<rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"><channel><title>vfxarabia</title><description>vfxarabia</description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/home</link><item><title>Sadeem 2</title><description><![CDATA[سديم 2:قليلة هي تلك الفرص التي تتيح لك استخدام خبراتك الفنية لخدمة هدف أكبر من فقط الفن لأجل الفن والمتعة, ولله الحمد حظيت هذا العام بفرصة المشاركة بانتاج برنامج سديم الجزء الثاني وهو برنامج وثائقي تلفزيوني إماراتي يعتبر معلمًا بارزًا من معالم الأفلام الوثائقية العلميّة في المنطقة. طوّر هذا البرنامج بهدف وضع حجر الأساس لعلوم الفضاء في المنطقة.يقدّم البرنامج سعيد القرقاوي، الذي يشغل منصب باحث إستراتيجي في مركز محمد بن راشد للفضاء.A scientific documentary aired on Dubai TV, and it's considered a<img src="https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/707356550_640.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2018/06/15/Sadeem-2</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2018/06/15/Sadeem-2</guid><pubDate>Thu, 14 Jun 2018 23:11:04 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/270949726"/><div>سديم 2:</div><div>قليلة هي تلك الفرص التي تتيح لك استخدام خبراتك الفنية لخدمة هدف أكبر من فقط الفن لأجل الفن والمتعة, ولله الحمد حظيت هذا العام بفرصة المشاركة بانتاج برنامج سديم الجزء الثاني وهو برنامج وثائقي تلفزيوني إماراتي يعتبر معلمًا بارزًا من معالم الأفلام الوثائقية العلميّة في المنطقة. طوّر هذا البرنامج بهدف وضع حجر الأساس لعلوم الفضاء في المنطقة.</div><div>يقدّم البرنامج سعيد القرقاوي، الذي يشغل منصب باحث إستراتيجي في مركز محمد بن راشد للفضاء.</div><div>A scientific documentary aired on Dubai TV, and it's considered a cornerstone in the UAE establishment of space science in the area.</div><div>Directed By: Abdulrahman Alzayani VFX artist: Alaa Alnahlawi Producer: Tasnim Alsayed Production House: PixelHouse</div><div>Dubai Media Incorporation.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>I'm on Patreon</title><description><![CDATA[Hey guys,I'm glad to announce that I'm a part of Patreon family now, and will be sharing most of my creation there so I need your support guys ;) See you there....https://www.patreon.com/VFXArabia]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2018/06/08/Im-on-Patreon</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2018/06/08/Im-on-Patreon</guid><pubDate>Fri, 08 Jun 2018 20:28:44 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div>Hey guys,</div><div>I'm glad to announce that I'm a part of Patreon family now, and will be sharing most of my creation there so I need your support guys ;) See you there....</div><div><a href="https://www.patreon.com/VFXArabia">https://www.patreon.com/VFXArabia</a></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Disable Windows User Account Control (UAC)</title><description><![CDATA[Well I faced some problems with 3dsmax plug ins (Fumefx, Thinking particles) while loading the program or using the tool and it has to do with Windows permission for programs to access the C drive and edit files there, and it will throw you an error message asking for elevation or sth like that.So this post is for you and me (as a reference in case I forgot how to do it), so it goes like this:-Press keys “Windows Key + R”, type regedit-Locate]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2018/04/13/Disable-User-Account-Control-UAC</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2018/04/13/Disable-User-Account-Control-UAC</guid><pubDate>Fri, 13 Apr 2018 19:34:37 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div>Well I faced some problems with 3dsmax plug ins (Fumefx, Thinking particles) while loading the program or using the tool and it has to do with Windows permission for programs to access the C drive and edit files there, and it will throw you an error message asking for elevation or sth like that.</div><div>So this post is for you and me (as a reference in case I forgot how to do it), so it goes like this:</div><div>-Press keys “Windows Key + R”, type regedit</div><div>-Locate HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\EnableLUA Update the EnableLUA value to 0 (turn if off)</div><div>-Restart Windows.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Houdini Benchmark Cores vs Clockspeed (updated)</title><description><![CDATA[Something is going to face every artist building a new rig, which is better to have a fast cpu or more cores. Well let's find out, this topic is specifically about Houdini and I'll be testing (Pyro,Grain,ocean). I'm going to be update the chart time I get new results or test a new system, so if you like you can join me by testing your systems and send me the results it will only take some of your machine time over night. You can find the files here.All you have to do is:-Open the Hip file.-Dial]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/09/10/Houdini-Benchmark-Cores-vs-Clockspeed-updated</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/09/10/Houdini-Benchmark-Cores-vs-Clockspeed-updated</guid><pubDate>Tue, 03 Apr 2018 14:51:04 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div>Something is going to face every artist building a new rig, which is better to have a fast cpu or more cores. Well let's find out, this topic is specifically about Houdini and I'll be testing (Pyro,Grain,ocean). I'm going to be update the chart time I get new results or test a new system, so if you like you can join me by testing your systems and send me the results it will only take some of your machine time over night. You can find the files <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/3rh15f6wbo8z867/Houdini%20test%20files.zip?dl=1">here.</a></div><div>All you have to do is:</div><div>-Open the Hip file.</div><div>-Dial in the resolution numbers as in the chart.</div><div>-Hit record in the performance monitor.</div><div>-Go to the last frame.</div><div>-Wait until it's finished and grab the time it took.</div><div>-Done.</div><div>The CPUs tested :</div><div>1- i7 6800K 6/12 @ 3.8GHz</div><div>2- 2 x E5-2683v3 28/56 @2.5 </div><div>3- i9 7900x 10/20 @4.4 (by<a href="http://forums.odforce.net/topic/30862-is-amd-potentially-risky-threadripper/?page=5&amp;tab=comments#comment-173668">Dorin Croitoru</a>)</div><div>4- i9 7940x 14/24 @3.8</div><div>5- i9 7980xe 18/36 @4.1 (by Fabian Buckreus)</div><div>6- Threadripper 1950x 16/32 @3.8 (by <a href="http://forums.odforce.net/topic/30862-is-amd-potentially-risky-threadripper/?page=6&amp;tab=comments#comment-173894">Siavash</a>)</div><div>Test method:</div><div>- Open cl wasn't used.</div><div>- Multi sim resolution were tested.</div><div>- I used Houdini Performance monitor were you hit record and go to the last frame, when the sim is done we just grab how many seconds it took. This way the viewport wont be updating while simming and this will make it a purely cpu test.</div><div>- Also no caching to disk were used to eliminate writing time.</div><div>Results:</div><iframe src="//static.usrfiles.com/html/578a93_452bf6a15567f8ecfdf9352504379038.html"/><div>Regards</div><div>Alaa Alnahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Dubai TV Identity 2018</title><description><![CDATA[Directed By: Usama Alsharqi VFX TD: Alaa Alnahlawi of VFXArabiaExecutive Producer: Aws AlsharqiProducer: Reem EmadProduction House: YaraMedia Dubai Media Incorporation.<img src="https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/689544552_640.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2018/03/17/Dubai-TV-Identity-2018</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2018/03/17/Dubai-TV-Identity-2018</guid><pubDate>Sat, 17 Mar 2018 18:42:11 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/260736074"/><div>Directed By: Usama AlsharqiVFX TD: Alaa Alnahlawi of VFXArabia</div><div>Executive Producer: Aws Alsharqi</div><div>Producer: Reem Emad</div><div>Production House: YaraMedia</div><div>Dubai Media Incorporation.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Houdini River Flip Sim</title><description><![CDATA[A more refined and detailed version of a test I created earlier. Sim time: 2h on i9 7940X only for the flip sim, iso surface and white water simulation was calculated on the fly while rendering so you can add another 2h for this. Render (Redshift): 2-5min per frame on 1070&1080 I had to do almost 5-10 tests for both simulation and rendering until I achieved this final result, oh man our specialty needs alot of patience and hardware power. I still have some flickering going here and there tried<img src="https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/687020138_640.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2018/03/06/Houdini-River-Flip-Sim</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2018/03/06/Houdini-River-Flip-Sim</guid><pubDate>Tue, 06 Mar 2018 10:00:55 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/258754019"/><div>A more refined and detailed version of a test I created earlier. Sim time: 2h on i9 7940X only for the flip sim, iso surface and white water simulation was calculated on the fly while rendering so you can add another 2h for this. Render (Redshift): 2-5min per frame on 1070&amp;1080 I had to do almost 5-10 tests for both simulation and rendering until I achieved this final result, oh man our specialty needs alot of patience and hardware power. I still have some flickering going here and there tried to clean them in comp.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Vray Proxy Time Shifter (3ds max scripted tool)</title><description><![CDATA[I developed this tool while working on Dubai TV ID 2018, it saves alot of time while manipulating time offset for imported Alembic data using vray proxy loader.It has two modes:1- Offsetting the animation based on its distance from a helper.2- Manually input the start time.Both options has a random spinner to add some nice variation to the mix.More info and download link can be found here...Kindest Regards Alaa Al Nahlawi<img src="https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/680537851_640.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2018/01/31/Vray-Proxy-Time-Shifter-3ds-max-scripted-tool</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2018/01/31/Vray-Proxy-Time-Shifter-3ds-max-scripted-tool</guid><pubDate>Wed, 31 Jan 2018 18:15:35 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/253607200"/><div>I developed this tool while working on Dubai TV ID 2018, it saves alot of time while manipulating time offset for imported Alembic data using vray proxy loader.</div><div>It has two modes:</div><div>1- Offsetting the animation based on its distance from a helper.</div><div>2- Manually input the start time.</div><div>Both options has a random spinner to add some nice variation to the mix.</div><div>More info and download link can be foundhere...</div><div>Kindest Regards Alaa Al Nahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Houdini To 3Ds Max Workflow
