Reflective surface test

[ddrake]

3D environment with reflective floor test:



Here I pulled in existing character animation to see the practical application:

[sargumphigaus]

fantastic. Reminds me of space jam for some reason.

[ddrake]

Reminds me of space jam for some reason.

Haha. Well...cartoons and basketball. I guess that's not such a big leap.

[sargumphigaus]

Well yeah, when you put it that way, it's blatantly obvious. Either way, you got my attention. Whatever your working on I wanna see it. You got your style down quite well. I tried to figure out how to three dee an atmosphere once and my ass was promptly handed to me.

[Danimal]

Your videos are phenomenal. This use of 2D in 3D space is really great! What software are you using for this? I noticed that the 2D also cast a reflection, how was that done?

If you've explained this elsewhere, just point me to the thread.

Thanks!

[ddrake]

Thanks! This is all done with anime studio. Using AS Pro 9. Nothing written up about my technique yet since I really just kind of put this together this weekend.

The simple description is that I created my pieces for the 3D space, then create a copy of each and do a vertical flip on them and then position them below the floor vector.

The Floor itself is set to have some transparency, so you're actually looking through to a second "mirrored" version of the same room. Add a little blur where it seems appropriate, and the same applies to characters: Create the animation sequence, place the characters and then place a flipped copy under the floor for their "reflections."

[Danimal]

This is all built in Anime Studio?!?! Holy smokes, that's incredible!

I thought these were sets built in another program and then imported. So for the lamp in the principal's office, was that done using some sort of extrude in the software? And the walls are just carefully built using X, Y, and Z planes?

I could probably ask about a billion more questions but I'll refrain for now.

[3deeguy]

Done with Pro 9.5? Amazing!

[ddrake]

Yeah, all the objects are made using a mixture of the 3D extrusion capabilities in the 3D tab for the vector layer. It's kind of tricky trying to think in terms of how to turn a vector shape into the 3D shape you're looking for, and there are definitely some limitations. The "lathe" option is what Is used create the lamp shade. It just pulls your vector shape 360 degrees around the origin point. So, just think of something like that when creating a vector shape as a sort of "cross section" of your object. But everything is symmetrical around your origin, so you only create half, and it wraps the rest around.

And the walls and floors are still just vector layers rotated and positioned x,y,z.

The mind blow with all of this though has to do with thinking of each vector layer not as a single object, but rather an infinite plane. You can get some rather odd results with camera movement (and especially with different options toggled like "sort layers by distance" and sort by "true depth" or whatever they are, because the camera is considering only the distance to that point of origin. The camera could seem very close to the wall visually, but the point of origin very far from the camera, and I think this is what gets things confused about actual set line width vs. perceived line width. Seems best to just order your layers manually the way you want them to look, (especially now you can animate layer order)

I don't know what kind of time I'd have to do it, but I'd be interested in doing a tutorial of some kind. In the meantime though, feel free to ask any questions. Don't know if I can answer them, or if my answers will make sense though.

[Danimal]

I don't know what kind of time I'd have to do it, but I'd be interested in doing a tutorial of some kind. In the meantime though, feel free to ask any questions

For sure you'd have one person watching it a million times: me. I need to try out the 3D capabilities. I've shied away but that looks so good!

[3deeguy]

I think tutorials are important. As a community we all benefit. Personally, I like to work on characters that face the camera. Smart bones let the character nod "yes" and "no". That is a game changer. I recently worked on a front view walk cycle. The technique I use is fairly simple. The side and 3/4 view walk cycles, rotate bones. You can get 'Y' axis Timeline info that can used for a front view walk cycle. The difference is side and 3/4 views 'rotate bones while the front view 'scales'.
At the moment I'm doing studies on the hand. I want to start with the palm and end with fingernails. I'll probably have to produce a complete character first but I will do a tutorial if there is any interest in what I did.

[ianmage1]

Excellent work on the 3D environment!
Not to steal your thunder, or anything, but I've used this same exact technique many times in the film I'm working on; I'm obsessed with it. I've learned that it can be very helpful to create a mask for the reflective surface. That way, you don't have to ever worry about potentially seeing parts of the mirrored room "stick out" from underneath the reflective surface:
Without masking.

With masking.

This is especially useful for creating mirrors. I made a thread about this, if anyone's interested.

Once again, excellent work on the 3D environment.

[Maestral]

@ ianmage1

Your example is also good, but there`s something in ddrake`s 3D which I still can`t figure all out. Front wall and it`s reflection - xzy, but how would you solve stands on the left one and theirs reflection?

Therefor, I`m also interested to see a tutorial and would appreciate your efforts, ddrake.

[ddrake]

Thanks ianmage1,
Nice looking work and great tip on masking. I could see how this could become an obsession. The results look really neat and it adds a definite wow factor to the visual style. With my approach I just found something lacking with just using shadows on a floor like that, really needed that lacquered look. I didn't get around to the necessity for masking I think as it was fairly large scale room and my camera at this point would never find the edges, so I wasn't too concerned about overlap, or I guess "underlap" rather

I'm certainly going to look a little closer at your mirrored box. Combining masking with this to get enclosed reflective spaces/objects is a great idea. I probably don't have time for this to become my obsession because I don't know how much it's needed for the project I'm working on, but I may not be able to help myself.

[ddrake]

@maestral

The stands are just a group of extruded vectors laid out in the "3D" room. Just apply the same vertical flip to the group and position them in the negative under the floor layer.

I'll try to find the time to do some semblance of tutorial soon. If nothing else maybe a couple picture exports showing a couple different views of the set up.

Heck, guess I could just make another quick test clip where the camera breaks the planes and you'd probably get a pretty clear idea of what's happening. Feels a little like "showing how the sausage is made," but probably the best way to learn to make sausage, eh?

Ok, I'm done talking about sausage. I'll try to post a video of that sometime this evening.