The Gnomon Workshop has long been a bastion of pro-level and pro instructed tutorials for a wide range of filmmaking disciplines. I personally have purchased several of their products to rapidly get up-to-speed for some professional needs.
This tutorial covers the creation of an explosion in a snow field in a completely computer generated (CG) environment. Blood splatters, rocks and snow as well as a smoking head - thanks to a magical curse - is created, rendered and composited. The series does not cover anything besides the creation of the explosion and tricks on how to do it.
Without question, no matter how long you've been in the business, looking over someone else's shoulder is an excellent way to pick up new ways of accomplishing tasks or inspiring new ways of approaching your own workflow. So, I was really excited to review "Production FX Workflows: 'Dragon Age: Origins' Shot Breakdown with Brandon Young."
To be clear, Brandon Young knows his stuff and Blur Studios is a fantastic VFX shop. However, this Gnomon effort under-delivered. The biggest disappointment was not the content of the training but production issues. The audio levels were extremely inconsistent from movie to movie, sometimes overcompressed, multiple mic strikes and many times, the loudest item in the audio was the typing on the keyboard. This left me constantly leaping either to playback what I just missed or for the volume controls to preventing ruptured eardrums and speakers.
The series opens with a wireframe display of the CG characters as the focal character, a 'Hurlock', charges away from the camera.
The next, and almost as significant issue, is that Brandon is so fluent in the toolsets he uses that if you don't share the fluency, it is almost impossible to follow where in the visual interface he is because he moves so quickly and the 1024x768 movie resolution hides the mouse movements. This can be remedied by a number of video capture software packages on the market that highlight keyboard shortcuts and clearly display where the mouse is.
As a MicroFilmmaker, this Gnomon title makes some demands of you that aren't clearly spelled out in the product information. The series isn't so much a special FX production workflow as a "here's how to make an explosion with tool sets you already need to be pretty fluent in." If you are personally already fluent in 3DS Max and Fusion or other similar 3D and compositing software, you will pick up some nice process and workflow considerations. Seeing how to transfer things Brandon talks about to other CG and compositing packages is easy to do - but only if you already know the other packages very well. If you don't fit this criteria, the series will leave you frustrated.
Working with some additional software that functions a s a plug-in to 3DS Max, author Brandon Young demonstrates how to reconnect the provided assets once installed on your local drive.
Brandon begins the series by showing the final VFX shot and talking through the expectations for the final composite. Then a quick analysis of the shot breakdown sets the agenda for the rest for the series. This specific shot is the product of a team effort for which Brandon is specifically tasked with creating the explosion effect - something he is outstanding at. The entire shot is Computer Generated (CG) and has had the camera animation already set. Because of that, there is nothing presented about how to construct anything but the explosion. The production workflow is strictly Autodesk's 3DS Max, some specialized Blur Studio tools sets, Particle Flow and FumeFX composited with Fusion 6.
Finally, the author is fantastic at what he does and works like many of us do, through trial and error plus many silent decisions made on past experience to accelerate the on-screen work. However, the author (no offense meant, Brandon) is not a real effective presenter or instructor, making the series seem a little less than professional. Watching and listening to Brandon work is like watching a master craftsman but only getting 20% of the mental dialog. This is compounded by the fact that certain things, especially in the final movie about compositing, are physically left out of the series, like character masking for the VFX blood splatters.
Consequently, the viewer is watching a 'real world' VFX shot in production but some of the actual content is missing that could have been a huge instructional bonus. It would have been better to have constructed a tutorial specific shot where items that were missing could have been included and strengthened the whole tutorial - even if they weren't covered but merely there to explore.
Controlling debris size and placement via the materials and dynamics is a critical part to creating a believable effect.
Comprehension
A typical preamble to each movie is something like this, "I'm not going to show much about the software tool, but instead focus on the how the effect looks." While Brandon occasionally throws in what keyboard shortcut he may be using, the viewer is expected to know how he got where he is and why he's there in the first place. If you are paying very close attention and already have a working knowledge of the process being displayed, than you can figure it out. But you shouldn't have to.
On the plus side, Brandon shows how to install the additional software (Blur open source tools that are made for 3DS Max) and how to deal with errors that pop up as you begin the process. Since this series is based on a VFX production house workflow, it is assumed that assets are being delivered from central servers with multiple workers building the final shot. Installing everything locally breaks those links and forces the tutorial user to reconnect everything locally. At first I was a little put off by the thought of telling me how to install software but there was a method to the madness.
On the negative side, viewers are also shown where to get the materials online. Ooops, they're no longer there and are on the CD/Downloaded content already. Those types of inconsistencies and the "not all the files are here" nature of series sabotages its professionalism.
A debris rendered preview.
