached. (if using trail, you need to clear the cache when you edit the parameters.

parameter 9. Trail Length: Adjust the length of the particle trails.

If anyone is interested in trying this out, feel free to contact me through email or twitter. Watch the vimeo video and let me know what you think. Feel free to leave comments here, on vimeo or hit me up on twitter.

Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/fughfx/python-fx-rst

Thanks,
Jason.

2011-03-22T13:52:00.000-07:00

Well in attempt to fix the label problem and text error I was getting, the fx tool isn't working. Have to figure out how to link 2 events to the scroll, and still fix the text error ( I fairly sure that it still enters and reads the inputs.)

Let It Rain: RST Finished

2011-03-17T20:32:00.000-07:00

After 2 weeks the RST, or Rain System Tool, is finally finished. It still has a few kinks to work out (error when you type in the amplitude boxes, but still adjust the amplitude; other problem is the slider labels are static, need them to show the user what number their on.). Other than that the fx tool works. Click the create button to make that particle system/rain. Then the user can adjust the amount of particles(rain), Speed of the Rain, amplitude and turbulence. Also the user can choose whether or not to turn on collisions. Once on the user can select the object to collide with and the collisions behavior, and finally if the behavior is bounce they can adjust the strength of the bounce.

After I get the slider problem fixed I will be making a how to demo on using the tool. Its still in the basic stages. I still have a few things I'd like to add. On that note let me know if you want the code posted on the website ( let me know through email, twitter or leave a comment here.). Open to suggestions on what else to add to the tool. I do plan on uploading the file to download for free, once I have all the kinks and notes for the user type up.

Lastly here is a quick screen shot of the fx tool.

Making it Rain! (its basic rain, but still raining)

2011-03-14T23:10:00.000-07:00

Alright everyone. FX Tool is now working. Well it's basically working. I have the "create rain" button working. If you run the script in houdini the GUI will load up, then click "Make it Rain." Once you do that the "rain system" is created. You are given a grid input into a popnet SOP. Inside the POP network your given a source, force, drag and collision nodes. The render flag is on the drag node by default.

Also the check on/off box is working as well. If you check it, the render flag is moved to the collision node. If turned off it reselects the drag node.

The next goal, and the most import is getting all the slider controls working. There are 5 of those ( Amount of Particles, Speed of Particles, Life of Particles, wind speed and bounce, for collisions).

Update 3: wxPython GUI Test

2011-03-11T11:24:00.000-08:00

Starting to work on the GUI for the Rain System Tool (will be refering to it as RST ). A few minor changes have been made. First, since this is my first tool created in python, I've decided to keep it some what simple. So, I will be getting rid of the "hail" tab for now. I might come back and create it in a later version of the tool. The other minor change is getting rid of the option to instance an object onto the particles.

For todays main update, I have finished testing out the different wxWidgets I will need for RST. Slider, check box, combo box, static text and of course buttons. Next goal is to put them all together and create the GUI. Hopefully that will be finished by Sunday night, so I can start on getting it to work with Houdini.

FX Tool Generator Idea

2011-03-09T12:50:00.000-08:00

So while learning how to apply python to houdini, I figured out how I want the "Rain Generator" to work. The Basic idea is it will create a rain system and then you'll be able to control how much rain, the speed, the wind speed & direction, Life of the particles, what happens on collision and will allow you to add a collision object. Also there will be a tab for creating "hail"; which will also be effected by some of the same parameters as the "rain." So that's the update for today. Let me know if you have any suggestions for this tool.

Guess Whose Back...Finally

2011-03-08T22:25:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. So after months of trying to get my pc back up and running (6 long months), I'm finally able to start working. Sadly the Ink Morph project has be put on the back burner for now, will return to it soon though. Has of right now I'm working on developing my programming. The main focus is python, and building cg toolsets with python. Over the next couple of days/weeks I'm going to be documenting the progress of at least one tool. The idea for this tool is simple, create a rain generator with the option to create hail as well. You can check the updates right here on my blog, on the odforce forums and maybe even my vimeo page. Once again sorry for not posting anything over the past months. Also feed back will be welcome on this vfx tool project, and once its complete I'll have it upload somewhere for you to download and test out. Thanks.

---Jason

Because You Can Open Photoshop... Doesn't Mean You Should!

