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cmiVFX Releases Isotropix Clarisse OpenVDB Workflows
High Definition Training Videos for the Visual Effects Industry

Princeton, NJ (January 29th, 2016) Late Breaking Technology Alert! Brand new from cmiVFX is the Houdini to Clarisse VDB Workflow Solution. Isotropix Clarisse is a new breed of high-end animation software which is a fusion of an animation package, a compositing software and a 3d rendering engine. It has been designed to streamline the workflow of CG artists to let them work and constantly interact on their final image with full visual effects turned on with super fast speeds. Join the technological future today by purchasing this video at cmiVFX.com today.

Short Description
Learn how to use OpenVDB to bring your dynamic simulations to Clarisse for creative work.

Vimeo Teaser Trailer
https://vimeo.com/153541594 [vimeo.com]

|||||| Isotropix Clarisse OpenVDB Workflows |||||
https://cmivfx.com/store/665-Clarisse+VDB+Workflows [cmivfx.com]

Chapter Descriptions

Introduction
Isotropix Clarisse is a great addition to any CG pipeline ranging from the freelancer all the way up to the larger feature studios.

Clarisse Jump Start
Let’s take a quick overview of Isotropix Clarisse iFX, so you’ll get comfortable really quick and start creating right away.

Simple Workflow Example
Starting from a simple example, we’ll learn the steps required to take your volumes from Houdini to Clarisse, is not that complicated but there is a few details that just have to be right so everything works right in Clarisse.

Sync Assets
Syncing assets is an amazing feature that makes it so friendly to work with other apps. It is an important tool since Clarisse benefits greatly from other applications.

Explosion Workflow
Most of us got into this business to blow things up legally, right? This chapter will show you the detailed information required to export explosions into a VDB sequence from Houdini and import it to Clarisse for dynamic shading materials.

Clouds Workflow
Clouds are one of those things that never stand out in most VFX shots, however, sky replacements are one of the most common techniques in shot beautification. In this part of the video we will make a few clouds shapes objects reminiscent of recent TV commercials.

Animation
Life would be boring without movement. Learn how to create animations on several aspects of your VDB project solutions.

Conclusion
Clarisse has filled a gap in the Visual Effects software industry which has now received a lot of attention. cmiVFX will continue to forge the path for this new forked path in the community.

About The Instructor
Varomix is a Freelance VFX Artist, Generalist TD, Game Developer, Musician and Founder of MIXStudio. Shortly after Side Effects launched the Houdini Apprentice Program in 2002, Varomix became an ardent Houdini user. Since then it has become his main tool for creation. Varomix is also a father and husband that enjoy doing lots of crazy stuff with his family.

Project Contents
All cmiVFX videos come with all the training materials you can need right from our website. No matter what time of day, your location, or how you're feeling, cmiVFX will be there waiting for you! This video is available today at the cmiVFX Store: www.cmivfx.com

About cmiVFX
cmiVFX is the leader in High Definition Video Training for the Visual Effects Community. Register for free and receive hours of free content at the cmiVFX Video-on-Demand Player. Copyright 2016 cmiVFX | cmiStudios. All rights reserved.

Brand New Houdini to Arnold OpenVDB Workflow by cmiVFX
High Definition Training Videos for the Visual Effects Industry

Princeton, NJ (December 9th, 2015) Fresh of the edit pipeline, just in time for the holiday season is another hit single training video by cmiVFX. As the Visual Effects industry has matured over the last few years, new formats to accommodate the rendering of large dynamic simulations such as dust, smoke, fire, or even explosions, have been developed to increase the potential for productivity in workflow. Our resident Houdini research scientist, Varomix, committed to bringing a hands on guide for this newly created software pipeline between a host app and a final render. OpenVDB is a standard in the film industry, proven, tested and built by the very same guys that are in the very same film industry. This technique has the potential to be applied to multiple workflows, and over time will be adopted by more artists, exponentially. When it comes to the latest research information in the computer graphics and visual effects industry, only one worldwide network of artists help maintain the lead in the VFX training revolution. That network is cmiVFX.com!

Short Description
Learn how to use OpenVDB, an open source file transfer format, to bring your dynamic simulations to final render.

