Show: PAWS OF FURY

River, water simulation

The water simulation, with splashes and white water, was used in 37 different shots. This simulation covers a great distance, as some camera angles show the river over great depth.

Show: PAWS OF FURY

Destruction (piano falling through the roof)
Piano/ground interaction

Regarding the roof destruction, the original asset did not include internal structural support elements intended to support the roof. To save time (it would have been necessary to send the asset back to modeling/texturing), I created some wooden beams and battens to have more material in the debris flying in the air.
To obtain a coherent texture, I matched the UVs of these beams to similar wooden elements.
The roof destruction is therefore broken down into two parts, namely:

• Debris
• Dust

The interaction with the ground is broken down as follows:

• Impact dust
• Dust that accumulates behind the piano when it moves
• Displacement of sand that the piano digs when moving

Show: PAWS OF FURY

Rifle bullets

To create this effect, I started with a particle whose source is positioned inside the barrel or inside the mouth for the character in the second image. I gave it a velocity parallel to the barrel, and directed towards a point for the second image. The particle system was set to have one particle every three frames.
For the bullet shape, I created a polygon shape of the exact shape I wanted (i.e., an oval shape following the rectilinear trajectory).
I then instanced the geometry on each particle, giving the impression of a bullet projected by the barrel.
For the shader, I transformed the geometry into VDB (temperature field), then I created a "standard volume" in Arnold which allowed me to retrieve my temperature field and apply the color I wanted.

Show: JUSTICE LEAGUE

Downwash and debris

For this effect, vectors are placed on the ground creating a vector field that generates a volume that will appear to be propelled by the ship. The effect consists of:

• A volume
• Particles instanced with different debris
• Small gravel (also instanced particles)

Show: JUSTICE LEAGUE

Downwash and debris

Continuation of the previous shot which consists of:

• A volume for the downwash following the ship's takeoff

Flying leaves (instanced particles)

Show: JUSTICE LEAGUE

Ashes and embers

Instanced particles.

The main requirement for this effect was that the particles had to maintain a constant upward trajectory and never go down.

Show: RIVER DANCE

Rain and interaction

Particle system with interaction on the ground and various elements such as umbrellas.

Show: RIVER DANCE

Flying candies

To achieve the desired effect, I created an RBD simulation of the fish in the bowl by assigning them a destination point. However, after running the simulation, I noticed that the fish came out of the bowl but didn't seem animated (i.e., they weren't swimming).
To remedy this, I created three different short animations at the center of the world. Using a VEX script, I programmed the fish to gradually animate as they exit the bowl. They randomly choose one of the three animations, giving them a varied appearance (similar to blendshapes).

Show: RIVER DANCE

Dancing on water

The water surface is an "ocean spectrum".
Principle for interaction with droplets and footsteps in water:
I first created a FLIP simulation for the droplets that form under the feet.
Then I created ripples whose source are the feet and droplets touching the water surface.
Then using a VEX script that allows me to transfer the ripple deformations to the "ocean spectrum" cache.

Show: RIVER DANCE

Gunshot

Two layers in this effect:

• Fire
• Smoke

The gun fire was created using particles that are projected from the gun and were transformed into VDB (temperature field).
Then, using an "Arnold standard volume", I was able to plug the temperature field and apply a color ramp to it.

Show: RIVER DANCE

Tree trunk sculpture

To explain the scene, the birds are sculpting a tree trunk to create a hockey stick and helmet for one of the story's characters.
The effect was broken down into three layers:

• Wood chips (instanced particles)
• Dust (particles)
• Dust (volume)

Tool: MOZAIKA

This tool allows you to dress a flat surface. This can be a wall, floor, ceiling, whether it's a ship, castle... in fact, all surfaces that need to be dressed.

The principle is simple, imagine we want to create a floor covering with tiles of different sizes, we start by creating all the elements we need, that is (and to take the example illustrated opposite):

• a 1x1u tile
• a 1x2u tile
• a 2x2u tile

In this case, we have 4 elements to connect to our tool: the 3 tiles and the grid intended to be dressed.

Mozaika then takes care of filling the grid by positioning the elements like Tetris. It reacts in real time, meaning if we inject other elements (for example in the illustration, elements of different colors), it redoes a covering instantly.

Among the parameters we can modify, we can vary the global scale of all tiles by entering a scale coefficient, we can vary the thickness of joints between elements, we can rotate all elements by giving it an angle value.

Tool: MOZAIKA (continued)

In the following illustration, I created a small game map to test the tool. It's a 3-level floor map. I proceeded by level and type, meaning for each level I broke down walls and floors. I then merged everything to form the map.

Tool: MOZAIKA (continued)

Then I applied another tool that allows dressing the side walls of a floor, or more precisely of a balcony or walkway to give it thickness. Here, metallic elements forming a beam are created and added to the map.

Tool: MOZAIKA (continued)

Result with beams and wall and floor covering.

Tool: MOZAIKA (continued)

I then did an export test of the map to Unreal

TOOL: CITY BUILDER

This tool allows generating cities from splines, meaning we draw splines that represent streets, and the tool will first create all sidewalks and terrain, then add buildings each with different characteristics, such as number of floors, roof type... etc...

TOOL: PIPE

Tool for creating a pipeline network from splines. It will detect angles and create separate elements such as elbows.