Depth of Information
Not clearly spelled out in the product description is the simple fact that this series shows mostly 'when' VFX explosion is done to a shot without covering more of the nuanced 'hows'. While viewers are witness to the process of File Prep, Dirt passes, Snow Setup, Rendering, Fume Smoke, Fume Explosion and final compositing, these items are process specific without the nuanced explanations of why they are connected and presented the way they are. It's implied, but that is all. Towards the end of the series, Brandon shows the creation and integration of a last minute explosion change that was required of him. That's good real-world stuff and would have been a perfect springboard to launch the series about why he puts things together the way he does - because nothing is ever immune from change.
As a point of reference, one of the Gnomon series I own is by Chris Stoski about Digital Matte painting. Like Brandon, he doesn't spend a lot of time showing how to use the tools and covers multiple toolsets. The series is even accelerated with Chris narrating it after the fact. However, what he does spend time doing is explaining the 'why' of what he is doing, how it relates to the production workflow and keeping everybody happy with the results while allowing the ability for last minute changes. This is fantastic info whether you are a single-man Micro Filmmaker or have a team working with you.
Now back to this explosion tutorial workflow, I simply felt it lacked the specificity of either how to use the tools while also missing the opportunity to explain about larger integration necessities. There were some excellent tricks revealed about accelerating workflow with 'instancing' 3D objects and compositing nodes but more commonly, the viewer is left watching the instructor simply go through some trial and error development. Hey, we all do trial and error development, but, this series could have been made stronger if there was less of the hum-drum and more of the specifics presented in a more organized and comprehensive fashion.
Some nice tricks to pulling out smoke details are shown throughout the FumeFX portion of the series.
Interest Level
Plain and simple, this is for people that need to put together explosions with 3DS Max and composite with Fusion. While you can pick up some transferable skills if you are fluent in some other tools that do similar things, there are not 'big picture' gainers in this series. Brandon references the fine work and materials available from another source that hosts tutorials and content more often used by MicroFilmmakers: VideoCopilot.net. (Honestly, if you're using Adobe After Effects, it would be worth your time to check out VideoCopilot if you haven't been there.)
Reusability
Users may go through this series multiple times if you are building fluency with the tool sets used or if you are new to explosions and want to use them. But it's a one trick pony. However, if you are new to using FumeFX or a similar toolset, there are some invaluable, conversational observations about building realistic smoke effects - something that Brandon is a master of. This is where I wish a more focused presentation could have been made to explain considerations about realism and dynamics. To see more of the kind of work Brandon does, visit his personal website at http://www.byvfx.com/ Just fantastic work. Really.
Value Vs. Cost
Like most tutorials, if you need what they show, the cost is always justified in time savings and mental anguish. If you specifically have the software used in this series and will be doing explosions, get the series - it will be worth it.
This isn't an expensive tutorial as far as tutorials go. However, if you don't already have the software, are not fluent in it or are looking for a complete and thorough how-to, it would be better to pass on this series. Even if you have a very thorough knowledge of similar tools and are looking for some additional tips you can apply to the toolsets you have, you'd be hard pressed to get some value from this series.
Compositing multiple explosions and the delightfully gruesome blood splatter is revealed in the compositing section.
Final Comments Being a brilliant user and a brilliant teacher are not always the same thing. Brandon has some hard-won know-how about what he is demonstrating. However, much of his know-how is not transferred as a part of the demonstration simply because he such a profound level of subconscious fluency and efficiency with this software that isn't explained while he's working.
You have to know the software well or VFX process well to even come close to keeping up with this tutorial. This kind of begs the question, if you are fluent enough with the software to keep up, do you really need this tutorial?
If you aren't familiar with this software or process, watching this series is a bit like having one year of grade school Spanish and then visiting Madrid with a pocket translation guide as your only companion - everything happens so fast that comprehension is muted.
Unfortunately, Gnomon also didn't provide much help in the way of production either, allowing Audio 101 no-no's in like mic strikes and poor level control to make it into the final tutorial. Brandon is one of those users that you want to know more from. All he needs is a little more support on the tech side and on the delivery side and you'd probably buy everything he authors - especially if you like fire and smoke.
Comprehension
7.2
Depth
of Information
5.5
Interest
Level
5.0
Reusability
5.0
Value
vs. Cost
6.5
Overall Score
6.0
Mark Bremmer has operated his own commercial studio for 15 years. He’s been fortunate enough to work for clients like Caterpillar, Amana, Hormel Foods, Universal Studios Florida, and The History Channel; producing stills, digital mattes and animations. Mark contracts regularly as an art mercenary with production houses that shall remain nameless by written agreements. His production pipeline is Mac-based, with the FCP Studio2 workflow. He loves Shake and Motion. And his family.
