Animation Department

Pipeline

Getting Started with Pipeline -- Tutorial Page to get you started

https://psl.shotgunstudio.com/user/login - Shotgun login

https://render.parasol-island.com/royalrender - Royal Render login

Episode - A guide to Episode and Episode Interface for encoding video files

Shotgun Uploader - A guide to our custom Shotgun Uploader

Naming Standards - Naming standards and folder structure

Fusion Environment - how Fusion is configured at Parasol

Maya Pipeline Setup - A guide on how to setup Maya to run with our pipeline

UNC Path - UNC Path Tutorial

Mudbox Pipeline Setup - A guide on how to setup Mudbox to run with our pipeline

Softimage Pipeline Setup - A guide on how to setup Softimage to run with our pipeline

After Effects default project and output modules - Default AE Project and optimized output modules for After Effects

Zombie Resurrection - An introduction to our inhouse pipeline tool, Zombie Resurrection

Pipeline Development - Development Ressources and Git repositories for our inhouse tools

Start Rendernodes Series 20

3D

• Tutorials

Effective Animation Rig - Creating an effective rig for simple object animation in Maya.

Depth Elevation Map - How we get, convert and store depth data for environments.

Softimage particle export to Maya - Basic particle transfer between Softimage and Maya using the nCache format.

• How to

Maya lightRig workflow and howto use the interface - The lightRigUI will be our standard shading lightset which will be used for each asset on every project.

• Assets3DX - A Website of free to use CAD Parts like Screws, Bolts, Plugs and so on. Very useful for kit bashing.

• Free Textures http://www.lughertexture.com/
• Dino's Animation Workflow for great 3D (character) animation is here

Tracking

3D Tracking and Match Moving with PFTrack 2011 and later

Tracking, Roto, Object Removal and Stabilization with Mocha Pro

Compositing

• Tools

PrimaryGrade - a macro which allows you to set the Black and White point of an image simply by picking the colors from a reference or by using color wheels. It effectively replaces the native ColorCorrector tool in Fusion introducing more advanced functionality and user-friendly interface.

DepthDefocus - a macro which uses the Depth channel to simulate the Depth of Field effect. Unlike Frischluft Depth of Field, this tool features fine tuning for the amount of highlight blooming, natural-looking and easily controllable deceleration of defocusing with distance, separate foreground defocusing power control, a possibility to select any image channel as the depth map and high-range (not normalized) depth channel support.

MergeWrap - a tool that creates light wrap and edge blur with a few customizable and animatable parameters.

See more tools...

• Scripts

• Lua Scripts

• Colors and Names

Names from Operations - renames all the (selected) nodes in a composition according to their main parameters, so you can quickly get the idea what operations are performed by Merges, and ChannelBooleans, what channels are used in Bitmap masks and how they are applied, what is the radius of a Blur tool and resolution of a Background etc.

• -- Parasol -- Send_to_RoyalRender6

Saves your composition and opens the Royal Render Submitter. Default Settings are: Fusion Group; Priority:70; Seq Divide 1-3. So you just need to push the Submit Button and the composition will be send to the renderfarm.

• -- Parasol -- Update Render Passes Koshi

Update all selected Loader, if there is a new Folder in the same path which has a higher number.

• exr_SplitEXR -

A script that splits multichannel exrs and produces multiple loaders with each Lightpass. It is accesable via right clicking on the loader and choose script, because it is a tool script!(Note that we are abandoning this workflow as singlechannel exrs are quicker and help save performance)

• Python Scripts

If you want to use Python Scripts you need to install Python 2.7 on your machine! Then you need to set your Default Python Version inside Fusion to Python 2.7. You find this Checkbox under File>Preferences>Globals>Script

--PSL--RunMultipassScript

Is a script which is basically an interface to start all Multipass Scripts. Just check the Script you like to run. It is recomannded to only run one script because created Loader could overlap for example!You find it easily under Scripts--> first entry after folders

--Parasol--Load_RenderPasses

Loads all pass from the folder in which selected loader is stored. You can chose the passes you want to load by checking/unchecking them. All passes are checked by default. For a deeper description click on the link. You find it easily under Scripts-->Parasol

--Parasol--Update_RenderPass

Updates all selected loader to latest Version. You can additionally select and check the passes you want to update via the interface. For a deeper Description click on the link. You find it easily under Scripts-->Parasol

See more scripts...

• Techniques

Multi-Pass Compositing Guide - a structured guide to multipass rendering and compositing with the complete list of 3D layers, their detailed descriptions and application formulas.

Using Motion Vector Passes - how to use the Motion Vector pass in Fusion with different blurring tools.

Working with Gamma - an article about understanding and using gamma-compensation.

Pre-Grading / Final Grading Order - should we ever apply final grading directly to the plates before we composite everything? This text explains, why should we work only with neutralized color-wise material in compositing.

Gradients in Fusion - some methods of changing the default linear interpolation to smooth, step and so on

Short Fusion Tips & Tricks - a collection of small tricks, some of which aren't documented anywhere

Degraining with Neat Video - this is a unique case where we use a tool in AE instead of Fusion to create a denoised plate.

After Effects Expressions - a collection of useful expressions for After Effects.

• General Articles

About technologies used on Roland Emmerich's Anonymous

Interview about VFX industry in Russia

• Video Tutorials

Miscelaneous

Monitor_Calibration_Guide

Stereoscopic3D - a collection of external links about 3D stereoscopy techniques and tools