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What I’m Working on (WIWO)

Virtual Reality Rapid Prototyping Tool - Reel Pictures VR

Reel Pictures Virtual Reality Experiences

By Current Projects, Software, Virtual Reality, What I'm Working on (WIWO)No Comments

I’ve been working on a few different Virtual Reality “Demos” over the past few months at Reel Pictures. This post outlines the different VR demos we have been working on.

Inspired by the fantastic “Job Simulator” app, I’ve made a Virtual “cartridge” for each of the demos. People can put on the VR headset, literally pick up the cartridge they like, inspect it from any angle and then place it into our cartridge loader to begin the “Experience”.

All demos are currently in alpha so re-writable prototype carts are being used – haha. They will have proper label art closer to release.

[image title=”Virtual Reality Landscape Demo – Reel Pictures VR” width=”544″ height=”403″ align=”center” lightbox=”true” group=”Reel Pictures Virtual Reality Melbourne” icon=”zoom”] http://thelode.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/16-07-18_Reel_Pictures_Virtual_Reality_Demo_01.jpg [/image]

(Above) This is what the front of the cartridges look like – very much inspired by the classic NES Cartridges. It was modelled in 3DS Max and textured in Substance Painter. This demo is a collection of “Landscape Tests” – large environments that can be explored in Virtual Reality.

[margin type=”30″] [image title=”Cartridge Rear – Reel Pictures VR” width=”544″ height=”403″ align=”center” lightbox=”true” group=”Reel Pictures Virtual Reality Melbourne” icon=”zoom”] http://thelode.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/16-07-18_Reel_Pictures_Virtual_Reality_Demo_03.jpg [/image]

(Above) This is the rear of the cartridges – the label is inspired by the sticker on the back of Nintendo 64 cartridges.

[margin type=”30″] [image title=”Virtual Reality Rapid Prototyping Tool – Reel Pictures VR” width=”544″ height=”403″ align=”center” lightbox=”true” group=”Reel Pictures Virtual Reality Melbourne” icon=”zoom”] http://thelode.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/16-07-18_Reel_Pictures_Virtual_Reality_Demo_02.jpg [/image]

(Above) This is the first VR demo I have began working on – a tool to view CAD models in a real-world scale in Virtual Reality – a VR Rapid Prototyping tool. This is one of the best use-cases for Virtual Reality at the current time (July 2016), in my opinion.

[margin type=”30″] [image title=”Virtual Reality Tabletop CAD Viewer – Reel Pictures VR” width=”544″ height=”403″ align=”center” lightbox=”true” group=”Reel Pictures Virtual Reality Melbourne” icon=”zoom”] http://thelode.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/16-07-18_Reel_Pictures_Virtual_Reality_Demo_04.jpg [/image]

(Above) This demo is a tabletop CAD model viewer. It allows you to view large CAD models (such as apartment blocks) in Virtual Reality. They are viewed at scale – as if they are sitting on a table in-front of you. The user will eventually be able to “switch” between a scaled table-top model and a real-world scale model at will, change the time of day, view multiple versions of the same building on top of each other – for comparison, and much more. This is another fun demo that is the most developed.

[margin type=”30″] [image title=”Museum of the Hoddle Grid – Reel Pictures VR” width=”544″ height=”403″ align=”center” lightbox=”true” group=”Reel Pictures Virtual Reality Melbourne” icon=”zoom”] http://thelode.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/16-07-18_Reel_Pictures_Virtual_Reality_Demo_05.jpg [/image]

(Above) This is the first VR demo I ever developed, a project that began in mid 2015. It is a Virtual Reality walkthrough of the “Museum of the Hoddle Grid” – a proposal by Paul Evans, Nigel Westbrook and myself to the Royal Society of Victoria. The Museum of the Hoddle Grid is pitched as as a museum dedicated to the history of the “Melbourne Grid” – the network of streets designed by Robert Hoddle. It will feature the world’s first Mixed Reality Exhibition space – where all the exhibits exist as digital holograms that interact with the physical environment around you. Since this was my first VR demo, its cartridge is gold! The main demo is an interactive walkthrough of the 1st-floor exhibition space. Another component of this VR demo is a scaled version of the entire building that you can view from any angle.