Vimeo Teaser Trailer
https://vimeo.com/148132405 [vimeo.com]

|||||| Houdini to Arnold VDB Workflow |||||
https://cmivfx.com/store/659-Houdini+Arnold+VDB+Workflow [cmivfx.com]

Chapter Descriptions

Introduction
This course was designed around customers requesting the most amount of information in shorter time periods. Our efforts allowed us to reach the best balance for the VFX artist on the go!

Simple Workflow Example
First, we will break down the process we need to export VDBs from Houdini to Arnold so they can be rendered. In the beginning, all processes will be manual, however as we get further into the process, we learn how to automated the process for rapid reuse.

Arnold Volume Node
We will dice all the parts of the Arnold Volume Node to become completely aware of all its possibilities.

Automating The Workflow
Now that we know the steps we need to export our volumes to VDB and into Arnold, we’ll automate the exporting part so we have faster iterations while tweaking the effect in Houdini.

Explosion Workflow
One of the more popular end user questions: “How to I render my dynamic CG explosion using Arnold?” Our answer back will be the remainder of this chapter.

Clouds Workflow
In this chapter, we take a full shot approach by making realistic clouds over a standard environment plate. All compositing and tuning will be shown in detail.

Bonus Chapter: Rendering Volumes
As a bonus chapter, we’ll talk about how to get rid of noise in your volume renders.

Conclusion
Houdini + Arnold is an example of unparalleled proceduralism amongst applications. This pipeline would work even if you have your own VDB capable render engine. Many compositing apps are looking at adding this technology to their toolset.

About The Instructor
Varomix is a VFX Artist, Generalist TD, Game Developer, Musician and Founder of MIXStudio. Shortly after Side Effects launched the Houdini Apprentice Program in 2002, Varomix became an ardent Houdini user. Since then it has become his main tool for creation. Varomix is also a father and husband that enjoy doing lots of crazy stuff with his family.

Project Contents
All cmiVFX videos come with all the training materials you can need right from our website. No matter what time of day, your location, or how you're feeling, cmiVFX will be there waiting for you! This video is available today at the cmiVFX Store: www.cmivfx.com

About cmiVFX
cmiVFX is the leader in High Definition Video Training for the Visual Effects Community. Register for free and receive hours of free content at the cmiVFX Video-on-Demand Player. Copyright 2016 cmiVFX | cmiStudios. All rights reserved

cmiVFX Releases New Houdini Crowd VEX Custom Slugfest
High Definition Training Videos for the Visual Effects Industry

Princeton, NJ (December 3rd, 2015)‚ cmiVFX has released brand new Houdini Crowd VEX Custom Slugfest a VEX based code system for managing agent states within the Houdini Crowd system. Over the course of the training we will develop a robust event system that will allow you to customize your crowd needs above and beyond what the standard shelf tools offer. In this series Randy Sanders covers rig conversion, rig import, import fix-up, crowd population, multi-group crowd participants, simulation, constraining agents to a terrain, seeking goals, material style sheets and forming logos. We are going to build a couple mini-code systems such as: event state detection and transition viewing. Then we will take what we have learned to make a much larger system called the ‘SlugFest Engine’. The concept around this is to build the code around the asset. Craft a custom VEX code system to support the specific features of the asset. In the process, we will be using best coding practices to make the code flexible enough to be altered and extended at a later time. When it comes to intriguing Houdini content, look no further than cmiVFX.com!


Vimeo Video Preview
https://vimeo.com/147620852 [vimeo.com]

Short Description
This is a VEX based code system for managing agent states within the Houdini Crowd system.


||||||| HOUDINI CROWD CUSTOM VEX SLUGFEST |||||||
https://cmivfx.com/store/658-Houdini+Crowd+SlugFest [cmivfx.com]


Chapter Descriptions

It Starts With The Character
In this chapter, we review the various states of the animated Blender character which we will use throughout the series. We walk through the FBX export process for each action and generate animated FBX files that are compatible with the Houdini system.

Import And Bake
In this chapter, we go through the steps to import the FBX files and do a little cleanup on the imported animated geometry. We create a subnet for each animation state and configure each animation for baking.

Population And Simulation
In this chapter, we setup population grids for two different agent groups. These two groups will be opposing forces when it comes time for conflict. We create an initial Simulation and setup state nodes for all the FBX files to link the simulation to the baked animation files. We also add attributes to agents to support features of the SlugFest Combat system.

Trigger And Transition Setup
In this short chapter, we add some parameters for global control of transition speed and randomness. We also create the fist set of Trigger/Transition nodes to control migration from the walk state to any other state the system supports.

