Friday, January 31st, 2025Posted by Jim ThackerHow Vine FX created a parasitic underwater forest for The Rightml PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Vine FX has released its VFX breakdown for Season 2 of Amazon Prime Videos thriller The Rig.The show follows the crew of a North Sea oil rig threatened by The Ancestor, a mysterious ancient microbial life form that has been unleashed from the ocean floor.Creating a fungal underwater forest using procedural growth simulationFor the finale of Season 2, UK visual effects studio Vine FX delivered 115 shots, creating a glowing underwater forest of mycelium, its canopy extending 400 meters above the seabed.Beginning with concept art created by Scott McInnes, Vine FX used simulation techniques to grow the vast structures in an organic way.To create the forest, the studio created several tree designs that could be instanced throughout the scene, explains Vine FX Head of 3D Pedrom Dadgostar.The great thing about procedural growth simulations is that they look different from any angle, so by rotating and placing assets we were able to build a dense forest with no repetitions.The trunks were illuminated internally using mesh lights in Solaris, Houdinis look dev and shot layout environment, which gave them an otherworldly presence.Defining scale with lighting and floating particulatesAs well as the parasitic forest, Vine FX created entire ocean world, augmenting live-action shots with CG and 2D assets to give a sense of being underwater.Light plays a critical role in defining scale, says Dadgostar. We carefully placed floating particulates that helped establish that sense [of scale, falling off] into darkness around the trees.The idea was to envelop the characters in an expansive, claustrophobic world.Vine FXs compositing artists also ensured that the bioluminescent trees integrated seamlessly with the live-action footage, with the light given off reflecting from the characters diving suits.Produced using a new USD studio pipelineFor the show, Vine FX built an entirely new USD pipeline, taking advantage of the flexibility and efficiency of Universal Scene Description in handling multi-shot workflows.The new pipeline enabled Vine FX to create a unified environment that could be reused across shots without extensive re-rendering.Visit Vine FXs websiteHave your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.Related Topics # compositing # Concept Art # growth simulation # Houdini # lighting # making of # OpenUSD # Pedrom Dadgostar # Scott McInnes # shot layout # Solaris # The Rig # Universal Scene Description # USD # vfx # VFX breakdown # Vine FX # visual effects Latest NewsHow Vine FX created a parasitic underwater forest for The RigDiscover how the VFX studio used procedural growth simulation to create the environment for Amazon Prime Video's supernatural thriller.Friday, January 31st, 2025Boris FX releases Optics 2025Photoshop plugin and standalone app for applying cinematic looks to still images gets AI mask generation, Looks and new Particle Brushes.Friday, January 31st, 2025Thinkinetic releases Pulldownit 6 for MayaDestruction plugin for games and VFX gets a new Edge Fracture Tool, and improvements to clustering and simulation performance.Thursday, January 30th, 2025Adobe launches unmetered access to Substance 3D AssetsSubstance 3D Texturing and Substance 3D Collection plans now include unlimited access to 19,000+ materials, 3D models and HDRIs.Thursday, January 30th, 2025Adobe releases Photoshop 26.3Check out the new features in the image-editing app, with the Frame Tool getting new shape options and generative AI integration.Thursday, January 30th, 2025Check out free Android and iOS 3D scanning app RealityScan 1.6Update to Epic Games' free app provides more control over scans, with the option to create 1-million-poly models with 8K textures.Thursday, January 30th, 2025More NewsFree tool: Animation Render Time Estimator for BlenderChaos releases V-Ray 7 for HoudiniChaos releases V-Ray 7 for MayaAdobe releases Substance 3D Modeler 1.19Red9 ProPack gets new tools created for Sonic the Hedgehog 3JangaFX teases IlluGenCheck out the new features due in EmberGen 2.0Tutorial: Creating Runtime Cinematics in Unreal Engine 5PhotoLine 25 now reads Cryptomatte dataPolygonflow releases Dash 1.8.5After Effects' latest beta lets you preview HDR compsNew version of iOS and Android scanning app Kiri EngineOlder Posts