[margin type=”30″] [image title=”Akagi Aircraft Carrier VR – Reel Pictures Virtual Reality Demo” width=”544″ height=”403″ align=”center” lightbox=”true” group=”Reel Pictures Virtual Reality Melbourne” icon=”zoom”] http://thelode.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/16-07-18_Reel_Pictures_Virtual_Reality_Demo_06.jpg [/image]

(Above) This is a Virtual Reality demo we are aiming to show museum directors, galleries and event management companies. The participant puts on their VR headset and appears on the 260m deck of the Akagi Aircraft carrier stationed in the middle of the ocean. Utilizing the VR motion controllers, they can use their hands to ‘pick apart’ a Mitsubishi Zero fighter plane that sits on the deck – picking up each of the aircraft panels one by one. They can also sit inside the cockpit of the plane!

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Find out more

In the coming weeks I am going to be recording and sharing some videos of these VR Demos in action. If you are interested in trying out any of these demos, or chatting more about Virtual Reality, get in touch via my contact page or the Reel Pictures contact page.

Virtual Reality Presentation Reel Pictures

Virtual Reality Demo for the Royal Society of Victoria

By Current Projects, Virtual Reality, What I'm Working on (WIWO)No Comments
[image title=”Museum of the Hoddle Grid Presentation at the Royal Society of Victoria” width=”544″ height=”408″ align=”center” lightbox=”true” icon=”zoom”] http://thelode.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/2016-06-09_Virtual_Reality_Presentation_Reel_Pictures_FeaturedIMG.jpg [/image]

Tonight was the big night! I did a VR presentation to the Royal Society of Victoria with Paul Evans, Alf Kuhlmann and Ivy Tseung. The VR component was nearly 2 months in the making with 2 audience practice runs beforehand. It was really, really fun and we learnt a lot along the way!

We presented our idea of a “Museum of the Hoddle Grid” – envisioned by Paul Evans and Nigel Westbrook as a 3 story high multi-use building with a dedicated Mixed Reality exhibition space. This would be the 1 location dedicated to the history of Melbourne, Robert Hoddle and his Hoddle Grid.

Fingers crossed this proposal will eventually become a reality!

 

Reel Pictures VR Presentation

Reel Pictures VR Presentation at NH Architecture

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I recently presented my first VR Demo to an audience of Architects with the help of Melbourne based Architect Paul Evans, Reel Pictures Studio Director Alf Kuhlmann and my wife Ivy.

The demo is a Virtual Reality walkthrough for a new 3 story building proposal for the Royal Society of Victoria. This proposal is a collaboration with myself and Architects Paul Evans and Nigel Westbrook.

The 1st floor of this building houses the world’s first dedicated Mixed Reality Museum exhibition space. This is an exhibition dedicated the Hoddle Grid – the backbone of Melbourne.

It’s taken me 6 weeks to develop this very first VR experience. It allows the participant to walk around inside the proposed “Museum of the Hoddle Grid” exhibition area and get an idea of what the holographic virtual exhibits would be like.

We presented this demo to NH Architecture in Melbourne. Next week, we will give the same presentation to the Royal Society of Victoria. It has been a lot of fun (and a lot of late nights) putting it together. Thanks to my family and friends who gave it a test run and supplied some great feedback!

Buchanan Lyric Video Motion Graphics

Lyric Video for Buchanan’s “Pressure in an Empty Space”

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I recently put this video together for Buchanan. This was a very fun shoot at the Melbourne Airport that required a lot of Rotoscoping to composite everything all together!

