As I wanted to expand my knowledge more in Houdini, I decided to go back into the software to create a smoke simulation. For this experiment, I did not use any tutorials to follow as I wanted to challenge my current knowledge and see whether what I have learnt has improved the way I create.
The first step of this experiment was to add a sphere object into the scene view.
After this, I applied the shelf tool called ‘billowy smoke’ to the object, which created a domain and turned the object into a ball of smoke.
As I wanted my smoke to look more natural, I turned off ‘clamp to maximum’ as this prevents the domain from restricting the smoke from elevating more and gives a more freeing effect.
The following step I took was adding a distant light as it provides dynamic in the smoke, automatically making the smoke more natural and also giving further depth to the simulation.
The final step I had to do was go into the material palette and apply ‘basic smoke’ to the object, this may not have been a necessary step as it didn’t change much of the smoke however it created a more ‘whispy’ effect.
Frames Rendered: 200
Render Time: 25 minutes
Final Smoke Output:
This experiment was simpler than I thought it would be, as I challenged myself to not follow a tutorial I feel as though my skills have been sustained and I am beginning to be more confident with using Houdini. If I was to work further into this experiment, I would create a ‘wafting’ plane object to see how the smoke reacts.
I decided I wanted to do a second experiment compositing background in Blender, but this time I did not want to rely on the uses of other tutorials/guidance to see whether my skills have been learnt thoroughly.
I wanted this experiment to use soft body physics as it creates a larger dynamic in my project.
As I have created many experiments in Houdini, I felt it was appropriate to return back to Blender so that I can experiment with how to composite a background into moving objects and make the object look like it’s supposed to fit into that environment with adjusting the lighting. This project was originally going to show live action backgrounds, however I feel that because of how large the scope of learning Houdini had become, I decided that using still images would be more time efficient.
The outcome of this experiment will hopefully be three cubes falling on the ground of an underground carpark, and it will demonstrate the skills I have already learnt in Blender and develop my knowledge on compositing skills.
The first step of this experiment was to download a HDRI of the background image, and a section of the HDRI that is going to be seen in this view. After selecting the camera, the following step was to enable the background image to insert the carpark into the view by selecting ‘add image’ (highlighted in the screenshot above) and turning the opacity of the image from 50% to 100% to create a full effect.
beforeafter
After that, I selected camera view, and locked the camera to view so that I could realign the grid in order for the cube to look like it is on the ground of the carpark. Above is the before and after of this step.
I turned the engine used for rendering from ‘blender render’ to ‘cycles render’ to allow the simulation to move naturally. I added a plane to the scene and scaled it up and enable ‘Shadow Catcher’
The image above shows the shadow catcher affect on the object, which makes it look more natural in the environment. To see this, look in the rendered view and you can see that the cube has a shadow which makes it more realistic.
Go into active data settings and allow transparency to see the background in the render view.
The next step is to load in the HDRI image to light the scene appropriately (image above). To do this, you go to the world setting, select ‘use nodes’ then select the drop down for the ‘colour’ setting, and select ‘Environment Texture’, which will then take you to your files to allocate the correct HDRI, I then changed the strength of the colour to make it more prominent.
To make the cube look more natural in the environment, I changed the colour by making it more grey and dingy looking.
Above shows me adapting the size and shape of the lamp, as I wanted it to be directly above the cube, because this way the lighting looks more organic as it gives the illusion that is is coming from the light in the image.
From past projects, I remembered how to change the physics of the objects. I selected the cube and made it an active rigid body, but made the plane a passive rigid body, as this way when the cube falls it will collide with the plane that acts like the ground. (image above)
Image above shows experimenting with different sizes of objects and also changing the lighting setting of the ground plane, to make the cubes fit more naturally into the environment. I colour picked from both the floor and the light in this image.
Final Output of Compositing Rigid Body:
Frames Rendered: 220
Render Time: two hours
Something that I am unhappy with on this experiment is the level of noise it has. Without denoising, the objects look grainy and unnatural therefore in my next experiment I will turn denoising on.