(Alembic / VDB)</title><description><![CDATA[As most of us newly Houdini converts every now and then we tend to move back to our original software to do rendering whether it was 3ds max C4D etc.... and the most common formats that form this bridge is VDB and Alembic.I mainly use vray for rendering inside of 3ds max so today I'm going to talk specifically about two very useful tools inside of vray that allows you to work with those exported formats, which are "Vray proxy loader" for Alembics and "Vray volume grid" for VDB.Note that the<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_6b5c6faa057f4ddbac6299a21aaae8ea%7Emv2.png"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/12/25/Houdini-To-3Ds-Max-Workflow-Alembic-VDB</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/12/25/Houdini-To-3Ds-Max-Workflow-Alembic-VDB</guid><pubDate>Mon, 25 Dec 2017 19:53:51 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div>As most of us newly Houdini converts every now and then we tend to move back to our original software to do rendering whether it was 3ds max C4D etc.... and the most common formats that form this bridge is VDB and Alembic.</div><div>I mainly use vray for rendering inside of 3ds max so today I'm going to talk specifically about two very useful tools inside of vray that allows you to work with those exported formats, which are &quot;Vray proxy loader&quot; for Alembics and &quot;Vray volume grid&quot; for VDB.</div><div>Note that the tools I will be talking about are in the creation tab under Vray category.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_6b5c6faa057f4ddbac6299a21aaae8ea~mv2.png"/><div>Vray Proxy Loader (Objects):</div><div>What I like about this tool over 3ds max native alembic import is:</div><div>- It loads the Alembic as a single object so everything is organised, packed and displayed as a proxy if you want, in addition to the ability to specify what object to load and what not.</div><div>- Animation can be retimed (start, end, graph....).</div><div>- Scale spinner and Flip axis (for data coming from programs where Y is up).</div><div>- All the points attributes from Houdini are there in addition to primitive groups as material IDs. Here I should elaborate more, let's take the following example, in Houdini if you assign a couple point attributes to a mesh &quot;a,b,c,d,e&quot; in addition to two groups of primitives.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_8fd64aa5362941bbb97c543c2e7e8f29~mv2.png"/><div>once this alembic is loaded in vray proxy loader all those attributes and groups will be imported as well but in a strange way (I'm talking about the attributes here).</div><div>Lets start by the easy one &quot;Groups&quot; they will show up in 3ds max by simply assigning a (Multi Sub Object Material) with different colors and you will see the result straight away. An important thing to notice here that the order of IDs is determined by the alphabetical order inside Houdini not by the node order so if your first group node was called &quot;beta&quot; and the second one &quot;alpha&quot; then alpha will be ID 1 in 3ds max.</div><div>As for the attributes (here you should have some experience with 3ds max channel info, you can find about it <a href="https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2017/ENU/3DSMax/files/GUID-5945F5FC-0D14-48BF-B2C5-31CE6C4DCB05-htm.html">here</a>) once loaded 3ds max will pack them in an RGB vector so each three of them will be on a separate channel, for example the first three will be like </div><div>&quot;MapChannel:1 = r_a; g_b; b_c;&quot; and the next channel will be &quot;MapChannel:2 = r_d; g_e;&quot;.</div><div>There are a couple of places to check what attributes have been imported and on what channel:</div><div>1- Tools menu &gt; Channel Info.</div><div>2- Utilities panel &gt; Utilities rollout &gt; More button &gt; Channel Info &gt; OK</div><div>I dont know why it only showed just the first three but I guaranty that all of them are there.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_c5d69e4399ce4d219b0910b68c235a3c~mv2.png"/><div>3- Right click on the object and choose object properties &gt; User Defined tab. </div><div>This one only works with vray proxy importer so if you picked another mesh created inside 3ds max you wont see those info.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_9b16c7610f2b443182e7c27bb6f727ff~mv2.png"/><div>4- We will focus on this one because it will help us with the shader, apply a material with a Vertex Color map once you do that the map will grab what channels the object has and list them for you, hit update in case it didn't show up.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_070c5eeaa7ca4dd58017763e3da0fa48~mv2.png"/><div>But we still need to follow two more steps to take advantage of those attributes, they are still in a vector format so we first select the channel which holds the attribute then the sub channel. In the picture above you will see how to grab the &quot;a&quot; attribute on the red channel.</div><div>Before jumping to the next chapter it's worth pointing out that Alembic format supports &quot;instancing&quot; and &quot;Transform mode for non deforming meshes&quot; which VrayProxyLoader also supports, this feature saves alot of disk space and increase performance. so if your scene doesnt contain deforming meshes it's better to change the ROP Alembic Output properties to be:</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_4dc568e706654c07a0948cba9f2296d1~mv2.png"/><div>Vray Proxy Loader (Particles):</div><div>Okay why did I put it in separate section despite working with the same tool? well if your particles have a shape (let's say boxes) then I'm not talking about it here you can refer to the previous chapter because it will be considered as a mesh this way, what I meant with particles is those position data of points exported from Houdini that will be rendered as point cloud or spheres. </div><div>And the nice part here that Vray proxy loader is already optimized to receive and work with those points data, it will give you two render options (points/spheres) with the ability to control the radius in addition to all the attributes we discussed earlier.</div><div>But what stands out here that it has a built in attribute that control the scale called &quot;width&quot; so if you want for example the same random scale you have in Houdini simply assign your pscale (Houdini's point scale attribute) to width using an attribute wrangle before exporting.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_24b4682776bd45628f37c4cd9341fdcb~mv2.png"/><div>That was it for Alembic workflow between the two application, please incase I missed something or if you have a better way do inform me, this post will be active and updated each time I find sth new. Now let's jump to VDB.</div><div>Vray Volume Grid:</div><div>Different applications use different channels and names for volumes. When loading VDB files, VRayVolumeGrid tries to automatically make the conversion to the Houdini imported channels.</div><div>Smoke = Density</div><div>Temperature = Temperature</div><div>Fuel = Fuel</div><div>Velocity = Vel</div><div>If a channel is not mapped by default like the color (incase you created a colorful smoke in Houdini like the file I shared <a href="https://vimeo.com/224831831">here</a>) or if you wanna make the Temperature be mapped to Heat, this can be manually set in the Input rollout on the Modify panel by clicking the Browse [...] button under Preview &amp; Render Cache Path and choosing 3rd Party Channel Mappings from the pop-up menu. Note that this option appears on the pop-up menu only if no input file has been selected yet.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_0a2171e4ecbf4d46b72b595c98d462ac~mv2.png"/><div>I really enjoyed sharing my experience with you guys which I gained and developed while working on Dubai TV Channel ID 2018, there was a lot of back and forth between Houdini and 3ds max where the scene assembly and final render was (sth the client preferred).</div><div>And here this post come to an end I hope you find it useful and as always thanx for dropping by and see you in another post.</div><div>Kindest Regards</div><div>Alaa Alnahlawi.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Using 2 GPUs to accelerate Houdini (OpenGL + OpenCL)</title><description><![CDATA[As the title said, you can tell Houdini to use another GPU as an OpenCL accelerator and leave the main one for UI and display.Why it is important, well normally while working on a project and having a couple of programs opened your GPU memory will be half full or lets say a minimum of 2GB will be utilized. So if you wanna use the same card to sim Flip or Pyro (specially) it's going to load the grid to the GPU and need every MB there and you will be downhearted to find that there is not<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_9314607b2cad430f81cfda092e9598a3%7Emv2.png/v1/fill/w_894%2Ch_502/ec9ef1_9314607b2cad430f81cfda092e9598a3%7Emv2.png"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/12/22/Using-2-GPUs-to-accelerate-Houdini-OpenGL-OpenCL</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/12/22/Using-2-GPUs-to-accelerate-Houdini-OpenGL-OpenCL</guid><pubDate>Fri, 22 Dec 2017 19:02:42 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_9314607b2cad430f81cfda092e9598a3~mv2.png"/><div>As the title said, you can tell Houdini to use another GPU as an OpenCL accelerator and leave the main one for UI and display.</div><div>Why it is important, well normally while working on a project and having a couple of programs opened your GPU memory will be half full or lets say a minimum of 2GB will be utilized. So if you wanna use the same card to sim Flip or Pyro (specially) it's going to load the grid to the GPU and need every MB there and you will be downhearted to find that there is not enough.</div><div>Upgrading to a 12GB+ card is a solution but in the meanwhile and if you are on a tight budget and have another GPU hanging there then you will find you answer here.</div><div>The process is as simple as modifying Houdini environment file, let's start: - Open houdini.env (C:\Users\&quot;user&quot;\Documents\houdini xx.x) using a text editor.</div><div>- At the end add the following line (HOUDINI_OCL_DEVICENUMBER = 1)</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_67539c2159724f55a6aca8db6ac0533b~mv2.png"/><div>The numbering system starts with 0 (the main gpu) and then 1 (you second one).</div><div>Save the file and open Houdini, go to Help menu &gt; About Houdini &gt; Show details, then scroll down to check Opengl it should show your main GPU, go down more and you will find Opencl is assigned to the second one.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_66c0fb5b2cff4c40b595b682bdbb1971~mv2.png"/><div>I personally tried it and it works like a charm, hope you found this blog helpful and see in another tip.</div><div>Regards</div><div>Alaa Alnahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Timeless Particle Transition Breakdown</title><description><![CDATA[The transition in Timeless consist of several elements and I was only responsible for the particle passwhich was done in 3ds max using PFlow and rendered with Krakatoa. I was provided with the characters' transition masks which where used in Birth Texture operator todrive the particle emissionlater a data operator where added to pick the back plate color at birth. As for the animation no volume advection where used just a simple wind turb.A simple element and technique (barely visible lol) yet<img src="https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/664596827_640.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/11/03/Timeless-Particle-Transition-Breakdown</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/11/03/Timeless-Particle-Transition-Breakdown</guid><pubDate>Fri, 03 Nov 2017 03:22:48 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/241112014"/><div>The transition in Timeless consist of several elements and I was only responsible for the particle pass</div><div>which was done in 3ds max using PFlow and rendered with Krakatoa. I was provided with the characters' transition masks which where used in Birth Texture operator to</div><div>drive the particle emissionlater a data operator where added to pick the back plate color at birth. As for the animation no volume advection where used just a simple wind turb.</div><div>A simple element and technique (barely visible lol) yet essential to achieve such amazing effect.</div><div> بعض من ماوراء كواليس سلسلة (تايم لس) انحصرت مسؤوليتي في صناعة التحول بين الشخصيات</div><div>Kindest Regards Alaa Al Nahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Dr Strange Building RnD (fractals, 3D kaleidoscopes, clone duplication)</title><description><![CDATA[A small study trying to achieve some of what been shown on Dr Strange movie, Created in Houdini and exported as Alembic to be rendered in 3ds max using vray.<img src="https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/649742372_640.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/08/13/Dr-Strange-Building-RnD-fractals-3D-kaleidoscopes-clone-duplication</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/08/13/Dr-Strange-Building-RnD-fractals-3D-kaleidoscopes-clone-duplication</guid><pubDate>Fri, 18 Aug 2017 10:41:00 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/229432633"/><div>A small study trying to achieve some of what been shown on Dr Strange movie, Created in Houdini and exported as Alembic to be rendered in 3ds max using vray.