| Student Name | Giordana Guerriero |
| Project Title | Advanced Physics Simulation Project |
| Tutor(s) Name(s) | Jon Holmes, Graham Cooper, Clive McCarthy, James Field |
| Group Members
(If Applicable) |
N/A |
Project Type
Please select the optimum assessment strandfor your project, as described in the core module guide. Weighting for each submission component varies from strand to strand.
| Type 1
MAJOR ARTEFACT |
Type 2
PORTFOLIO |
Type 3
EXHIBITION |
| X |
Brief Project Outline
A short outline of your proposed project
| Last Semester I intended to learn different skills in the software ‘Houdini’ but as I focussed more on Blender, this semester is where I will take the knowledge learnt from Blender and apply it to Houdini.
To begin with, the aim of this project is to start by creating different physics simulations i.e. fire, smoke, water, in Houdini and produce a show reel of the work in a final output – similar to how I structured my previous project in Blender. This being said, for the first few weeks I will keep my options open as I understand the scope of this project is larger than my last one as this software is more intricate. If this doesn’t go to plan, I could potentially switch my focus back onto using Blender but combine my knowledge of this and Chroma Keying to create VFX in live action scenes. My project type will be Portfolio, as the nature of the project involves some level of experimentation, I will be frequently updating it in my blog and there is 20% of the focus on research and development. It also gives a clearer aim of my project having a combination of small experiments to make up for the final output of my project submission. The concept of my idea will be similar to my previous project, as I will be bringing together the small projects in a final show reel of work to present to those in the industry. It will have before and after shots to show what the simulations looked like before the render and after the render. My intended audience is those that are already in the industry and looking to hire. This way, I am more motivated to think about industry standard work and also will provide a good portfolio of work to take forward with me when looking for a media-based job. I will use YouTube to upload my final output so that I can imbed it into the spark page, my YouTube account has many different video uploads from my previous project and is therefore a suitable platform for my work to be seen. My technical abilities will be challenged further in each element of this project. Whether I experiment in Houdini or create scenes with Blender, both will be a step further into my skills and the more I learn the more in-depth and refined my work will look. Providing a portfolio that reflects an experienced user with physics simulations. https://vimeo.com/226906993 I have taken inspiration from this show reel of work as it is from the SideFX Houdini website has been used in 2017 films/adverts. It allows me to see how the work I’m doing can be placed into industry level work i.e. Moana, The Smurfs etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bglBfYdNIvM this YouTube video is where I can take inspiration on if I am to go forward with live action sequences using Blender as it gives me an idea for potential scenes/narratives for short clips to solely demonstrate my skills. |
Research Outline
A short outline of the research you will personally undertake as part of the project, including relevant texts. Try to add specific details where possible
| Primary Research: Experimenting primarily in Houdini to test whether the scope of the project is possible for this semester. Following this, I will conclude on whether to continue in Houdini, or to revert back to Blender and create simulations as part of small live action sequences.
Secondary Research: The main source of secondary research will be from YouTube tutorials as I believe that these are a fast and efficient way of gaining clear information on my project topic. I can refer back to my old blog that I did that has previous research on Houdini. One of the websites I found last term was https://filtergrade.com/houdini-overview-vfx-3d-modeling-software/ which is a Houdini overview and will be appropriate for this project as I can prepare for the difference between using Blender and the complexity of Houdini. https://www.lynda.com provides a lot of different video tutorials for beginners, with navigating the interface to understanding elements like lighting/dynamics/particles etc. This will likely be my ‘go to’ in terms of learning Houdini. If I was to take forward compositing a physics simulation/object made in blender into live footage, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCBZifZQEf0 this YouTube video has resourceful tips to take into consideration when experimenting with combining blender simulations with live footage To evidence that I will be developing my project alone, and after discovering that the use of blog posts gave me better time management, I will be uploading blog posts that explain each experiment, and demonstrate my work through discussion and comparison with the use of still images, time lapses and towards the end potential videos that can be used for other people’s tutorial purpose – to show that I have learnt new skills and can relay the information to others. |