how to?: make a venom style suit
 

well maybe this isnt the right thread but since it is a special effect....

anyone know the way/a tutorial/whatever to make Venom style suits?

target
from a normal body

to this pic

to this ending state...

Well, if the geometry is changing, but the animation remains the same, this would be a perfect chance for a simple transition effect in post!

(ala: the Wolverene to Mystique X-men "rotating-kick" transition?)
(or the X-men2 "tent" scene... whichever makes you drool more)

1. You could simply just transition the between the 2 shots in post.

2. You could even go as complicated as multiple passes, particle "burn-away" type of transitions in Maya, lots of stuff.

List what questions bug you the most about this, and I'll try to answer them as best I can:)

lol, i dont have a clue of what "burn-away" particles means...

the effect i aim for is not just a transition, it has to look like the bodysuit just "launched threads" from the belt and shoes and then expands spiraling and encircling the body, weaving itself over it, kinda simbiotic venom suit of the comic but in a more ordered fashion (which makes it simpler i hope...).

Now i tought more about it... I was thinking of making it with a subd body with a layered shader with a skin shader lower layer and a black rubber shader on top transparency contolled by ramps. and on other compositing layer make some cilynders (each one for the body and limbs) get tight(with lots of turns) spirals from them, deleting the cylinders and then apply a black oil brush to the spirals and animate the covering of the curve over time, and animating the curve itself with a ball deformer whose movement is timed as the ramps of the body with the double shader...
(there was a mel to obtain spring shaped spirals?
and to obtain them from the geometry you have? )

but that is just theory... and i will be glad to hear theres a better/simpler way to make it with particles



(have to see x-man again, forgot the transitions of mistic to wolverine...)

I remember Rondador nocturno (nigtstalker?) "bamfs" where cool, how where they done?

arent burn away particles like a post effect where you do a custom wipe transition, but on the leading edge of the wipe you have these particles thats moving lookin likes it "burning away"?

huuuumm... that would be cool instead my crappy moving ramp + glow... rage... theres a tutorial/could you elaborate?

Wow.
To answer that is a LOT more elaborate than I would be able to post here right now, but Nem pretty much got the jist of it.

The idea is that you can use an animated alpha map to "fade-away" your clothing/objects, and the cool part about that is that you can link a particle emitters' rate/color/whatever to that alpha.

So, when the alpha starts "wiping" your color channels away, you can tell a surface emitter to emit using the shape and speed of your alpha.

Alex A. of Gnomon has a free tutorial covering this idea when he talks about Gravity and Uniform fields at his site.

Check out the SIMPLYMAYA tutorial links database for the link to Gnomon, then find thier free section for the article/tut.

It is about making a jar "blown-away" by wind, but the idea is the same.

Lemme know if that leads you down the right path:)

well kwik test (3hours... and a crash when by moving the ramp the page file size achieved 2.3gb for some reason...) of the theory on a leg to figure the troubles of making it on a whole body... putting 6 or more randomized threads by limb and slightly motion blurred i think it will achieve the look...

problem is: i made the spiral and conformed it to the leg with a latice, but i dont seem to be able to duplicate the curve mantaining the link with the latice (to be able to scale it to -1 to make another tread with the same shape go in the opposite direction) i tried connecting it again to the lattice deformation group, but as the duplicated curve was alrready deformed on its history it gives a twisted double deformed spiral...

also rage i may be retarded and dont seem to be able to find the tutorial youre speaking of on gnomon, could you plz post the link?

on a third note: when i batch render it does it but doesnt uses omre than a 2% of the pc´s power (taking a frigging lot of time to do it) anybody knows why and how to fix it?

tnx

It goes pretty quick so it's a little hard for me to tell, but you could probably give your ramp a litle noise to get a more uneven spread of the "symbiote."

Or am I reading incorrectly and you are using a seperate surface now?

no, im going with the "transparency ramp on layered shader and paintfxcurves" path cause i didt managed to imagine a better way... maybe add a white glow on the transition zone and definitely more pfx curves per linb and a subtler deformation of em... im doing it just as i said on the "theory post"....

University started again tough, and i was close to get some work as cameraman (and ill be still searching as i desperately need the money since june) so i dont know when ill do the fulll body, but the theory has proved to be more or less good...

what this gal wears is more of a hi tech nano-battlesuit than the simbiot of venom(so i want it to cover her on a more uniform way, the 1 sec transition was intentional, as ive always been told: "if its not a too good effect put it fast and with motion blur and it can stand" :)


(the trick is that if you know each individual part is weak, put lots of them moving and show it less time than their detail perception time:))
the hardest part will be as always uvmapping her as a whole that i can stilll contol with ramps.... i hate uvmapping, i just hate it...