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Houdini Smoke Color (file included)</title><description><![CDATA[I spend the last two days searching the internet and cracking my head trying to figure out the best way to add color to smoke inside of Houdini. Sadly it's not as easy as in Fumefx where you just activate color and put a texture but once you master it you can do magic. There are two major way to add 1- Creating the color field (the container that will store the colors) and add the colors later after the pyro sim is done by using a volume vop where it will search around for point color attribute<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_90744ec9aa9a462e9a47851ccbedb5ab%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_700%2Ch_394/ec9ef1_90744ec9aa9a462e9a47851ccbedb5ab%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/07/09/Houdini-Smoke-Color-file-included</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/07/09/Houdini-Smoke-Color-file-included</guid><pubDate>Sun, 09 Jul 2017 14:23:09 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_90744ec9aa9a462e9a47851ccbedb5ab~mv2.jpg"/><div>I spend the last two days searching the internet and cracking my head trying to figure out the best way to add color to smoke inside of Houdini. Sadly it's not as easy as in Fumefx where you just activate color and put a texture but once you master it you can do magic. </div><div>There are two major way to add color:</div><div>1- Creating the color field (the container that will store the colors) and add the colors later after the pyro sim is done by using a volume vop where it will search around for point color attribute and pick it.</div><div>2- Create the color field and do the coloring as part of the simulation, the beauty about this method is that it allows you to: -Blur color over time. -Make the color intensity affect certain channels like temperature so it will drive the simulation behavior. -define the color field resolution apart from the pyro, so you can sim with a low color res while maintaining the smoke high res which will save you some time.</div><div>The Downside of adding a separate vector field for the color is that it will treat it a whole new container to sim which will increase sim time.</div><div>In the file below you can find all the scenarios I described above, and I must say it's not my pure creating it's a wrap up of what out there on the internet but in my way and how my brain process it, enjoy ;) :<a href="https://goo.gl/GY6fNp">https://goo.gl/GY6fNp</a></div><div>Kindest Regards Alaa Al Nahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Houdini Pyro Explosion</title><description><![CDATA[This final look went through alot of refinement around 10 versions with alot of tweaks over a span of a week on my way mastering Houdini pyro. It was simmed in Houdini and rendered in 3ds max using vray volume grid.Technical info: -Core explosion: (450,450,450) 91 million voxels -Smoke shockwave: (600,100,600) 36 million voxels -64GB of vdb -Render time (FHD): 30 min per frame on dual 2683v3 -Sim time: 1h with Opencl activated (GTX 1080)Kindest Regards Alaa Al Nahlawi<img src="https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/639371262_640.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/06/13/Houdini-Pyro-Explosion</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/06/13/Houdini-Pyro-Explosion</guid><pubDate>Mon, 12 Jun 2017 21:20:25 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/221178387"/><div>This final look went through alot of refinement around 10 versions with alot of tweaks over a span of a week on my way mastering Houdini pyro. It was simmed in Houdini and rendered in 3ds max using vray volume grid.</div><div>Technical info: -Core explosion: (450,450,450) 91 million voxels -Smoke shockwave: (600,100,600) 36 million voxels -64GB of vdb -Render time (FHD): 30 min per frame on dual 2683v3 -Sim time: 1h with Opencl activated (GTX 1080)</div><div>Kindest Regards Alaa Al Nahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>How to switch to CPU Opencl</title><description><![CDATA[In some cases (well most) your GPU memory will not be able to handle your large grid simulation, so did you know that you are able to make Houdini utilize CPU Opencl instead and use the system memory. Let's find out how...<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_182c7401a1284557afa6ec2865728f50%7Emv2.png/v1/fill/w_400%2Ch_225/ec9ef1_182c7401a1284557afa6ec2865728f50%7Emv2.png"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/06/11/How-to-switch-to-CPU-Opencl</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/06/11/How-to-switch-to-CPU-Opencl</guid><pubDate>Sat, 10 Jun 2017 22:04:47 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_182c7401a1284557afa6ec2865728f50~mv2.png"/><div>In some cases (well most) your GPU memory will not be able to handle your large grid simulation, so did you know that you are able to make Houdini utilize CPU Opencl instead and use the system memory. Let's find out how...</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Dubai TV channel Ramadan identity</title><description><![CDATA[فواصل تلفزيون دبي 2017مشاركتي في الهوية البصرية لمحطة دبي في شهر رمضان, انحصرت مهمتي في انشاء نظام الجزيئات باشراف المخرج المبدع اسامة الشارقي.My participation creating Ramadan identity for Dubai TV Channel. The particle effects looks quite simple but under this simplicity lies almost a hundred version and test (each rendered) and 30GB of cached data.Directed by: Usama AlsharqiProducer: Reem EmadExecutive Producer: Aws Alsharqi VFX Artist: Alaa Al Nahlawi Dubai media incorporatedKindest<img src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/gTIcSL1BFoc/mqdefault.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/06/04/Dubai-TV-channel-Ramadan-identity</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/06/04/Dubai-TV-channel-Ramadan-identity</guid><pubDate>Sat, 03 Jun 2017 23:28:31 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div>فواصل تلفزيون دبي 2017</div><div>مشاركتي في الهوية البصرية لمحطة دبي في شهر رمضان, انحصرت مهمتي في انشاء نظام الجزيئات باشراف المخرج المبدع اسامة الشارقي.</div><div>My participation creating Ramadan identity for Dubai TV Channel. The particle effects looks quite simple but under this simplicity lies almost a hundred version and test (each rendered) and 30GB of cached data.</div><div>Directed by: Usama Alsharqi</div><div>Producer: Reem Emad</div><div>Executive Producer: Aws Alsharqi </div><div>VFX Artist: Alaa Al Nahlawi </div><div>Dubai media incorporated</div><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gTIcSL1BFoc"/><div>Kindest Regards</div><div>Alaa Alnahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Cores vs clockspeed benchmark for Houdini, Vray and Realfow (56 vs 12 vs 48)</title><description><![CDATA[Update:For houdini I extended my tests and used multiple setups with the help of the great community of Odforce, the results can be found here.To what degree our 3d packages are multi threaded, is adding a mighty 56 thread machine really worth it. Okay I thought of sharing my experience and results with you guys comparing :1- i7 6800K 6/12 @ 3.8GHz2- 2 x E5-2683v3 28/56 @2.5 3- 2 x E5-2696v2 24/48 @ 3.25 (not official xeon version works with overclocking, I will not use it with all the<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_34cc438302ae4aaab2fe4a9c5f2e9bf1%7Emv2.png/v1/fill/w_894%2Ch_628/ec9ef1_34cc438302ae4aaab2fe4a9c5f2e9bf1%7Emv2.png"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/05/27/Cores-vs-clockspeed-benchmark-for-Houdini-Vray-and-Realfow-56-vs-12</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/05/27/Cores-vs-clockspeed-benchmark-for-Houdini-Vray-and-Realfow-56-vs-12</guid><pubDate>Sat, 27 May 2017 15:21:07 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div>Update:</div><div>For houdini I extended my tests and used multiple setups with the help of the great community of Odforce, the results can be found <a href="https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/09/10/Houdini-Benchmark-Cores-vs-Clockspeed-updated">here.</a></div><div>To what degree our 3d packages are multi threaded, is adding a mighty 56 thread machine really worth it. Okay I thought of sharing my experience and results with you guys comparing :</div><div>1- i7 6800K 6/12 @ 3.8GHz</div><div>2- 2 x E5-2683v3 28/56 @2.5 </div><div>3- 2 x E5-2696v2 24/48 @ 3.25 (not official xeon version works with overclocking, I will not use it with all the tests)</div><div>Programs to be tested:</div><div>-Houdini (Pyro,Grain,ocean) <a href="https://goo.gl/AmZ53Q">Files</a></div><div>-Vray (official vray benchmark)</div><div>-Realflow (Dyverso, Hybrido)</div><div>Note: open cl and cuda weren't used and also viewport wasn't active while simming, trying to make it purely cpu test.</div><div>At first I must say that I was sooooo disappointed and shocked by the results, the i7 just kicked the dual xeon butt in most of the situations. Concluding that a fast core is much better than a multi slow ones, but that wasn't really very true, my problem was that I tested the machines with very simple and low res setups finding out that the dual xeons only shines when the res is increased and the things get complex.</div><div>I will start by talking about Houdini:</div><div>Pyro: I created a sphere and off the shelf fire, i7 was faster. I created 4 copies of it and still i7 wins until I cranked the pyro spacing and made it 0.02 instead of 0.1 and that's when the xeons just doubled the i7 performance.</div><div>Grain: same thing xeons only shines with high res sims</div><div>Ocean: for flip the story was a bit different, increasing the res only brought them close to each other and cpu utilization was fluctuating compared to 90-100% with the other tests.</div><div>Vray:</div><div>I used the official vray benchmark and xeons easly win the competition. In real life scenarios it depends on how much of your frame is covered with geometry, I had a project with particle rendering (particle cached, high sub sampling and most of the frame was empty) in this case both machines were the same rendering speed.</div><div>Realflow:</div><div>Command line simulation was used here, and increasing the resolution didnt benefit the xeon in this case except when I used Dyverso (Granular) particles. So if you want to use Dyverso liquids a fast i7 and some cuda devices will make your system fly.</div><div>Below is the results chart (time in seconds)</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_34cc438302ae4aaab2fe4a9c5f2e9bf1~mv2.png"/><div>In the following chart I added the third processor results to the mix.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_80bd399366f44a6f85c30c21f1446f57~mv2.png"/><div>Conclusion:</div><div>There is no perfect solution were you will have the perfect machine that will excel at everything. So having a fast i7 is so great for everyday work, viewport performance, testing, particle caching and when working with Cuda because GPU mostly benefits a fast core to feed it the data according to Linustech (<a href="https://youtu.be/9mlloZT5ZyY">Cores vs clockspeed for video encoding</a>).</div><div>So the middle ground here if you can get a xeon system running all cores at 3GHz or above that will be perfect like the 3rd option we had above.</div><div>Regards</div><div>Alaa Alnahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Vray benchmark results</title><description><![CDATA[Thought of sharing my vray benchmark with you guys, oddly enough the 1070 is faster than 1080 running at the same clock speeds.But the story is totally different when it comes to Houdini simulation is much faster on 6 cores compared to 28, stay tuned I will be posting the numbers soon.<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_aaa2013b84aa425f995585e9512af5be%7Emv2.png"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/05/23/Vray-benchmark-results</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/05/23/Vray-benchmark-results</guid><pubDate>Tue, 23 May 2017 16:07:39 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div>Thought of sharing my vray benchmark with you guys, oddly enough the 1070 is faster than 1080 running at the same clock speeds.