Transition Previewer
In this chapter, we start off with the remaining Trigger/Transition states in place and move on to construct a transition viewer so we can review our agent transitioning between states. Clip state detection is explained as I walk you through the VEX code.

Installing Slugfest Code
In this chapter, we install the SlugFest engine code into a CrowdTrigger node and create the support nodes for system initialization, seeking and per-frame attribute update. We wrap it up with an animated combat test of the code we installed.

Terrain And Goals
In this chapter, we import objects which become goals for our red and green teams. We link our VEX code to the goals so our agents can detect them. We also setup a randomly deformed ground to act as terrain for our agents to traverse. We tweak various parameters of the Crowd Solver node to dial-in our agent animations and conduct a couple of test to verify that different random outcomes are possible using the system.

Materials, Stylesheet And Rendering
In this chapter, we create a master material for our agents using the new Principled Shader. We also leverage the image maps that came with the original asset to refine the look. We create a Material Stylesheet which changes the color of each team member to match that teams color. We also explore how to reference attributes in Material Stylesheets.

Code Review
In this chapter, we review the Slug Fest Engine code line by line and talk about how the system works.

Finalizing The Look
In this final Slug Fest chapter, we improve the render setup by adding a matched set of images, Diffuse, Displace and Normal maps, to the terrain. We install the remaining matched set of images on to our agent's material as well. We explore Depth of Field and how to enable Motion Blur for the agents. We setup lighting using the Sky Light with an Environment image map. We explore how to color match the terrain horizon line with the environment map for a more seamless look. We set the final speed for the simulation then add more agents to our scene and sort them by axis.

Agents Form A Logo
In this chapter, we set aside the Slug Fest code and explore how to use VEX code to make the default agents walk or run from one random location to another location within a logo. When they reach the final location they switch to an idle standing position. A simple Material Stylesheet colorizes the seeking agents and the standing agents who have reached their goal.

Project Contents
All cmiVFX videos come with all the training materials you can need right from our website. No matter what time of day, your location, or how your feeling, cmiVFX will be there waiting for you!

About the Instructor: Randy Sanders
While programming dominated Randy's early life, computer graphics and animation were always at the heart of it. Having written his first program, an animated low-res graphical trumpet, at age 14, Randy went on to win first place in the Ohio State High School programming championship two years in a row. As computers evolved, so did Randy's programming skills. Randy spent ten years as a Microsoft application developer creating multi-media programs for the desktop and the web. As comfortable on Windows, Mac or Linux, Randy now pursues Open Source solutions for development and has written many Python scripts for 3D environments. All code and no fun makes Randy a dull boy? Not really, Randy is also an accomplished recording artists/audio engineer and has several published works, including works for the Sony music corporation and local record labels. He has collaborated on musical sound tracks for local movies and his keyboard sequencing can be heard on the nationally famous poet Umar Bin Hassan's CD “Life Is Good” as well as trumpet and guitar on Howlin' Maggie's “Honey Suckle Strange”. Visual composition is important to Randy. But not content to just look through the viewfinder. Randy has gone further into the camera than most and been employed as a camera repair technician. This venture into the mechanical and electrical makeup of lenses, flash units, camera bodies and video camcorders has given Randy a technical understanding of photography and videography that he leverages in his work. Randy is a competent camera operator and has managed video shoots from start to finish. Including capture, editing, keying, rotoscoping and delivery after the shoot. Animation still remains Randy's passion whether it is 2D or 3D. In between projects, Randy can often be found seeking out new animation techniques, putting a modern twist on an old one or just making something pretty. If time has taught Randy anything, it is that to remain creative you must always look to the future. What will Randy be doing in five years? More than likely leveraging the latest software to complete effects shots for television, movies or the advertising industry.

This video is available today at the cmiVFX Store: http://store.cmivfx.com/ [store.cmivfx.com]

About cmiVFX
cmiVFX is the leader in High Definition Video Training for the Visual Effects Community. Register for FREE and receive hours of FREE content at the cmiVFX Video-on-Demand Player. ( http://store.cmivfx.com/login [store.cmivfx.com] ) For additional information about cmiVFX, visit http://www.cmivfx.com [cmivfx.com] or email eric@cmivfx.com © 2014 cmiVFX | cmiStudios. All rights reserved.