2010-08-18T21:41:00.000-07:00

For sometime now I've been wanting to write something about graphic design, but I haven't found a good subject. That is until this past Friday at my part-time job. This article is just an observation from my time working as a freelance artist and an employee in the restaurant & bar business. This article is by no means trying to be condescending or judgemental to anybody.

To all the non-designers, the title of this article speaks for itself. Just because you can open up photoshop doesn't mean you should. Being able to open up software, adding type and some colorful pictures doesn't mean you should be designing advertisements for your business or the one you work for. The only reason you should be doing this is for your latest house party or some random event you decided to throw. As an artist bad design and advertisement stick out to me very easily. So when I see them, I'm not looking at what your advertising, but what you wasted your time and/or money on. I think of different ways to make it better and try not to get a headache in the process of doing so. Anyways, this article isn't here to tear you down, make fun of you or trash you business; I'm writing this to help you understand graphic design and why good design, not a pretty picture and text, will help your business.

First thing is, you never go straight to the computer. NEVER. An artist always sketches out his idea before going to his medium of choice (i.e. paint, sculpture, computer, etc.). Whether its one doodle after another, a full sketched picture or even a block with multiple shape to create the layout; sketch it out first. And create multiple images/ideas. The first might work, but you could discover something better. Any artist will tell you that, the final image is never created right away, it takes a lot of work and time.

Time is one thing we always have on our minds. And sometimes people put aside things they think can be done quicker than others task; in other words, they work on the more difficult tasks first. This usually happens with design work (in small local businesses). Mainly because everyone thinks it doesn't take a long time to create a flyer. Well they're right! If you want something someone will look at one second and then throw it away in 5 seconds, then by all means wait to the last minute. But if you want something that will catch someones eye, hold their attention and maybe even want to hold on to it for a while, then take more than 10 minutes to design it. You may think its just something stupid like a handout, coaster or even a match book; but sometimes that's the one thing that people like and keep, and even remember your business by. A perfect example of this is, about 3 weeks ago I was staying at a hotel, and the service and the room were both great. Now the only reason why I remember the hotel isn't because of the service, but because of room key holders they had. You could tell a lot of thought went into it. Slogan on the front, contact on the back, and info about them in the inside and sleeve of the key holder. Short and clear and two colors. Looked simple, but it caught my eye and I kept it. All because it looked clean and I new that they spent more than 5 minutes on it. With that said, isn't that the job of an advertisement? To make someone remember your company. So no matter what your designing take your time, and take pride in not just your business but also your design work.

As an artist it always hard to take pride in your work, when your always looking for the flaws in your design or having to create something your ashamed of. Working in an industry where the average ad consist of women that are barely clothed and text is thrown all over the place, its hard to per sway your client to approach the design in another direction. The main reason this happens, I believe, is because people always say and think that "sex sells." Whenever I hear this I always quote Madmen."Says who? Just so you know, the people who talk that way think that monkeys can do this. They take all this monkey crap and just stick it in a briefcase completely unaware that their success depends on something more than their shoeshine. YOU are the product. You- FEELING something. That's what sells. Not them. Not sex. They can't do what we do, and they hate us for it." Now I'm not saying I won't create something with a sexy dressed woman on it, but I'll work it into my design creatively and not just throw it in there. But sadly that what happens, someone opens up a program, types out words and then throws a few sexy pictures on the sheet of paper. I could probably talk about this for a while, but I'll save this topic for another day. In the end if you don't want to sketch out the ideas, take the time to plan it and take some pride in what your creating, well then you only have one choice...out source it!

Running your own business I'm sure gets frustrating, why add to the stress with trying to save a few bucks and create your own advertisements. You don't have to pay an arm and a leg for design work, but don't be to cheap, always remember you get what you pay for. If you don't have a lot of funds, you can always look for an artist trying to build up his portfolio. He will always work hard to create a great ad, mainly because he wants to get in with a well known studio or just get some experience (I've done this before). With out sourcing you can always find that one artist who not only wants his design to succeed, but your business as well. The better you do means there's a large chance you'll continue to work with him. Taking the advertisement stress off of you and letting someone you has training and experience in design work create your ads, will only benefit you in the long run.

So to conclude, if you want your business advertisements to work either take pride in what your creating, I mean you already take pride in your business, why not take pride in the ads. Or you can hire someone to do the work for you, and they actually know what to do with the software when they open it!