</div><div>But the story is totally different when it comes to Houdini simulation is much faster on 6 cores compared to 28, stay tuned I will be posting the numbers soon.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_aaa2013b84aa425f995585e9512af5be~mv2.png"/></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Nvidia driver optimization for best performance</title><description><![CDATA[Probably like me you wondered why your mighty graphic card is not function as powerful as it's advertised to be, you are working inside Houdini and the GPU-z is giving you a reading of 200mhz out of your 1950 (WTH) well the short answer is it has to do with driver setting and how it sees your programs. Most of Nvidia cards has this adaptive thing that maximize the power of your card as needed but how the hell this card (especially the gaming ones) is going to know that Houdini and 3ds max are<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_fade92e85cb747c9bef9e1e82e26e158%7Emv2.png/v1/fill/w_813%2Ch_422/ec9ef1_fade92e85cb747c9bef9e1e82e26e158%7Emv2.png"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/05/17/Nvidia-driver-optimization-for-best-performance</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/05/17/Nvidia-driver-optimization-for-best-performance</guid><pubDate>Thu, 18 May 2017 04:39:32 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_fade92e85cb747c9bef9e1e82e26e158~mv2.png"/><div>Probably like me you wondered why your mighty graphic card is not function as powerful as it's advertised to be, you are working inside Houdini and the GPU-z is giving you a reading of 200mhz out of your 1950 (WTH) well the short answer is it has to do with driver setting and how it sees your programs. Most of Nvidia cards has this adaptive thing that maximize the power of your card as needed but how the hell this card (especially the gaming ones) is going to know that Houdini and 3ds max are different than Google Chrome.</div><div>As shown in the picture above you need to dive down inside Nvidia control panel and in the manage 3d settings head to the program settings tab and add your desired programs if they arent already there, then go down and change the Power management mode from what ever there to Prefer maximum Performance. Do that for every program and at the end dont forget to hit apply. A restart is needed here, now when you open your program you should see an increased performance and that GPU-z is giving the targeted MHz.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>My nebula tutorial was featured on FXGuide interview with Chris Bond from Thinkbox</title><description><![CDATA[It's nice to see your effort being acknowledged, I was surprised to see FXGuide and ThinkBox featuring my tutorial on that interview.Interview Link...Tutorial Link...Regards Alaa Al Nahlawi<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_f8c9f6b84e0e4431ab1933612ed32475%7Emv2.png/v1/fill/w_894%2Ch_362/ec9ef1_f8c9f6b84e0e4431ab1933612ed32475%7Emv2.png"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/04/26/My-nebula-tutorial-was-featured-on-FXGuide-interview-with-Chris-Bond-from-Thinkbox</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/04/26/My-nebula-tutorial-was-featured-on-FXGuide-interview-with-Chris-Bond-from-Thinkbox</guid><pubDate>Wed, 26 Apr 2017 09:41:10 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_f8c9f6b84e0e4431ab1933612ed32475~mv2.png"/><div>It's nice to see your effort being acknowledged, I was surprised to see FXGuide and ThinkBox featuring my tutorial on that interview.</div><div>Interview <a href="https://www.fxguide.com/quicktakes/exclusive-chris-bond-on-thinkbox-being-acquired-by-amazon/">Link...</a></div><div>Tutorial <a href="https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/12/29/StarTrek-Nebula-Making-of">Link...</a></div><div>Regards Alaa Al Nahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Particle flow random noise speed (Tutorial)</title><description><![CDATA[An easy to follow steps on how to convert the default dull random speed into a more interesting random noise pattern.More...<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_266bd3bf25c742268356bdfeebd5a849%7Emv2.gif"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/04/18/Particle-flow-random-noise-speed</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/04/18/Particle-flow-random-noise-speed</guid><pubDate>Tue, 18 Apr 2017 08:44:36 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_266bd3bf25c742268356bdfeebd5a849~mv2.gif"/><div>An easy to follow steps on how to convert the default dull random speed into a more interesting random noise pattern.</div><div>More...</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Photography Section has been updated</title><description><![CDATA[Finally I took this step of joining shutterstock and sharing my pictures there, please feel free to visit the portfolio here on this website or just head straight away to the shutterstock galleryThe photos you are going to see are a mix of real photography and a pure 3d graphic render (I was surprised to know that this was supported)Kindest RegardsAlaa Alnahlawi<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_f28af9fe698c483f82e96e424085c9be%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_894%2Ch_388/ec9ef1_f28af9fe698c483f82e96e424085c9be%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/04/16/Photography-Section-has-been-updated</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/04/16/Photography-Section-has-been-updated</guid><pubDate>Sun, 16 Apr 2017 14:42:38 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_f28af9fe698c483f82e96e424085c9be~mv2.jpg"/><div>Finally I took this step of joining shutterstock and sharing my pictures there, please feel free to visit the portfolio here on this website or just head straight away to the<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/g/VFX_Arabia?rid=173081890">shutterstock gallery</a></div><div>The photos you are going to see are a mix of real photography and a pure 3d graphic render (I was surprised to know that this was supported)</div><div>Kindest Regards</div><div>Alaa Alnahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Houdini Pyro for Fumefx artists (Object &amp; Normals Velocity)</title><description><![CDATA[In this article you will learn how to achieve the same (normals & object) velocity you used to get with Fumefx but with Houdini pyro. Dive inside...<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_bd6c0f2fcae84d85aaaa321eb750abfb%7Emv2.png/v1/fill/w_894%2Ch_503/ec9ef1_bd6c0f2fcae84d85aaaa321eb750abfb%7Emv2.png"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/03/19/Houdini-Pyro-for-Fumefx-artists-Object-Normals-Velocity</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/03/19/Houdini-Pyro-for-Fumefx-artists-Object-Normals-Velocity</guid><pubDate>Sun, 19 Mar 2017 16:31:34 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_bd6c0f2fcae84d85aaaa321eb750abfb~mv2.png"/><div>In this article you will learn how to achieve the same (normals &amp; object) velocity you used to get with Fumefx but with Houdini pyro. Dive inside...</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Compress Houdini VDB &amp; Volume cache files up to 50%</title><description><![CDATA[In this article you will learn how to compress cache files drastically, we aren't talking about deleting unnecessary attributes before saving the file, I will show you how to convert your simulation from 32bit to 16bit and delete all the data from empty voxels. The result will be a cache file half the size of the original, I know this is crazy. Check it out....<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_f6733a6c28ea41f2b95166348a9bd028%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_894%2Ch_484/ec9ef1_f6733a6c28ea41f2b95166348a9bd028%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/03/18/Compress-Houdini-VDB-Volume-cache-files-up-to-50</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/03/18/Compress-Houdini-VDB-Volume-cache-files-up-to-50</guid><pubDate>Sat, 18 Mar 2017 16:27:53 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_f6733a6c28ea41f2b95166348a9bd028~mv2.jpg"/><div>In this article you will learn how to compress cache files drastically, we aren't talking about deleting unnecessary attributes before saving the file, I will show you how to convert your simulation from 32bit to 16bit and delete all the data from empty voxels. The result will be a cache file half the size of the original, I know this is crazy. Check it out....</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Scale Match Instances (Particle flow tutorial)</title><description><![CDATA[In this tutorial I will explain to you how to grab a mesh and replace it's elements with an object of your choice while reading those elements size and applying it to the result.Tutorial Page...<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_7eda72e6d92a4190aad8edbd8c80d584%7Emv2.png/v1/fill/w_792%2Ch_459/ec9ef1_7eda72e6d92a4190aad8edbd8c80d584%7Emv2.png"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/03/09/Scale-Match-Instances-Particle-flow-tutorial</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/03/09/Scale-Match-Instances-Particle-flow-tutorial</guid><pubDate>Thu, 09 Mar 2017 10:55:15 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_7eda72e6d92a4190aad8edbd8c80d584~mv2.png"/><div> In this tutorial I will explain to you how to grab a mesh and replace it's elements with an object of your choice while reading those elements size and applying it to the result.</div><div>Tutorial Page...</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>VTrack (Vertex tracking tool)</title><description><![CDATA[If you work in vfx field then you will appreciate this tool, VTrack is a vertices tracking scripted tool that allows you to track a selected vertex or an averaged vertices position of a deformed mesh (Alembic or point cached) and create a point helper with a backed animation of the tracked position.You can use it later as a source for your effect ( blood burst, explosion... you name it) or you can turn on that point animation trajectory so you can visualize the animation path of that area in the<img src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/g0iiw-Dfx3s/mqdefault.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/02/23/VTrack-Vertex-tracking-tool</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/02/23/VTrack-Vertex-tracking-tool</guid><pubDate>Thu, 23 Feb 2017 20:11:39 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/g0iiw-Dfx3s"/><div>If you work in vfx field then you will appreciate this tool, VTrack is a vertices tracking scripted tool that allows you to track a selected vertex or an averaged vertices position of a deformed mesh (Alembic or point cached) and create a point helper with a backed animation of the tracked position.</div><div>You can use it later as a source for your effect ( blood burst, explosion... you name it) or you can turn on that point animation trajectory so you can visualize the animation path of that area in the mesh.</div><div>I created it while I was working on a movie lately they provided me with a plane skidding on the ground (Alembic cache file) , and they ask for wheels marks on the ground.</div><div>This inspired me writing this useful tool to capture the animation of the ground touching verts of the wheel where I can later convert the animation path into a curve that can be used to model the skid mark.</div><div>It's so easy to use, just apply edit mesh or poly to your cached mesh and hit VTrack...</div><div>Find it among other great tool in my scripts page.</div><div>Kindest Regards.