Michael Wentworth-Bell - Virtual Reality Designer Melbourne

Virtual Reality Demos

By Virtual Reality, What I'm Working on (WIWO)No Comments

Spent the weekend at the Studio in Footscray working on a new VR Demo – an idea of a completely “Mixed Reality” museum exhibition space. Having heaps of learning as much as I can about this new medium!

[image title=”Working on some Virtual Reality Demos” width=”544″ height=”408″ align=”center” lightbox=”true” group=”VR” icon=”zoom”] http://thelode.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/2016-04-17_Micael_Wentworth-Bell_Virtual_Reality.jpg [/image]
3D animation Drone footage

Adding 3D animation to Inspire 1 Drone Footage

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I had a lot of fun at Reel Pictures working on a project shot on the Inspire 1 Drone. We added 3D animation to 4 aerial shots of a 3.5 acre subdivision in Gisborne, Australia.

The aerial footage was shot in 4k by Eye Of The Sky using their Inspire 1 drones. The footage turned out great and amazingly no Lens correction or rolling shutter removal was necessary to get a camera track. The drone’s camera is controlled independently of the drone itself and is locked on a Gimbal so there are no vibrations. Tt also has great auto-focus and auto-exposure.

After tracking the footage we made the estate come to life, adding the boundary lines, fences, structures, roads, trees and animals. This was a fun job and a good opportunity to test out the new Alembic playback-graph feature in 3ds Max 2016. Also made good use of the Animators Toolkit (ATK).

Portfolio item

You can read more about this project in my LODE portfolio.

Stills from the 2015 Toyota Animation Launch

Animated content for the 2015 Toyota Camry Launch

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Reel Pictures recently created a number of animated sequences for the 2015 Toyota Camry Launch in late April. This is the last time a Toyota car will be manufactured locally in Australia and the launch ceremony was held at the Altona Manafacturing plant with over 3000 employees present. The launch celebrated the many different teams responsible for the production of a car, including Design, Powertrain, Resin, and Assembly.

We animated 9 different looping states that could be timed with the on-stage procession. There was also a large circular LED screen that masked the car. The different components would ‘fly’ from the rear screen ‘into’ the ‘pot’ (circular LED screen) which was cooking the car inside. The animations would sync across both screens and the on-stage calls.
[image title=”Animation for the Toyota Camry Launch 2015″ width=”544″ height=”403″ align=”center” lightbox=”true” group=”PODBA” icon=”zoom”] http://thelode.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-Toyota-Camry-Animation_02.jpg [/image] This was a great project to have been a part of and there is more information about the Launch and the state of the Australian Car manufacturing industry on the Age Newspaper website.

[image title=”Animation for the Toyota Camry Launch 2015″ width=”544″ height=”318″ align=”center” lightbox=”true” group=”PODBA” icon=”zoom”] http://thelode.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-Toyota-Camry-Animation_01.jpg [/image]
after effects hand drawn animation style

‘Hand Drawn animation style’ using After Effects

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Animation Test – After Effects


This is a short animation test that was created in 45 mins for a recent project pitch.
It is an attempt to achieve a ‘hand drawn’ 2D animation style using After Effects.
Basic workflow:
[list style=”list_2″] [li]I drew the artwork in Illustrator using Pen tool, modified paths with variable stroke tool to get the look desired.[/li] [li]separated elements into individual layers as required.[/li] [li]imported the .AI in to After Effects[/li] [li]Set comp to 12 FPS.[/li] [li]”Convert Vector to shape layer” command (After Effects CC).[/li] [li]Used wiggle expression on ‘Twist’ and ‘Offset Paths’ Modifiers of the shape layers.[/li] [li]Used a recent fluid sim rendered sequence as a track matte for the colour reveal[/li] [/list]

This is a quick workflow and allows you to approximate the look of the organic moving lines of 2D animation after only drawing one frame.
Also easy to Update and iterate. The wiggle expression is slightly different per layer to not look too computerised. It is easy to apply this expression to other shots.