Once again I want to apologize if I have offended anybody. That was not the goal of this article.Feel free to leave a comment, your opinion on this topic, or even discuss why I'm wrong or right! Thanks for reading.

New Projects: Posters, Logo and Typography Stuff

2010-08-11T10:51:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the wait on the new post. Been working on several freelance projects and re-working some particle effects on the Ink Morph Project. Should be posting the Morph project this week. Also working on a few sketches and drawings that will be posted either Wednesday or Friday.

So like I said I've been working on a few new projects in graphic design. These first 2 images were created for the bar I work at part-time. They were having a "Summer Party Series "and I was asked to create 2 posters for them. The first was for their "Blackout" party. This party was going to have black lights everywhere, so I wanted the design to reflect that idea (obviously), and this was the final image. The reasoning for the giant negative space is because I left room for the copy and it ended up being just a few lines.

The next poster that was created for them was the

"Heaven & Hell" party. This theme party was straight forward. The entire bar was going to be decorated as Heaven or Hell, as well as the staff and people were encouraged to wear costumes. So for this I decide to create a single character rather than clutter the poster with multiple images. Then used two separate fonts for the Heaven & Hell text. The image shown isn't the one that was used, but I wanted to post the original design with copy ( I wrote that as well, which is why it not that great). The design that was used was just the character, with title of the party and the date. Let me know if you want to see that design and I'll post here.

The next project was an advertisement for "Paradock's Bar and Grille Industry Night" I created a postcard size handout and a flyer/poster for them to hang up inside the restaurant and bar. Since the industry special was an extended happy hour, I first wanted a picture of a bar with people having fun and drinking, and then wanted to set the late night mood with overlay the picture with blue, which just happened to be the main color in their logo. This design also carried over to the flyer. As for the back I wanted to find a font that represented the summer, but wasn't to cliche. Finally added the palm trees to give it that summer/beach feel.

Lastly I just finished some logo designs. The first logo was for an restaurant/food blogger, Chris Hill. For his logo he wanted it to combined both his passion for food/cooking and writing. In the image, I show you how I got to the final design. The other logo was create for Chase Skylar DeMayo, market and events associate at 96x. He wanted his to look both professional and "outgoing." I'm not sure if my final design says out going, but he said it was what he was looking for

and this is the final design.

NEWS: May Updates

2010-05-27T14:24:00.000-07:00

Back again with more news. It's official, afughanimations.com is now jasonfugh.com. Its been a week since I got my site back up and running, however it will be another 2 WEEKS before I can get it fully update. Lastly as you can see I've changed up the blogs layout and added the tabs at the top; all of which lead to my site.

As for my projects, I finally got my software working correctly, and I'm currently working on bringing all my R&D work together and hopefully start rendering this weekend. Would like to have my Reel ready to update by Wednesday, so rendering is a must this weekend. And I'm going to be creating another typography video. I have a clip from a movie in mind, but I'm open for suggestions. Let me know if you have any ideas...movies quote, music,etc.

Old Project...New Design

2010-04-27T11:33:00.000-07:00

This is an older project I created a couple years ago, for poet/professor Martin Kamps. He wanted to bring one of his poems to life in an animation. I chose the poem "Mosquitoes" because I wanted a poem that had a character and wasn't to literal. This one just stuck out to me after the first time I read. Before I just had the words fade in and slowly fade out. However this time around I wanted to actually include the words in the animation. So this is my first attempt in create a typography video. This also let's me get back into my graphic design roots and work with type again. Expect one or two more typography video to be create, as well as another poem animation from Martin Kamps writings. Let me know what you think. (Also sorry for the blurriness of some of the words, I think it was the font I chose to use) Lastly thanks to my good friend Daniel Paradinha for creating the music and recording the poem.

NEWS: 2010 Updates

2010-04-19T12:33:00.000-07:00

Just giving everyone a heads up on whats be going on. First, my portfolio website, afughanimations.com, no longer exist. Mainly my fault for waiting so long to renew it. So if you were trying to go to y website through the portfolio link in my links tabs, thats the reason it wasn't working. My portfolio site will be back up soon, but probably not as afughanimations. I'll let you know when thats back up.

Also another change coming to my site and blog is the focus on Motion Graphics. I'm beginning to focus more on Motion Graphics, rather than effects. Having said that, I will still be creating particle and dynamic effect shots, but I will be trying to add some motion graphic pieces to my portfolio. I'm working on an older project that I create, and turning it into a Typography video. I should be posting that up within a few days. The best thing about Motion Graphics is it combines all my favorite attributes of graphic design (typography), animation and visual effects.