</div><div>Alaa Alnahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>VA Mesh Conform (MCG) is out</title><description><![CDATA[Well mesh conform is not something new to 3dsmax but what if it was much more faster and responsive compared to the legacy one with straightforward parameters and options to tweak, for more check the full tool description on scriptspot.And also for more MCG tool check their page here.Download 1.0ScriptSpot page<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_c700ec5aee894282afee941fee03bfe0%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_895%2Ch_474/ec9ef1_c700ec5aee894282afee941fee03bfe0%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/02/18/VA-Mesh-Conform-MCG-is-out</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/02/18/VA-Mesh-Conform-MCG-is-out</guid><pubDate>Sat, 18 Feb 2017 12:41:48 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_c700ec5aee894282afee941fee03bfe0~mv2.jpg"/><div>Well mesh conform is not something new to 3dsmax but what if it was much more faster and responsive compared to the legacy one with straightforward parameters and options to tweak, for more check the full tool description on scriptspot.</div><div>And also for more MCG tool check their page here.</div><div><a href="http://www.scriptspot.com/files/va_mesh_conform.zip">Download 1.0</a></div><div><a href="http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/mcg/va-mesh-conform">ScriptSpot page</a></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Thinkbox interview</title><description><![CDATA[I thank Thinkbox for having me and writing this great article about my story creating this out of world nebula tutorial the same technique that was used in StarTrek Beyond.You can check it out here<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_946d86c0584d4e2d96c4a1a5aff754aa%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_894%2Ch_394/ec9ef1_946d86c0584d4e2d96c4a1a5aff754aa%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/02/03/Thinkbox-interview</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2017/02/03/Thinkbox-interview</guid><pubDate>Fri, 03 Feb 2017 12:02:48 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_946d86c0584d4e2d96c4a1a5aff754aa~mv2.jpg"/><div>I thank Thinkbox for having me and writing this great article about my story creating this out of world nebula tutorial the same technique that was used in StarTrek Beyond.</div><div>You can check it out <a href="http://www.thinkboxsoftware.com/news/2017/2/2/creating-out-of-this-world-clouds-with-krakatoa.html">here</a></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Krakatoa light control (Scripted tool)</title><description><![CDATA[A small tool I developed while working on StarTrek Beyond to help me control the lights on the go. It allowed me to control lights globally or just the selected ones and I only exposed the following parameters: Light on/off Shadow on/off Intensity Decay Range Shadow Density Decay Type Shadow resolutionThis script supports only standard lights Omnilight freeSpot targetSpot Directionallight TargetDirectionallightHow it works: Adjusting the spinners up and down will add the spinner value to the<img src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/5sL9EiA1QHQ/mqdefault.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/12/30/Krakatoa-light-control-Scripted-tool</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/12/30/Krakatoa-light-control-Scripted-tool</guid><pubDate>Fri, 30 Dec 2016 17:17:37 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_85e28d657610476ab1b46bfe58e8877a~mv2.png"/><div>A small tool I developed while working on StarTrek Beyond to help me control the lights on the go. It allowed me to control lights globally or just the selected ones and I only exposed the following parameters: Light on/off Shadow on/off Intensity Decay Range Shadow Density Decay Type Shadow resolution</div><div>This script supports only standard lights Omnilight freeSpot targetSpot Directionallight TargetDirectionallight</div><div>How it works: Adjusting the spinners up and down will add the spinner value to the current one, while typing the value and hitting enter will override it. And the video below will help clear things up.</div><div>The download link can be found in the scriptspot script page:</div><div>http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/krakatoa-light-control</div><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5sL9EiA1QHQ"/><div>Kindest Regards Alaa Al Nahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>StarTrek Nebula (Making of)</title><description><![CDATA[Update: You can get a 4K version of this amazing fly through on shutterstock here....It’s holiday season and finally I got the time to write this small indepth of the star dust cloud we created for one of the shots in the Star Trek Beyond title sequence. I got a lot of emails asking about how we managed to achieved that look, so here I am sharing the experience we obtained and the credits here goes to the whole team members Zack Judson (founder of Bionic Primitive), Dmitriy Suhodol and Dumitru<img src="https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/610210174_640.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/12/29/StarTrek-Nebula-Making-of</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/12/29/StarTrek-Nebula-Making-of</guid><pubDate>Fri, 30 Dec 2016 04:11:46 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/197474062"/><div>Update: You can get a 4K version of this amazing fly through on shutterstock <a href="https://goo.gl/iMbwtd">here....</a></div><div>It’s holiday season and finally I got the time to write this small indepth of the star dust cloud we created for one of the shots in the Star Trek Beyond title sequence. I got a lot of emails asking about how we managed to achieved that look, so here I am sharing the experience we obtained and the credits here goes to the whole team members Zack Judson (founder of Bionic Primitive), Dmitriy Suhodol and Dumitru Furculita since I was only responsible for the look development using Krakatoa magma. It was done mainly in 3ds Max where we used a combination of FumeFX, PFlow, Krakatoa. I will be creating a fresh new version here with a different concept so let’s jump in and start speaking geek language, but bear in mind I will not explain everything in detail just the steps and general workflow so you better have some understanding of the used tools and anyway if you have any questions I will be glad to answer.</div><div>Two main method were used for creating the cloud body each started by generating a fumefx cloud from a deformed mesh then either:</div><div>- first use that fume simulation to drive PFlow particles (FumeFX follow node) and we used this technique for the main nebula body, this method has an advantage where the particles threads will be more defined compared to the smoky look you will get using the second method.</div><div>- or load the fumefx simulation into Krakatoa using PRT FumeFX (I’m going to talk about this method in this article) and we used it for the foreground and background secondary nebula elements and …</div><div>Nebulas have lots of shapes and colors depending on what caused them and their age, you can find ones with bright colors and shapes pointing to their centers (where the explosion took place) or it will have a more settled down form with a dusty feel and rusty colors (red, orange, green) so spend some time researching and doing R&amp;Ds it’s worth it.</div><div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_a210e323c6d243a0bd651f9026dd0480~mv2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_f26215a375f34ed6aef58787859b1f59~mv2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_312ff143662b40e799ee2fd6eae41f83~mv2.jpg"/></div><div>Once you chose your desired look it’s time to move to 3ds max and start by blocking out the underlying geometry that Fumefx will use as an emission source, and here I must say there are no magic numbers when it comes to fumefx that will give you the perfect look, you will have to experience a lot but put in mind two things:</div><div>-it should have aloooot of details and voxels specially if you are going to pass through them or even get close in my case the grid was 200x200x150 and a spacing of 0.3 (this resolution won't get you enough point density but more res will increase the sim time insanely, so I managed to increase the points later for 4 times using subdividing option found in Krakatoa fumfx loader).</div><div>-we only need one frame of the simulation (our scene will contain a still cloud with a camera flying through) so let’s say you simulated 50 frame, you will go through them and choose the best one that matches your concept, the one I used was only a 16 mb fume file (so small I know).</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_bb369a47fb344d59bb7defe2744b376d~mv2.jpg"/><div>Now that you have your fume puff ready for the next step (shading, lighting) go and create a Krakatoa fumefx and pick the fume grid. At this point, some might prefer to save the grid as prt with all the necessary channels the pros here are that your viewport will be responsive and scrubbing through timeline will be smooth because Krakatoa doesn’t need to reread the fume grid and load at each frame on the other hand the data of the prt file might be huge depending on the channels you will be exporting (around 2BG compared 16MB).</div><div>The beauty about working with fumefx in Krakatoa that we can pump up the particles count with Subdivision Region option I put it to 4, and also the ability to utilize the density channel to drive the color across it, if you look at nebula references you can notice that the colors shift from bright and hot at the center and cold and dusty towards the edges and that’s what are we going to do. To achieve this, we will apply a Magma modifier and do our magic. We will map the density channel and feed it to a texture coordinates and apply a Krakatoa material with a gradient map. In StarTrek we also used a large 3d noise map and fed it to density channel to break the continues shape of the fume puff, but in our case no need for this.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_849f1e55355e418696468de1a96f68ba~mv2.jpg"/><div>Next thing would be the stars pass and we are going to use the same fume cloud but with different magma flow. We want to first filter the whole cloud and select a star like pattern using a noise map and delete the rest. I used <a href="http://www.ylilammi.com/2013/09/berconmaps/">Bercon maps</a> for this (a normal noise would work) and put in mind this map should be 3d since we are working with a volume, next we want to give them some colors (red,green,blue) and a normal noise map will do it. And they should have some sort of self-illumination through emission channel.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_c468ea2da5b24988a62c101c976ecab0~mv2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_85e28d657610476ab1b46bfe58e8877a~mv2.png"/><div>Now it’s lighting and rendering time, after trying lots of lighting setup I found using a top light will give it a more holy look and the center light is also essential. Shadow map should be turned on and Krakatoa pays attention to the shadow map resolution I used 4096 instead of 512 I know it’s gonna increase rendering time but believe me it’s worth it and all of your details will be more pronounced. While working on the StarTrek cloud there was a lot of lights here and there acting like a giant stars so I scripted a small tool to help me with tuning the lights on, off, changing their shadow res, intensity and range on the go. It's already published on ScriptSpot:</div><div>http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/krakatoa-light-control</div><div>For render setting I know Krakatoa has a loooong list of settings but keep it simple we only need to modify (Absorption, emission, final pass density and lighting density) set the absorption to blue this way light that is passing the cloud will shift toward warm colors as it goes deeper and for the density you need to try different values until you are satisfied with the result, in my case final pass density was set to 10/-2 and lighting density 35/-1. Finally, just activate the Use emission channel for our stars to glow.