Image courtesy of Nickelodeon

The Picture of the Month for July was created by Robin Hobart, specifically as part of a CG demo for Brickyard VFX. He had this to share about this impressive piece:

"I used everything but the kitchen sink in this piece. It was cobbled together from custom models, stock models, and some LightWave content. All work was done in LightWave. No plug-ins or compositing software was used. I photographed most of my own textures and got the rest from cgtextures.com. It took two months of working on and off during downtime and after hours. Render times were 45 minutes per frame using LightWave 64-bit on dual quad core PCs. I also learned a lot from tutorials - especially regarding the node editor."

Learn more about Brickyard VFX in this month's newsletter.

"Brickyard VFX is largely engaged in the creation of Visual Effects for Television, Film and Internet. CG, Compositing, Digital Finishing, Color-Correction, Titling, Re-Lighting, Rotoscoping, Design, Pre-Visualization, Logo Animation and Camera Tracking are all within our area of expertise."                                                                                                                                                                                                                  - from their website 

That pretty much sums up what makes Brickyard VFX what it is today - a very successful post-production facility with an impressive skill set, matched by their list of accomplishments. One look at their online gallery and you'll see what I mean. Specializing in photoreal CG and seamless compositing, their most successful projects look as though no work has been done at all. With studios located in Boston, MA and Santa Monica, CA, the talented crews at both locations are never short of work, much of which is completed using LightWave 3D. 

We recently talked to image of the month creator, Robin Hobart, a visual effects artist at the Boston location, and he shared some insight as to what their production process entails. 

NewTek: Why do you use LightWave 3D? 

Robin Hobart:
While working on a job, I needed something that would run on a Mac, be fairly easy to learn, and yet still produce professional looking results. As an Autodesk Flame artist, I needed 3D elements to supplement my composites. I began using LightWave's Modeler to output 3ds objects that I could bring into Flame. This worked out well, and eventually I was doing entire scenes in LightWave. I had a basic understanding of maneuvering in 3D, from my experience of being a 3D compositor, and after about three weeks, I had a pretty good understanding of how to use LightWave. From that point on, I turned to tutorials to learn specifics like UV mapping and Dynamics. There was an amazing radiosity guide on www.except.nl that pretty much explained everything about how LightWave does Global Illumination. We've been using LightWave 3D in full production at Brickyard for about six years. 

NT: Will you briefly describe your workflow?

RH:

• Previz (if needed) 
• Create custom models or dissect CAD/3D model info that's supplied to us
• Conform Live Action plates to specific scenes 
• 3D track (if needed)
• Light and texture scene 
• Set Buffer Export for multipass output 
• Send the scene to our render farm
• Currently, we use Qube from Pipeline FX as our render manager, with render nodes supplied by Boxx - all running 64bit Windows. 
• The only plug-ins we use are EXRTrader from DB&W for more buffer export control and HD Instance for instancing. 
• Send all elements to Flame for compositing

NT: Is there a project that you are particularly proud of?

RH:

"Amazing Moments" for the NBA was a recent challenging and rewarding project. The campaign was for three :30 second commercials with Goodby Silverstein, to be broadcast during the NBA playoffs. The concept for the project was to open on an empty stadium and progressively have the individual players and cheering crowd fill in from the original, vintage footage. We had to model full interiors of the original Boston Garden, The Philadelphia Spectrum, and The Los Angeles Staples Center. This was a significant challenge, since only the Staples center was still standing and reference for the other two sports venues was very minimal. The next step was to match these recreated backdrops precisely to the vintage basketball footage (the source of these "amazing moments"). The lighting and texturing had to match the original plates almost exactly. From concept to completion, we had about three months. It was a massive amount of work, but we knew the end product would be great, if executed properly. Everyone was thrilled with the final spots, and they won a bunch of awards. I felt good that all the R&D and elbow-grease paid off in the end. 

    Click the above image to watch the video, preceded by the "making of" segment

        LightWave 3D set up for band backdrop

        Image courtesy of Elevate Pictures

        Image courtesy of Elevate Pictures

Image courtesy of Bitt Animation & VFX
Image courtesy of Bitt Animation & VFX
Image courtesy of Bitt Animation & VFX
Image courtesy of Bitt Animation & VFX

Fresh out of high school and ready to take on the digital world, Cody Burk (codyburke610 on the NewTek discussion forums), has already made a huge impression with his informative demo video that explains the ins and outs of the 3D process. Take a look:

After this amazing video made the rounds in the office, we felt it was important to find out who Cody Burke is, before he runs off to digital super-stardom. We caught up with him during his hectic first week at The DAVE School and asked him a few questions about the video, and himself:

NewTek: What was the purpose of making this video?

Cody Burke:
This video was made for the Pennsylvania High School Computer Fair. It was going to be my last year of being able to compete, and I wanted to accomplish two things: First, I wanted to show everyone how much hard work truly goes into creating a heavy vfx film, and how amazingly talented the professional artists really are. Second, I wanted to take my passion for this industry and pass it on throughout middle schools in Pennsylvania. For younger kids that don't have a clue as to what they want to get involved with when they get to high school, I was hoping this video could possibly give them some insight to an amazing career path option.

 NT: How long did it take to complete? 

 CB:
I began writing the script and story-boarding this video in January of 2010, and finished just before the submission deadline for the computer fair in March.

NT: Did you win any awards for it?

CB:
This video took First Place at Regionals, which allowed me to proceed to the Pennsylvania State competition where it also placed First.

 NT: What has been the reaction to the video?

 CB:
The reaction to this video has been amazing. During the computer fair, there were lots of people filming my project off of the monitors, so I decided to post it online. Instantly, I began receiving e-mails and messages from people in the LightWave community telling me how inspirational and helpful it was. The LightWave Facebook page also posted a link where people left nothing but appreciative comments. I was also invited to a middle school in Pennsylvania to show it to a class of eighth graders and answer any questions they had. I wanted to get this video as much publicity as possible, and that is definitely happening. I couldn't ask for a better reaction.

 NT: What inspired you to get into computer graphics?

 CB:
I got into computer graphics through skateboarding. I started skating in the second grade, which led to filming, which led to video editing, and by that point, I was in eighth grade deciding what to take in high school. I had heard of an art school that offered a four year course entitled, "The Academy for Video & Media Arts." I enrolled immediately. During ninth grade, I noticed my instructor using LightWave 3D, and I was instantly attracted to it. That's when my transition from video editing to computer graphics occurred. 

NT: Why do you use LightWave?

CB:
I use LightWave for so many different reasons. I went to a four year art school, and that was their primary 3D package. I feel so fluent when I am inside LightWave; it's like I'm in a completely different world and nothing can take me out of my focus. I just love the fact that a single person can practically produce an entire animated short completely by themselves. LightWave is such a powerful tool, and to be completely honest I will never stop using it, nor will I ever stop learning it.