And finally, an update for anyone who has been following my progress on the ink morph. I'll be getting back to that soon. Ran into some PC issues (viruses and restoring my PC) and now software issues (Houdini HD). Check back in a few days for an update on my Typography video, new website design and hopefully some Ink Morphing.

Back to Photoshop

2010-02-18T07:59:00.000-08:00

This is a recent project I've been working on for my part time job. I was asked to collaborate with a co-worker on their new menu cover. For this project I inked and shaded the drawing. Since I've been wanting to do a few drawings or 2d projects a month, along with my cg work, I figured this would be a good way to dive back into Photoshop. Let me know what you think.

A New Year...A New Outlook

2010-01-06T10:46:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to everyone. So in 2009 I was focusing a lot on my technical skills (i.e. learning various software, refreshing my programming language) and no time on my artistic skills. With that said, 2010 I plan on balancing both technical and artistic skills. At least once a month I'll post a drawing or a 2d design project on here. I got this idea from a reading a friends blog ( check out his webiste/blog by clicking the link Adam Amaral). Every other week he posts something on his blog, usually new drawings. I'll still be posting project updates and breakdowns, but I do want to break back into my creative side and start drawing more.

As for my current project, Ink Morph, I was hoping to be finished by now, but 32 bit processor's and Houdini Fluids don't mix well. Working on rendering techniques right now for the ink and then I'll get back to morphing the ink into a fish. And after that I'm finally getting back into programming with python and of course developing some 2d designs/drawings.

Thanks for reading and once again Happy New Year.

Ink Morph: Swim Test

2009-11-12T12:51:00.000-08:00

Finally another update. October was a little rough. Had a lot of stuff going on, sick for 2 weeks, some freelance stuff and ran into a problem with the rig and procedurally animating it. Anyways I hope to finish this before Thanksgiving, so I can start some python and tool building. Or maybe a demolition fx.

So since the last post I had to re work the rig for the fish. I was getting a lot of deformation I didn't want, plus I wasn't getting the control I needed. Having a background in character animation help with this part of the shot a bit, but without a great character rig and controls I wasn't able to get the motion I wanted, so I decided to go at it procedurally. First I created a line, and then used CHOPs to animate it. After editing and tweaking the CHOP Network so that the curve would move in a wave form, I used Houdini's rigging feature Follow Curve, which used the points to layout the bone structure. After that I just had to capture and edit the captured geometry. This was my 1st attempt to use CHOPs, and I'm definitely going to continue to use it, very powerful tool. (Thanks goes out to Andy N., for pointing me in the right direction, great tutorial and example file.) The next step was getting the cycled fish to actually move, instead of staying in place.

Normally I would just animate the character (in this case the fish) moving across the screen as I animated the movement of the character. However, since the original rig didn't workout I decide to continue animating it procedurally, through the new Motion FX feature "Lag". This feature is very simple you select the object you want to "lag behind" and the object you want it to "follow." In this case I drew out a curve and applied a sphere to follow along the curve or "the path". Next selected the fish to lag behind the sphere, and there you have it. The fish looks as though its swimming along with the sphere. Right now the motion isn't exactly how I want it, but I'm going to be editing the curve and some of the expressions a little later when I bring it all together.

As usual, here's an example vido of the actual test and breakdown. If anyone's thinking about breaking into Houdini, CHOP's is one of the things I recommend you learn (after getting the basics down). It's very powerful and you can tweak any of your animations, fx and simulations with it, and it will make for a better shot. Up next I should be posting some tweak I've made on my ink effect R&D stuff, as well as some shaders. And hopefully soon a final animation/simulation for you to view. Please feel free to leave any comments, suggestion or critiques.

Fish Model and Rig

2009-09-14T12:58:00.000-07:00

I found a free model of this koi fish and I finished rigging it today. still some small skinning and paint weight issues, but nothing too serious. I'm going to attempt to animate the model procedurally by using the new feature in houdini called "Motion FX." I want to create a cycle where the fish swims slow to fast and back to a slower pace. The plan is to have a single particle follow a curve and instance the fish model onto that particle. Another possibility is to have a second object follow the curve and then use motion fx again to allow the fish model to follow that object. Here's a couple of screen shots so you can see the rig and model, also there's an example of the fish out lined in particles (since you won't actually see the model in great detail in the animation).