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_ccf698b888444c25b753428ee8cb12ca~mv2.jpg"/><div>It’s worth noting that Krakatoa has a cache functionality so when you render a frame Krakatoa will put all the calculation to RAM so when rendering an animation with the cache activated all the color, emission, absorption, lighting, shadows…. Will be calculated only once and stored to ram and applied across the whole animation that will save your ass believe me. In my case, the first frame took around 20 min and 45GB of ram to calculate everything and the rest around 2-4min depending on how many particles are in the view to draw, I know it sounds a lot but we are talking about 1.1 billion particles. My specs for this scene was 6800K @4GHz and a 64GB of RAM, more ram are always most welcome because once you started to cache on dist the time will double.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_4201b0a392a647398d2023f163ccf39a~mv2.jpg"/><div>At this stage we are ready to import those renders into Nuke, and believe me it will make all the difference because there we will be adding the aurora behind it in addition to coloring, motion blur, retiming, grain and stars glare. I tried to use a depth map but didn't find so useful in my scenario...</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_ced66b85e9384c4fb3f569b288d722ca~mv2.jpg"/><div>To wrap it up the workflow is sth like this:</div><div>A rough cloud shape --&gt; fumeFX --&gt; Krakatoa --&gt; magma --&gt; lighting --&gt; Rendering --&gt; Nuke it</div><div>I really enjoyed writing this tutorial and I know it might have been confusing at some point but I tried my best to put my experience into words, I hope you find it useful.</div><div>Kindest Regards</div><div>Alaa Al Nahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>The Night Before making of</title><description><![CDATA[Once again, in collaboration with Bionic Primitive this amazing yet challenging 360 Samsung VR experience was created.- http://vrscout.com/news/samsung-santa-sleigh-ride-vr/- https://samsungvr.com/view/RBScwMpLDmaI was responsible for developing two effects the Aurora Borealis in the north pole scene and the fireworks in the New York scene. It’s my first time creating a 360 content, thanks to vray for making that an easy task although it went through a couple of trial and error phases until you<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_258de8f65b794c6390171bdcc1962b37%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_894%2Ch_503/ec9ef1_258de8f65b794c6390171bdcc1962b37%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/12/20/The-Night-Before</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/12/20/The-Night-Before</guid><pubDate>Tue, 20 Dec 2016 15:40:08 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div>Once again, in collaboration with Bionic Primitive this amazing yet challenging 360 Samsung VR experience was created.</div><div>- <a href="http://vrscout.com/news/samsung-santa-sleigh-ride-vr/">http://vrscout.com/news/samsung-santa-sleigh-ride-vr/</a></div><div>- <a href="https://samsungvr.com/view/RBScwMpLDma">https://samsungvr.com/view/RBScwMpLDma</a></div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_258de8f65b794c6390171bdcc1962b37~mv2.jpg"/><div>I was responsible for developing two effects the Aurora Borealis in the north pole scene and the fireworks in the New York scene. It’s my first time creating a 360 content, thanks to vray for making that an easy task although it went through a couple of trial and error phases until you wrap your head around it and that involved uploading it to Samsung VR to try it out for every test. Okay now let’s dig inside each of those effects to see how I managed to get to the final look and bear in mind that I was only responsible for delivering the fx element not the final comp, and everything was created inside 3ds max.</div><div>1- The Aurora Borealis effect:</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_48739c4296c843a99a9ea71fe1da14c7~mv2.jpg"/><div>The first thing that occurred to us was to create it using some fumefx sims we needed sth volumetric since we are going to pass through them but three major points challenged us here one is the shading part, second the gigantic data that will be generated we are talking about sth that will cover the hole sky and it’s going to be rendered at a 4K res putting in mind the always tight deadline, and third challenge was how to animate that fume cloud in an aurora way so I had to fake it out using an alternative method which involved using some complex multi-layer shading and multi-channel UVs putting in mind also opacity based on camera distance. Two passes were exported the Aurora and the sparkle pass where I had to crank up the samples inside of vray for it not to flicker.</div><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Pt8Plr4rXCg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_99fd3262bf6a43b29286c19bb7e19a9c~mv2.jpg"/><div>Here are some insider pics from the scene file, do you see that little tiny house on the left….</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_364cda24ded24445bb0786a6bc272d7a~mv2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_82c3342baaf9459ebd2cdfec8eaa8cf0~mv2.jpg"/><div>2- The Fireworks effect:</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_3d3e7c73c889492fafecf591f054b62e~mv2.jpg"/><div>Not sth original to recreate but what made it challenging was the client request of matching the fireworks explosion timing and place to the actors’ reactions and face direction and I don’t have to remind you that it’s a 360 and in 3dsmax view won’t give that luxury so you have to match it a close as possible based on the camera movement provided to you and do some render and vr tests. I have to admit this one was the more difficult compared to the Aurora.</div><div>There was three passes, the general fireworks which will blow away from the wagon, the key fireworks which are timed to the actors reactions and last a separate isolated fireworks and here I have to mention that I created several explosion looks.</div><div>And there the happy moment when the client called asking for the smoke, “Holly crap” I said, I’m not gonna use fumefx on all those over 60 explosions covering the cost of New York, so again I faked it using some noise and opacity. And that’s the time when you will be happy having worked in the game industry ;)</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_ec4b7af11a8f4683ab4c73d3569fa596~mv2.jpg"/><div>And before I forget the setup was created in PFlow I wished I used Cebas TP instead it would’ve gave me more control and more variation but there was no time to recreate everything.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_4c916a3a51bd465c8c3cf01958906eeb~mv2.jpg"/><div>Setting up a 360 camera in vray is pretty straight forward, the original camera (your camera) will provide looking direction and rotation and vray will override the camera vertical and horizontal field of view setting it to 360w by 180h and as you can see it’s a 2:1 ratio so your output should have the same ratio.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_cdc295e5434848dfb54c70b0fbabe09e~mv2.jpg"/><div>Here are the links to the experience:</div><div>- <a href="http://vrscout.com/news/samsung-santa-sleigh-ride-vr/">http://vrscout.com/news/samsung-santa-sleigh-ride-vr/</a></div><div>- <a href="https://samsungvr.com/view/RBScwMpLDma">https://samsungvr.com/view/RBScwMpLDma</a></div><div>Kindest Regards</div><div>Alaa Al Nahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Google Map Customizer</title><description><![CDATA[Have you ever wanted to create a high res google street map like 5000 by 5000 with a customised colors without going through the hassle of merging multiple screen capture in photoshop the start selecting and picking customising colors. I had a project where I needed such thing and after a long search I found sth called Google Map Customizer made by Aaron Cheng. The code is based on Google Maps and Google Maps Colorizr.Google Map Customizer lets you customize the colors on a Google Map. You can<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_d9369cf51e764da3b6f3f5352f5bc40a%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_800%2Ch_389/ec9ef1_d9369cf51e764da3b6f3f5352f5bc40a%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/12/05/Google-Map-Customizer</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/12/05/Google-Map-Customizer</guid><pubDate>Mon, 05 Dec 2016 17:54:14 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_d9369cf51e764da3b6f3f5352f5bc40a~mv2.jpg"/><div>Have you ever wanted to create a high res google street map like 5000 by 5000 with a customised colors without going through the hassle of merging multiple screen capture in photoshop the start selecting and picking customising colors. I had a project where I needed such thing and after a long search I found sth called Google Map Customizer made by Aaron Cheng. The code is based on Google Maps and Google Maps Colorizr.</div><div>Google Map Customizer lets you customize the colors on a Google Map. You can select customizations for any map aspects you want, such as the natural landscape. For this aspect you can enter the HEX code of the color you want it to be filled with.</div><div>Google Map Customizer lets you get large, high resolution satellite maps, typical Google maps and custom maps made by Google Map Engine. You can simply zoom into the level of detail you want and setup the window dimensions big enough to capture the site area you need. Then all you need to do is to grab the screen shot.</div><div>So in short just go to this page and start capturing: </div><div><a href="http://www.chengfolio.com/googlemap.html">http://www.chengfolio.com/googlemap.html</a></div><div>and for the screen caputre there are many third-party tools, normal screen capture wont help here since it only capture what is visible:<a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/fireshot/">FireShot</a>plugin for Firefox; <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/capture-webpage-screensho/mcbpblocgmgfnpjjppndjkmgjaogfceg?hl=en-US">FireShot</a>for Chrome.</div><div>Regards Alaa Al Nahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Houdini Voronoy point transition</title><description><![CDATA[It took me some time to figure it out but I'm happy with the result.What's tricky about this setup is the uneven number of points between source and target so I had to find a way to remap the points in one of them so I can transfer the transition timing attribute. I know it's a bit confusing but when you see the setup you will know what I mean. I dont need to say that this is houdini so you can tweak the hell out of this setup's parameters.Download here.<img src="https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/598413953_640.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/10/26/Houdini-Voronoy-point-transition</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/10/26/Houdini-Voronoy-point-transition</guid><pubDate>Wed, 26 Oct 2016 15:35:43 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/188364130"/><div>It took me some time to figure it out but I'm happy with the result.What's tricky about this setup is the uneven number of points between source and target so I had to find a way to remap the points in one of them so I can transfer the transition timing attribute. I know it's a bit confusing but when you see the setup you will know what I mean. I dont need to say that this is houdini so you can tweak the hell out of this setup's parameters.</div><div>Download here.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Houdini Plexus</title><description><![CDATA[Well like me you might have came across multiple tutorials explaining how to create such effect like the entagma one https://vimeo.com/172529848 or another great one by Danil Krivoruchko: https://vimeo.com/132051304 both are great but one might ask why not use the built in houdini Connect Adjacent Pieces isn't it just the same well I'm not a pro but for me it gives the same result and with the ability to the max point num that are allowed to connect in addition this beautiful node export the<img src="https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/597990506_640.