6 ms·

While I agree in general, I work in the VFX industry as a software dev writing a renderer that's used for blockbusters, and one situation where CG still isn't q

by berkut 6y ago

While I agree in general, I work in the VFX industry as a software dev writing a renderer that's used for blockbusters, and one situation where CG still isn't quite "there" yet IMO is fluid effects and explosions (which is somewhat combined with the simulation of them as well as the rendering). So much iteration time can go into attempting to get the right "shape" of the simulation, as well as "colours" (smoke, combustion, flame), whether via a black-body spectral shader or a more artist-driven one, and it's very difficult to get people to agree on what looks "real" or "right", especially compared to say hard-surface rendering. Doing it practically (assuming the correct scale, and fuels were used) might (depending on directors and producers' opinions) make people "just" accept that the result is "realistic", and remove a lot of the uncertainty, at the very least just because they can't tweak things afterwards, and what was recorded is the result they get, as opposed to having a team of 10s of people iterating for months (including lots of compute time for simulations and rendering) trying to get something the people at the top are happy looks "real".

tgsovlerkhgsel 6y ago
> and one situation where CG still isn't quite "there" yet IMO is fluid effects and explosions (which is somewhat combined with the simulation of them as well as the rendering) To be honest, the non-CG crash scene in the snippets that I've seen looked off too. Random fireballs starting in random locations.
- eloisant 6y ago
  When doing non-CG crash for movies, they often stuff the vehicle with explosives for a more spectacular result. They know it's not realistic, because they take the decision to add all these explosives. Now when reality gets influenced by fiction, ISIS actually used bombs that make a lot of flames, more than necessary for warfare, just to make their propaganda videos similar to the Hollywood movies their recruiting targets have been watching all their life.
  - manquer 6y ago
    Perhaps to make it look worse on tv to get coverage . I am sure recruiting videos could just as well use CGI if they wanted to. Likely anyway does, skifull editing and manipulation are required for any propoganda content anyway.
tempnowreal 6y ago
Hi, if I wanted to have a career doing what you do whats path if course I should take considering im a total novice in programming.
- andai 6y ago
  There are high-intensity 6-month VFX training programs at art schools where you learn the full pipeline. I don't think most VFX people know much programming, but it can be helpful in certain situations.
  - tempnowreal 6y ago
    Im actually a lot more interested in rendering and the programming side of graphics. Its just wherever I search I can't find a clear cut path for this ... this isn't something I want to transition into next year - fundamentally I want to understand the systems of rendering and probably transition in into a consultant of sorts in the graphics field. Im sorry I know its vague... but I can't be more clear either
    - davvid 6y ago
      The Applied Mathematics program at UCLA (and others I'm sure) have produced many CG researchers under the direction of Joseph Teran. I'm sure there are many other great programs and professors; this is just one that I know about from colleagues that have gone through the program. https://www.math.ucla.edu/people/ladder/jteran https://www.math.ucla.edu/people/ladder/jteran
- berkut 6y ago
  I'm not sure I'm afraid... I started programming when I was quite young, and have always been interested in it, and in terms of the VFX / Graphics industry, I've only been involved in that for the past 10 years, before that I was in other industries, so I really stumbled into doing it. All the graphics / VFX knowledge I now have is self-taught (other than learning off colleagues) as well as experience working in the industry. I'd say learning how to program is a good starting point, if you are really interested in graphics it's probably a good idea move into low-level programming (C,C++,CUDA) that's used in the HPC realm, because often the code will need to be extremely optimised. However, you can still do cool things in a higher-level language.
partyboat1586 6y ago
It sounds like the problem is people don't have a feel for what real explosions look like because they don't see them often enough. And if they do have good reference it's probably for controlled explosions rather than rare catastrophic explosions which I'm sure is quite a surreal experience.

by berkut 6y ago

tgsovlerkhgsel 6y ago

> and one situation where CG still isn't quite "there" yet IMO is fluid effects and explosions (which is somewhat combined with the simulation of them as well as the rendering) To be honest, the non-CG crash scene in the snippets that I've seen looked off too. Random fireballs starting in random locations.

eloisant 6y ago
When doing non-CG crash for movies, they often stuff the vehicle with explosives for a more spectacular result. They know it's not realistic, because they take the decision to add all these explosives. Now when reality gets influenced by fiction, ISIS actually used bombs that make a lot of flames, more than necessary for warfare, just to make their propaganda videos similar to the Hollywood movies their recruiting targets have been watching all their life.
- manquer 6y ago
  Perhaps to make it look worse on tv to get coverage . I am sure recruiting videos could just as well use CGI if they wanted to. Likely anyway does, skifull editing and manipulation are required for any propoganda content anyway.

tempnowreal 6y ago

Hi, if I wanted to have a career doing what you do whats path if course I should take considering im a total novice in programming.

andai 6y ago
There are high-intensity 6-month VFX training programs at art schools where you learn the full pipeline. I don't think most VFX people know much programming, but it can be helpful in certain situations.
- tempnowreal 6y ago
  Im actually a lot more interested in rendering and the programming side of graphics. Its just wherever I search I can't find a clear cut path for this ... this isn't something I want to transition into next year - fundamentally I want to understand the systems of rendering and probably transition in into a consultant of sorts in the graphics field. Im sorry I know its vague... but I can't be more clear either
  - davvid 6y ago
    The Applied Mathematics program at UCLA (and others I'm sure) have produced many CG researchers under the direction of Joseph Teran. I'm sure there are many other great programs and professors; this is just one that I know about from colleagues that have gone through the program. https://www.math.ucla.edu/people/ladder/jteran https://www.math.ucla.edu/people/ladder/jteran
berkut 6y ago
I'm not sure I'm afraid... I started programming when I was quite young, and have always been interested in it, and in terms of the VFX / Graphics industry, I've only been involved in that for the past 10 years, before that I was in other industries, so I really stumbled into doing it. All the graphics / VFX knowledge I now have is self-taught (other than learning off colleagues) as well as experience working in the industry. I'd say learning how to program is a good starting point, if you are really interested in graphics it's probably a good idea move into low-level programming (C,C++,CUDA) that's used in the HPC realm, because often the code will need to be extremely optimised. However, you can still do cool things in a higher-level language.

partyboat1586 6y ago

It sounds like the problem is people don't have a feel for what real explosions look like because they don't see them often enough. And if they do have good reference it's probably for controlled explosions rather than rare catastrophic explosions which I'm sure is quite a surreal experience.