Morph: Volume Test

2009-09-09T12:47:00.000-07:00

This post is just to show the volume and movement of the fluid smoke (the ink). This took several hours to simulate, so I found a quicker and easier way to get this effect with low resolution fluids. That will be in the next post, also working on the fish model (or trying to find a free model to use) and animation. Anyways the next post should be this weekend with new volume test, advected particles test and soome actual render tests. Let me know what you think about the video.

Here's the link for my reference.
http://www.pond5.com/index.php?page=search&p=0&q=ink+water+fluid&advs=

Ink Update: Fluid Motion

2009-07-30T10:46:00.000-07:00

In this entry I will breakdown how I got the motion for the ink falling and sinking down into water. I will also have a video example of the motion and some network screen shots for you to view.

Ink Motion .01: Fluids
This is actually a very basic smoke set up. First started out with a smoke object and container. Inside the DOP Network I added a Gas Vorticle and Recycle nodes, where I added about 60,000 vorticles. Then inside the smoke object and solver nodes I adjusted the attributes, changing the uniform division to 150 and adjusting the bouyancy direction and lift. As I said this is a very basic set up. By the next post this might be more complexed or not even used.

Ink Motion 02. Particle Controlled Fluids:
Unlike the previous set up, this one is a little more complex. Instead of have a static RBD object emit the smoke, I have a POP Network controlling the smokes activation, so when ever a particle enters the container smoke is emitted. Here's a more detailed breakdown.

POP Network:

Inside the network I have the particles birthing from a source, in this case a simple sphere. Next is a Force Node that adds some noise to the particles. Then a "Collision" node where the particles hit and then die on contact. Instead of having the particles bounce on contact, I decided to use a "Split" node that will birth new particles, and therefore give me more control. After that I added another force to affect only the split particles and then a gravity to affect the whole POPNET.

DOP Network:
The DOP Network is a little more complex than the POP. First just like the previous fluid set up I use a "Smoke Object" and a "Smoke Solver" node. Next is a "SOP Geometry", this is the DOP that allows me to pull in geometry from the SOP level (i.e. the popnet). Now the most important DOPs are the "Gas Particles to Feilds." This micro-solver copies attributes from the POPNET to the DOPNET. In this case, thes 2 are copy the attribues from the "Density" SOP thats connected to the popnet. The last main DOP I add are the "Gas Vorticle" and"Recycle Vorticle" DOP nodes. Then the data is filed out to a seperate folder.

Here is a video example of how the motion of the ink will look. I'm going to continue to tweak the motion for the rest of this week and then post the final video next week. All next week will be working with advecting the DOPs to particles and then animating a fish, and if I'm able too start working on the VEX shader. Once again feel free to leave any comments, ideas or suggestions. Thanks,

---fughfx

Also check out the 2 new links that were added. Two great artist and friends.

Morphing Ink Project

2009-07-23T13:22:00.000-07:00

The idea behind this project was based on 2 separate ideas/videos. Particles morphing into an animated object and ink dropping into water. The final animation will be of ink falling slowly down and building up at the bottom, and then having some of the ink morph into a fish swimming away.

Week 1:

To get the exact motion I'm looking for, I've decided to use Fluid Smoke Dynamics. Right now I am using a smoke object to emit the fluids. Originally, I tried to use particles or Rigid Body Objects (RBD) to emit and control the smoke. By having the emitted particles controlling the fluids, I wasn't able to get the motion of ink in water; however, this is still an option I'm looking into using. The RBD Object worked, but the smoke wasn't emitting the way I needed it to; plus the smoke was only emitting from the bottom (need it to emit from the top and build up at the bottom), and having 2 simulations was taking too long to sim out. Here are some examples I'm using for the FX:

http://tinyurl.com/m39nzq
http://tinyurl.com/llbzuw

The motion of the ink still needs some more work, but here is what I have so far. The video below is the progress I have with the motion of the fluid (shown through denisty and temperature). Please feel free to leave any comments or suggests.

The next step will be to bake the simulation out as a 3D volume, too see if the motion as a volume is where I want it. Once that is done then I will add an RBD object and advect the fluid into particles. Hoping to add another update in a few days or sometime this week, with a test render of the smoke and a test video to see how the smoke reacts to the RBD Object going through the it. Once again please feel free to leave comments.

---fughfx