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/10/20/Houdini-Plexus</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/10/20/Houdini-Plexus</guid><pubDate>Wed, 19 Oct 2016 21:12:30 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/188047756"/><div>Well like me you might have came across multiple tutorials explaining how to create such effect like the entagma one https://vimeo.com/172529848 or another great one by Danil Krivoruchko: https://vimeo.com/132051304 both are great but one might ask why not use the built in houdini Connect Adjacent Pieces isn't it just the same well I'm not a pro but for me it gives the same result and with the ability to the max point num that are allowed to connect in addition this beautiful node export the connection lengths as an attribute and gives a clean result without overlapping primitives. So I used it and extended the setup more to allow the artist to add gravity,color and scale and all is linked with the connection length so the longer it gets the more gravity it has. And yet it's so responsive I tried to make it adabt to most of scale situations but sometimes you might need to dig inside the vops and start tweeking, have fun ;)</div><div>The tool can be found in the assets page:</div><div>http://www.vfxarabia.co/houdini-digital-assets</div><div>Regards Alaa Al Nahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Houdini Volume trail (Lsystem tree)</title><description><![CDATA[It's fun yet challenging going into volumes and VDB, as the title says it was created using volume trails poly wire was added later with a variant thickness along the path (I used for each loop to create an attribute for each trail). After that I converted the mesh into a VDB to merge those trails into one blended mesh, but please pay attention not to use isoOffset it's damn slow and single threaded. This scene contains around 4.5 million particles and one of the things I admired is the ability<img src="https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/597645930_640.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/10/18/Houdini-Volume-trail-Lsystem-tree</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/10/18/Houdini-Volume-trail-Lsystem-tree</guid><pubDate>Tue, 18 Oct 2016 09:51:22 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/187794438"/><div>It's fun yet challenging going into volumes and VDB, as the title says it was created using volume trails poly wire was added later with a variant thickness along the path (I used for each loop to create an attribute for each trail). After that I converted the mesh into a VDB to merge those trails into one blended mesh, but please pay attention not to use isoOffset it's damn slow and single threaded. This scene contains around 4.5 million particles and one of the things I admired is the ability to render both points and mesh together unlike the other method when using Krakatoa.</div><div>Download <a href="https://goo.gl/J7AYlx">here.</a></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Houdini Mogafrag (Einstein’s head)</title><description><![CDATA[Basically it's a surreal work showing Einstein's head with ideas that cant be contained in a normal human head. I thought of sharing my progress with you guys In an attempt to recreate my TP MogaFrag tool in houdini. Well it stills needs some polishing. Model source was taken from threedscans.com they have a lot of free 3d scans there check it out.Regards Alaa Al Nahlawi<img src="https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/596946349_640.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/10/14/Houdini-Mogafrag-Einstein%E2%80%99s-head</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/10/14/Houdini-Mogafrag-Einstein%E2%80%99s-head</guid><pubDate>Thu, 13 Oct 2016 22:36:25 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/187257897"/><div>Basically it's a surreal work showing Einstein's head with ideas that cant be contained in a normal human head. I thought of sharing my progress with you guys In an attempt to recreate my TP MogaFrag tool in houdini. Well it stills needs some polishing.  Model source was taken from threedscans.com they have a lot of free 3d scans there check it out.</div><div>Regards Alaa Al Nahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Houdini growing ivy</title><description><![CDATA[I came up with this result after watching Dalvi Rohan ivy tutorial. It's amazing what you can do with this program. I created the leaf animation in 3ds max and exported it as alembic, the rest was done in houdini.Download here.<img src="https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/596457638_640.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/10/11/Houdini-growing-ivy</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/10/11/Houdini-growing-ivy</guid><pubDate>Tue, 11 Oct 2016 14:55:52 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/186415726"/><div>I came up with this result after watching Dalvi Rohan ivy tutorial. It's amazing what you can do with this program. I created the leaf animation in 3ds max and exported it as alembic, the rest was done in houdini.</div><div>Download <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/pddbeqkg2w1qqre/Growing%20Ivy.zip?dl=1">here.</a></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Houdini VDB Swiss Cheese:</title><description><![CDATA[Well every one goes to the dark side should try their VDB Swiss cheese, so come join and grab a piece. Download here.<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_5b6da4eae37544769e9b763e4862b806%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_894%2Ch_378/ec9ef1_5b6da4eae37544769e9b763e4862b806%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/10/10/Houdini-VDB-Swiss-Cheese</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/10/10/Houdini-VDB-Swiss-Cheese</guid><pubDate>Mon, 10 Oct 2016 14:50:01 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_5b6da4eae37544769e9b763e4862b806~mv2.jpg"/><div>Well every one goes to the dark side should try their VDB Swiss cheese, so come join and grab a piece. Download<a href="https://goo.gl/7P9nuW">here.</a></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Houdini Pre Fracture</title><description><![CDATA[Based on Simon Fiedler's pre fracture tutorial.The beauty about this method is that it get rid of the boring straight edges created by Voronoy fracture and gives you a nice amount of details on the edges.You can download the scene here.<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_fc299d88fd8d4cc4a67ab95fcb0365a6%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_894%2Ch_422/ec9ef1_fc299d88fd8d4cc4a67ab95fcb0365a6%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/10/09/Houdini-Pre-Fracture</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/10/09/Houdini-Pre-Fracture</guid><pubDate>Sat, 08 Oct 2016 21:25:52 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_fc299d88fd8d4cc4a67ab95fcb0365a6~mv2.jpg"/><div>Based on Simon Fiedler's pre fracture <a href="https://vimeo.com/176497413">tutorial.</a></div><div>The beauty about this method is that it get rid of the boring straight edges created by Voronoy fracture and gives you a nice amount of details on the edges.</div><div>You can download the scene <a href="https://goo.gl/rJxQBP">here.</a></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Into the dark side</title><description><![CDATA[It seems that I've fallen into the dark side and since I'm a 3ds max user since ever it's going to be an interesting journey so I'll be sharing it with you guys, so stay tuned.After watching a couple of training courses from Rohan Dalvi (here) I came up with this setup.A short preview can be found on my insta....Cheers...<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_ee90beaf942140f0b47b788b882275c3%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_894%2Ch_444/ec9ef1_ee90beaf942140f0b47b788b882275c3%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/09/28/Into-the-dark-side</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/09/28/Into-the-dark-side</guid><pubDate>Wed, 28 Sep 2016 13:28:38 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_ee90beaf942140f0b47b788b882275c3~mv2.jpg"/><div>It seems that I've fallen into the dark side and since I'm a 3ds max user since ever it's going to be an interesting journey so I'll be sharing it with you guys, so stay tuned.</div><div>After watching a couple of training courses from Rohan Dalvi (<a href="http://www.rohandalvi.net/mograph/">here</a>) I came up with this setup.</div><div>A short preview can be found on my <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BK3C8kcDymN/">insta....</a></div><div>Cheers...</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Star Trek Beyond</title><description><![CDATA[Hey everyone,If you’re going to see Star Trek Beyond, stay for the closing credits, and don’t blink! I was glad to be part of Bionic Primitive creative team creating this amazing shot in the end title sequence.It was an emergency project; we had 12 days to come up with a “cool space thing” from concept to final render. With creative freedom but very little time, we managed to push a billion particles out rendered in stereo. I’m so proud of the result.Alaa Alnahlawiالسلام عليكمولله الحمد تم<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_b3790fab900042d9afb1b465837f3833%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_894%2Ch_368/ec9ef1_b3790fab900042d9afb1b465837f3833%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/08/10/Star-Trek-Beyond</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/08/10/Star-Trek-Beyond</guid><pubDate>Wed, 10 Aug 2016 00:22:00 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_b3790fab900042d9afb1b465837f3833~mv2.jpg"/><div>Hey everyone,</div><div>If you’re going to see Star Trek Beyond, stay for the closing credits, and don’t blink! I was glad to be part of Bionic Primitive creative team creating this amazing shot in the end title sequence.</div><div>It was an emergency project; we had 12 days to come up with a “cool space thing” from concept to final render. With creative freedom but very little time, we managed to push a billion particles out rendered in stereo. I’m so proud of the result.</div><div>Alaa Alnahlawi</div><div>السلام عليكم</div><div>ولله الحمد تم الانتهاء من العمل على أحد المشاهد الختامية من فلم ستار ترك بيوند مع فريق بايونيك برميتيف المبدع في كندا</div><div>مايميز هذه التجربة:</div><div>كون الكادر موزع على عدة دول ما أعطى تحدي أكبر من جهة ايصال الفكرة وتوحيد الجهود ناهيك عن الفروق الوقتية</div><div>12 يوم للتسليم</div><div>مايقارب المليار بارتكل وحجم الداتا كان مخيف</div><div>كون المشروع ستيريو</div><div>بتأدرك انو لازم تجيب كومبيوتر خارق</div><div>بعد ماتخلص شغل بتصفن شوي انو كل هالجهد تم فقط لمشهد صغير ختامي فما بالك ببقية الفلم وقتها بيتكون عندك احترام وتقدير لادارة الانتاج والاخراج, بالفعل جهد جبار</div><div>وطبعا اكتملت فرحتى لما تذكرت انو مافي سينما بالسعودية لكحل عيوني بهالانجاز , فبرضايي عليكن حضروا الفلم وضلوا للأخير وخبروني شو حسيتو ولازم يكن ثري دي</div><div>علاء النحلاوي</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Electric Arc</title><description><![CDATA[Revisited the tool and did a beauty shot of it, with some improvements.for more please do check TP tool webpage.<img src="https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/572160561_640.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/05/23/Electric-Arc</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/05/23/Electric-Arc</guid><pubDate>Mon, 23 May 2016 20:24:57 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/167788403"/><div>Revisited the tool and did a beauty shot of it, with some improvements.</div><div>for more please do check TP toolwebpage.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>TP Pixelizar</title><description><![CDATA[TP Pixelizar is the 3d version of this effect where you can control shape, gap, timing, position randomization......etcThe still pictures at the bottom are a different method and it's not meant for animation, it's just a still art.In case you want your picture to be styled this way just send it over.<img src="https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/571947068_640.