Hello guys!
This week our blog entry includes a making-of video very different from last week’s Bronx Museum sunlight experiment set in the future. Taiwanese artist Chun-Yu (James) Yang has done a mouthwatering animation using both Maxwell Render and RealFlow. We couldn’t help but ask how he did it! Enjoy and thanks, James 🙂
The Artist
I come from Taiwan. I got my Master’s degree in Multimedia Design from the National Taichung University of Science and Technology, and mainly studied in-game advertising. My specialties are: 3D Design, Animation, VFX, Compositing, Modo, MaxwellRender, RealFlow. You can check out my website and Facebook page for more info!
Danzai Noodles Animation
I like making videos related to my living environment. Taiwanese food is well-known, and Danzai noodles is one of my favorites childhood dishes. In real life it is not so difficult to prepare a bowl of Danzai noodles. After observing the cooking process, I realized it could be simulated with RealFlow. This is how I got the idea for the project!
Why Maxwell Render?
The parameter settings in Maxwell Render are easy to understand, so users can save lots of time adjusting them.
What is more, the result of its render output is very close to reality. For these reasons I always use Maxwell Render as my main rendering software.
When I started using such software, I mainly rendered with Mental Ray. I was also trying other different types of software at that time, and got to know Maxwell Render by chance four years ago. I have been so impressed by the render setting in Maxwell Render and the results it produces since the first time I used it!
Most of the images I create are straight from Maxwell Render. Every single frame is in .mxi file format and adjusted through mxi batch processing. Smoke is produced by Maya and composed by After Effects.
MAKING OF
Concept and objective
The idea was to simply show how Danzai noodles are cooked using the physical engine in RealFlow and create authentic lighting changes by Maxwell Render.
Modeling
All models in the scenes are easily structured. Noodles are formed by forty cylinders. Minced pork sauce is formed by twelve particles in different colors and shapes and by manipulating RealFlow simulations to create instances in Maya. The rest was modeled by basic geometry.
I set the noodles as soft bodies in RealFlow and made them do some free falling.
Materials/Textures
I used subsfurface as the material of the noodles. I set the roughness to zero. This makes the noodles translucent, wet, and real. The material of spiced corned egg is the noise map of two colors.
Lighting
Ligtning is emitted from two ring meshes with emitter material.
Camera
Every scene is rendered with Simulens. With scattering at 250, the scene becomes more lively. I manipulated the measuring tool in Maya to achieve the autofocus effects.
Render set up (resolution + hardware + network rendering/renderfarm)
I set the sampling level of each frame to 12, and used the Maxwell Render network rendering function.
Post Production
Firstly, I used Maya fluid to create smoke. Then I used After Effects to compose the smoke with the scene. With the smoke effect, the noodles look more delicious.
- Software used:
Maya2014, MODO801, MaxwellRender, RealFlow, After Effects, Photoshop - Hardware used:
Intel i7 3930K (Nvdia Quadro K5000)
Intel XEON E3-1230