You can read more about the process in the YouTube comments for this video.

W.I.W.O: Week 35 & 36 – Melbourne Zoo Underwater Exhibit

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I’m creating 3D animated content for an exhibit at the Melbourne Zoo! Reel Pictures & Mal Padgett design are putting together an update for a 6 minute large-screen video about Australia’s coast and recycling. I’m helping to create 2 minutes of animation for the exhibit.

The video must go live on the first week of school holidays (very, very soon!) but we are confident we will finish the content in time. I’ve spent the last week or so creating the underwater environment.

I have saved a lot of time thanks to a tutorial created by Michael McCarthy- 2011 Autodesk 3DS Max master and one of my many heroes in this industry. For a recent tutorial, he created an underwater enivornment that looks fantastic and renders extremely quickly using Mental Ray. I have used this idea as my starting point for our underwater scene. It’s my first project using Mental ray in a very long time, and i’ve been reminded how good mental ray actually is. It hasn’t been developed properly in a few years (though that may change over the next couple of months), and I still believe vray is far better, but mental ray is proving to be a much better solution for this particular job.

 

I’ve also spent a few days over these last 2 week helping Alf Kuhlmann put together a new website for Reel Pictures, the first update in a few years. The new Reel Pictures folio is only just started, with many more projects to be added and finished, but already there is so much awesome work on there.

I’ve also created an updated poster design for Moonee Valley City Council’s Fling Fest Event.

[image title=”Fling Fest 2012 Poster Design by Michael Wentworth-Bell” width=”544″ height=”757″ align=”center” lightbox=”true” group=”wiwo2012week35″ icon=”zoom”] http://thelode.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Fling-Fest-2012-Poster-Design-Michael-Wentworth-Bell.jpg [/image]

I created the artwork for this poster in Photoshop and 3DS max and rendered it with Vray and After Effects. It was a lot of fun and i’m going to create a new page on my portfolio for this project soon.

The next 2 weeks will be quite busy with the Underwater animation job, but it’s a lot of fun (lots and lots of Particle Flow Simulations) and I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

[divider_line_padding] I try to create a quick journal entry at the end of each week that covers the projects, events and highlights of the past 7 days. These weekly blog posts are known as the ‘WIWO’ Series
(What I’m Working On).
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My 2 Year Anniversary

W.I.W.O: Week 33 & 34 – Kubota Truck Launch

By Current Projects, What I'm Working on (WIWO)One Comment

A double journal entry this time. I’ve had a pretty exciting past 2 weeks!

I spent a lot of this time working on animated content for an upcoming Kubota Truck Launch. The Animated content was created for a 40 metre wide screen!

All the animation was done using Video Copilot’s Element 3D plugin. I thought this project would test the plugin to it’s limit but it would render these massively large animation files without any issue…although I was doing a lot of this work with a beastly GTX 680, which may have had something to do with it!

I worked primarily on a ~90 second animated sequence for the main Kubota truck launch. I look forward to sharing some of the work after the launch!

 

I also helped create animated content for another upcoming ‘Go For Gold!’ corporate event, this time completing all the 3D animation in 3DS Max with Vray.

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In this past week, I also attended the first ‘meet and greet’ for Pause Fest, Melbourne. It was interesting to see the showreel of clips that will be featured in the upcoming festival at the end of the year, and I also bumped into my first year 2D animation Teacher, Megan Nairn, who amazingly still remembered me! I created 4 2D animations for her 2D animation subject.

 

In week 33, I also celebrated my 2 year anniversary with my girlfriend, Ivy, and enjoyed some time off!

My 2 Year Anniversary

 

I’ve used some of my time off to start a few new personal projects – more info on that soon!

[divider_line_padding] I try to create a quick journal entry at the end of each week that covers the projects, events and highlights of the past 7 days. These weekly blog posts are known as the ‘WIWO’ Series
(What I’m Working On).
[divider_line]