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/05/23/TP-Pixelizar</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/05/23/TP-Pixelizar</guid><pubDate>Mon, 23 May 2016 09:18:15 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/167611266"/><div>TP Pixelizar is the 3d version of this effect where you can control shape, gap, timing, position randomization......etc</div><div>The still pictures at the bottom are a different method and it's not meant for animation, it's just a still art.</div><div>In case you want your picture to be styled this way just send it over.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_2d8a5225e89e415ba948635d4fc713e9~mv1.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_f49cc65c33e84474a0192da0ec1486ec~mv1.jpg"/></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>وسم 9 (#نسيت)</title><description><![CDATA[إلى المسجون في ذاكرته, المخنوق في صندوقها.هذا باب الحرية, هذا باب النسيان.......‫.وسم 9 (#نسيت) للدكتور سلمان العودة .كان لي الشرف بتنفيذ العديد من المؤثرات البصرية .إخراج ابن العم العزيز عبد الرحمن النحلاوي .كلمات المبدع صالح الفوزان.بوركت جهود جميع القائمين على العمل علاء النحلاويTo the trapped in his own memory, captive in its chest.This is the salvation door, this is your oblivion door. A short clip under the title ‪#‎Forget for ash-Sheikh Salman Al oda. I was responsible for several vfx<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_1dba2defe9f646cd9a08982359fe5904%7Emv1.jpg/v1/fill/w_894%2Ch_503/ec9ef1_1dba2defe9f646cd9a08982359fe5904%7Emv1.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/05/20/%D9%88%D8%B3%D9%85-9-%D9%86%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%AA-1</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/05/20/%D9%88%D8%B3%D9%85-9-%D9%86%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%AA-1</guid><pubDate>Fri, 20 May 2016 18:02:37 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_1dba2defe9f646cd9a08982359fe5904~mv1.jpg"/><div>إلى المسجون في ذاكرته, المخنوق في صندوقها.هذا باب الحرية, هذا باب النسيان.......‫</div><div>.وسم 9 (#نسيت) للدكتور سلمان العودة .كان لي الشرف بتنفيذ العديد من المؤثرات البصرية .إخراج ابن العم العزيز عبد الرحمن النحلاوي .كلمات المبدع صالح الفوزان</div><div>.بوركت جهود جميع القائمين على العمل</div><div>علاء النحلاوي</div><div>To the trapped in his own memory, captive in its chest.</div><div>This is the salvation door, this is your oblivion door.</div><div>A short clip under the title ‪#‎Forget for ash-Sheikh Salman Al oda.I was responsible for several vfx elements and shots. It was directed by the great cousin Abdulrahman Nahlawi.Thanx for all the people who worked and was behind delivering this message.</div><div>Regards Alaa Al Nahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Thinking Particle Stacking</title><description><![CDATA[As you can see from the video this techniques doesn't involve any complex formulas, just a battle between two forces (Repel,attract) while changing the size depending on the underneath color. I did a small trick here to make the simulation faster where I forced the color check to occur only every five frames instead of everyone. And forces only happen in a certain range so each particle will only interact with a couple of its neighbors in range.www.vfxarabia.co www.facebook.com/VFXArabiaRegards<img src="https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/571443896_640.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/05/19/Thinking-Particle-Stacking</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/05/19/Thinking-Particle-Stacking</guid><pubDate>Wed, 18 May 2016 22:11:39 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/167190990"/><div>As you can see from the video this techniques doesn't involve any complex formulas, just a battle between two forces (Repel,attract) while changing the size depending on the underneath color. I did a small trick here to make the simulation faster where I forced the color check to occur only every five frames instead of everyone. And forces only happen in a certain range so each particle will only interact with a couple of its neighbors in range.</div><div>www.vfxarabia.co www.facebook.com/VFXArabia</div><div>Regards Alaa Al Nahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>TP Sand Logo</title><description><![CDATA[A slightly modified version of the sand solver, it gave me more control and interesting results than the conventional way of just using some wind turbulence. You can see this in the sand chunks that get eaten by time. Regards Alaa Al Nahlawi<img src="https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/570089776_640.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/05/11/TP-Sand-Logo</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/05/11/TP-Sand-Logo</guid><pubDate>Wed, 11 May 2016 11:10:24 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/166077956"/><div>A slightly modified version of the sand solver, it gave me more control and interesting results than the conventional way of just using some wind turbulence. You can see this in the sand chunks that get eaten by time.</div><div>Regards Alaa Al Nahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>TP Sand Man</title><description><![CDATA[A step forward from my previous video, I tried to apply the sand effect to a deforming object which was a bit of a challenge. But I was able to achieve sth here I tracked the surface velocity and applied it to the 20,000 volume particles while physics and joints are active, joints started to break gradually based on velocity and collision. Those particles at a later stage drove 1,000,000 which will give the sand look, and I also grabbed the texture coords from the unwraped Zombie surface. Of<img src="https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/569502503_640.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/05/06/TP-Sand-Man</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/05/06/TP-Sand-Man</guid><pubDate>Fri, 06 May 2016 16:44:01 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/165599687"/><div>A step forward from my previous video, I tried to apply the sand effect to a deforming object which was a bit of a challenge. But I was able to achieve sth here I tracked the surface velocity and applied it to the 20,000 volume particles while physics and joints are active, joints started to break gradually based on velocity and collision. Those particles at a later stage drove 1,000,000 which will give the sand look, and I also grabbed the texture coords from the unwraped Zombie surface. Of course rendered in Krakatoa with some motion blur.</div><div>Regards Alaa Al Nahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>TP Sand Solver</title><description><![CDATA[Based On Eloi Andaluz Thinking particles sand setup, I cached 1m TP particles then used a PRT loader and multiplied the count a couple of times. The Texture coordinates were exported from TP using a TextureCoord channel. Caching and rendering were done in about two hours or so. To put it in steps:- Cache the low res TP (around 20,000 particles) that will guide the high res particles. - Cache the High res TP (that will bring the particles count to 1,000,000 or higher). - Export the particles to<img src="https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/569200643_640.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/05/05/TP-Sand-Solver</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/05/05/TP-Sand-Solver</guid><pubDate>Wed, 04 May 2016 21:37:09 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/165359107"/><div>Based On Eloi Andaluz Thinking particles sand setup, I cached 1m TP particles then used a PRT loader and multiplied the count a couple of times. The Texture coordinates were exported from TP using a TextureCoord channel. Caching and rendering were done in about two hours or so. To put it in steps:</div><div>- Cache the low res TP (around 20,000 particles) that will guide the high res particles. - Cache the High res TP (that will bring the particles count to 1,000,000 or higher). - Export the particles to prt using Krakatoa. - Load it using PRT Loader. - Add a Krakatoa Magma Modifier and jitter the position and velocity. - Create six random partitions 1m particle each. - load all the partitions and render.....</div><div>For more check Eloi's tool webpage: http://www.andvfx.com/2049/sandsolver/</div><div>www.vfxarabia.co www.facebook.com/VFXArabia</div><div>Regards Alaa Al Nahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>FootBall Mograph (Thinking Particles)</title><description><![CDATA[Mastering some hierarchy and vector math techniques using Cebas Thinking Particles. Kindest Regards Alaa Al Nahlawi<img src="https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/568468835_640.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/04/30/FootBall-Mograph-Thinking-Particles</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/04/30/FootBall-Mograph-Thinking-Particles</guid><pubDate>Fri, 29 Apr 2016 22:11:50 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/164775403"/><div>Mastering some hierarchy and vector math techniques using Cebas Thinking Particles.</div><div>Kindest Regards Alaa Al Nahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Maxscript tutorial: Read external text file</title><description><![CDATA[As the titles says this tutorial is about reading an external txt file. My friend asked me how to read and external text file using maxscript. He wanted to create a tool that grab system directory paths from an external predefined text file. Check the full tutorial here.... Kindest RegardsAlaa Alnahlawi<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_2174cf233a3340c8bd1a8f501fb58d1a.jpg/v1/fill/w_458%2Ch_149/ec9ef1_2174cf233a3340c8bd1a8f501fb58d1a.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/04/27/Maxscript-tutorial-Read-external-text-file</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/04/27/Maxscript-tutorial-Read-external-text-file</guid><pubDate>Wed, 27 Apr 2016 01:00:00 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div>As the titles says this tutorial is about reading an external txt file. My friend asked me how to read and external text file using maxscript. He wanted to create a tool that grab system directory paths from an external predefined text file. Check the full tutorial here....</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_2174cf233a3340c8bd1a8f501fb58d1a.jpg"/><div>Kindest Regards</div><div>Alaa Alnahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>TP Magnetic Field</title><description><![CDATA[I came across Alessandro Pepe magnetic field Houdini tutorial, and I thought why not doing it in Thinking Particles. each one of the particles in the field will be affected by this velocity vector, it is as simple as: Velocity=v1+v2 where v1= unit(Prt.v - Neg.v) * (1/dn) v2= unit(Pos.v - Prt.v) * (1/dp)Neg.v: the position of the negative pole Pos.v: the position of the positive pole Prt.v: the position of the particle dn: distance from the particle to the Negative pole dp: distance from the<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_4fd839310d704e5aaa1598e5eb284e4a.gif"/>]]></description><link>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/04/25/TP-Magnetic-Field</link><guid>https://www.vfxarabia.co/single-post/2016/04/25/TP-Magnetic-Field</guid><pubDate>Mon, 25 Apr 2016 19:39:55 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ec9ef1_4fd839310d704e5aaa1598e5eb284e4a.gif"/><div>I came across Alessandro Pepe magnetic field Houdini tutorial, and I thought why not doing it in Thinking Particles. each one of the particles in the field will be affected by this velocity vector, it is as simple as: Velocity=v1+v2  where v1= unit(Prt.v - Neg.v) * (1/dn) v2= unit(Pos.v - Prt.v) * (1/dp)</div><div>Neg.v: the position of the negative pole Pos.v: the position of the positive pole Prt.v: the position of the particle dn: distance from the particle to the Negative pole dp: distance from the particle to the Positive pole</div><div>Render was done using Krakatoa Particles count: 23M Memory needed: 14GB of Ram Density and color were driven by velocity.</div><div>Regards Alaa Al Nahlawi</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item></channel></rss>