FX CHALLENGE 02!
 

Ok folks, for the forseeable future, this should be the last of those pesky FX CHALLENGES:)

Announcing:
FX CHALLENGE 02
The Rube Goldberg Machine!

Now THIS should appeal to EVERYONE out there!
Modelers, Effects artists, Animators, Texture Painters, etc:)

What IS a Rube Goldberg machine you ask?
Check it out:
MYTHBUSTERS Rube Goldberg contraption
HONDA COG COMMERCIAL

Modelers and Texture painters can delight in making ANYTHING and EVERYTHING they want to make.
Effects artists can enjoy the freedom to make wild and wacky effects.

The major point to this is that this is a SIMULATION!
Active/Passive Rigid-Body, softbody, and nCloth DYNAMIC SIMULATIONS!
Physics is the heart of the shot!

...you get the idea:)

RULES:
Your FINAL entry in the "final entry" thread must NOT contain sound.
Sound is great as an addition to your WIP thread, or your reel, but not here:)

The main reason is, as we all know, sound adds an element to cinematics that push it over the top, and so to remain fair to those with no scoring or foley abilities, we have decided that the final entries need to stand by themselves to allow for a larger group of competitors:)

I know it's a bummer, but thems the rules.


***The official start and deadline dates for this challenge will be the same 8-week production schedule as last challenge:

START: Monday May 12th
DEADLINE:
Due to the complexity of a majority of the remaining entries, I am extending the deadline until THIS SATURDAY!

The Challenge official deadline is now this-coming Saturday!
(All day, July 12th)


***WIP THREADS:

If you are interested in joining this challenge, please format your WIP thread subject as follows:

SUBJECT: username_FX02_WIP
EXAMPLE: ragecgi_FX02_WIP

Good luck all and I hope to see you there!

Nice,

consider me in!

Mat :)

Sounds like fun. :)

How much are we allowed to key by the way? For example if a ball moves over a realeser it activates something can we just key it so it starts at the frame that the ball seems to hit the realeser or does it have to be "real"? :)

Oh I'm all excited, I havent played around with this before, its like playing a game. :D

I'm hoping everyone has lots of fun with this challenge:)

Regarding keying question, maybe this example will better explain the idea:

Say you have a steel ball that falls down a ramp and hits the back of a model firetruck.
Well, to get that firetruck to go to the next thing, you can either move the truck by the force of the ball hitting it, OR you may have to key the truck to go from one point or another.

So, keying is ok, as long as it is for secondary animation and effects, not for the physics/dynamics pieces.

make more sense?

Remember though that if you DO key something, you must adjust the keyframe timing to make the object LOOK as though it was influenced by the previous force or object.
Cool?

let me know if not:)

Sorry all, I forgot to mention the rule about adding sound, so I updated the rules at the top to mention it, just like the last challenge:)

Party on!

alrighty this sounds great i do have a few questions
1) can we use a mixture of live and cg footage.
2)roughly how long and how many elements should be involved.

cheers this does sound great i had to drop out of the last one due to studies at uni taking too much of my time.

so what do we actually have to do?

1. Well the live action could be a problem, mainly because how would you use it in a dynamic simulation?
Your simulation needs to be done all in maya, but textures and a background could of course be live action if needed.
If you could explain what you were thinking, I could allow it in certain circumstances.
2. The length and elements are up to you:)
Create a Rube Goldberg machine.
I have links to 2 video examples in the original post above:)
Once you take a look at them you should understand immediately:)

Mainly a Rube Goldberg Machine is a contraption to perform a simple task using completely ridiculous means to achieve it.
Think of the kids game called "MouseTrap".

ah,
i could tie this in nicly with a project im working on

Im in
hopefully there will be no more major incidents in my life this time

q. is there any time limit?

For your shot, No:)

For your final shot submission, the deadline is Monday July 7th.

sounds interesting, no idea how passive and rigid bodies work or any of the other things needed... Kind of scares me away from the challenge but sounds very interesting...

The help files will get you going, and addicted!

maybe so, I'll give it all a look and see what I can do before I enter in this

I hope you enter Camel!
Once you learn a few things about rigid bodies and constraints, its super fun:)

I have to ask, is one at a disadvantage if it is untextured?
I may not even be able to participate in this one as it falls dead in the middle of demo reel time, but I want to. And if I can find the spare time I think it would only be to create an untextured project.

I can't wait to see the results some people have, its an AWESOME idea rage, I hope it comes back again:D