ZBrush how to make giant lava monsters.

Step One: Design the melting monster

Anthony Bloor, director of MPC Visual effects, said, "When we hear lava monsters, everyone in the department is itching for it, they come up with their own little concepts, and then they draw sketches, and we end up with one of the ZBrush artists, and he simply looks at some sketches and starts modeling, All lava pits and crevices are carved in zbrush, then the lava monster is then redefined and vector-replacement maps are made. ”

Early drawings:

James ZBrush Carved:

Melt and ice-like James:

When asked if the MPC team had a name for the Beast, team director Rafael Lopez "After a moment's thought," James, "Bloor recalls," at first we thought he was about the same as Kronos (the MPC team created the monster for the movie "The Wrath of God"), It's like a giant with volcanic ash, rocks, and lava, but in fact he can walk and stomp, and in a way more like a human being, looks like someone who has been through some kind of terrible misfortune. ”

　　Step two: Shoot the background panel

The ad tells the story of the superhero ' Iceman ' head-on confrontation with James, which was filmed in Uruguay by the Arri Alexa, which isolated parts of the city during post-production, and placed several cars and splash sparks on the streets as decorations. In addition, in order to make this monster look more lifelike, the MPC team staff were initially asked to do some action in the background to delete, add some flames and spark fragments, and the sky map for some substitution processing. "But when it came to the actual clip, we realized a series of problems," Bloor said, "so we finally matte the surrounding buildings." ”

The animator designs James's face by reference to his posture:

　　Step Three: Monster destruction

In the advertisement, James has caused serious damage to the city, including the destruction of a (digital) concrete transporter before the superhero "Iceman" gave James a lethal ice-spray (converted from Vigorsol gum). To allow monsters to move around the streets, the MPC team staff must make sure that he was manipulated as a bipedal animal. "The equipment we use is very standard," Bloor explains, "because we don't have a lot of certainty about how he's going to keep our balance, so we have to spend more time on the animation just to make sure he can stand up." ”

Destroy Element board

Truck elements

Final shot

For James's molten skin, the special effects master relies on the particles and fluids in the Maya software to create smoke and sparks that slowly gush from the cracks in the skin of the monster, using a practical 2D of ash and spark elements to magnify the process. "They really want James to appear to be torn apart at any moment because the flames are inside him," Brewer added. "We also want other objects near him to move, and at first we just let the rocks move on the surface, but if that doesn't make it seem like it's going to explode at any moment." ”

　　Step four: Freeze (and explode)

The Ice man's cold ice shot prevented James from moving forward and then used a special shader to complete the freezing of the icicle on the monster. "I can make a simple coloring program, let his body swell, away from lava or freezing, and the formation of icicles," Bloor said, "which is done on the main equipment-we can simulate the sphere to push him forward, form a larger block of ice, and then lock him into that pose, Eventually completely destroy him. ”

It doesn't take a long time for James to break up, a special effect of the MPC team, using the Kali Finite Element Analysis tool kit based on the Pixelux DMM physics engine, made a slight adjustment to the picture on the right, according to Bloor, "the first time we applied this picture, He just turned into a gel and fell down--he could have kept it completely, but he would have kept shaking, and had fallen to the ground with a shiver. Once we know the properties of the material, we have to make sure that the material is appropriate, get him in position and launch an attack on him, and he will split up immediately, which is persuasive. ”

The members of the MPC team also tried to get James's ice cubes to drop faster on the ground in the fast-moving footage, but found that the size of the picture seemed smaller, so they restored the picture to the real-world size. James, as lava monsters and ice-state lava monsters are rendered using a super renderer, and finally aggregates the full frame velocity blur of each shot. For the MPC artists, these live images are interesting, as Bloor said, "We are in no hurry to complete the advertising shoot, but are eager to do a great job better." The