Thanks to the new USD export in Blender, the exchange between Blender’s powerful motion tracker and NUKE or Houdini is becoming easier and easier. Blender is becoming more and more team-minded – thanks to the developers.

My upcoming Blender free tutorial series offers a deep dive into camera and object tracking.

More information then on YouTube. Coming soon: https://www.youtube.com/pixeltrain3DVFXTrainings


If you like Helge’s Tutorials, give him some support to go on!

If you want to support Helge Maus for publishing more free tutorials, you can join his Patreons:
https://www.patreon.com/pixeltrain3d

Or if you want to buy me a coffee or pizza, here’s my Tip Jar:
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=72PHXB852BW5A

Thanks for your support!


Find more information on www.pixeltrain.net

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/pixeltrain3DVFXTrainings

VIMEO: vimeo.com/pixeltrain

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/pixeltrain

Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/pixeltrain

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pixeltrain3d/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/pixeltrain

My new tutorial is out – Blender 3.0 to NUKE Workflow – 04 Cryptomatte Fix, CyclesX & Build Export Nodes Add-on

In this tutorial, we will talk about the changes in Blender 3.0 and NUKE 13.0v5 and fix the Cryptomatte problems some of you have been fighting with.

Also I go though the process of exporting Multilayer EXRs from Blender to NUKE again and show how to make EXR sequences for every pass separately.

Then I demonstrate you a fast Blender Add-on, which builds your export node trees in the Blender compositor automatically for you and how to generate a World Position Pass in Cycles X.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/pixeltrain3DVFXTrainings

The drink - Blender Shortfilm by William Landgren

Today I want to talk about another shot film made completely in Blender by Artist William Landgren (14 years old). First watch the movie before reading more 😉

The production of the short took 2 months and is 100% CG. He used Blender, After Effects, Marvelous Designer and DaVinci Resolve. I think, it looks amazing, right?

This brings me to an important point:

If you are creative and want to be a CG filmmaker you can start today! 

You don’t need high end software and equipment. I want to stress that, because I had an interesting conversation this week with a program manager for a big VFX Event in India. After I was asked to talk there I decided I want to do an “Introduction for Blender for Indie VFX- & Animation studios”, because I was thinking about the many young creative folks in India and all over the world, who are dreaming to become a CG Artist. 

The answer I heard then from the organizers of the event (owner of a big production house in India) was, that I better do a NUKE class, because it’s “more relevant” for the audience. This would have been no problem for me, because I train NUKE since many years and I’m loving it, but it brought me to an important insight.

The film industry is mostly driven by big investment companies, and the artist is only a “anonymous working bee” for them. The tools are so expensive and the workflows are quite complex, so that the artists have to pirate the softwares (mostly a whole bunch of them) or sell their souls for the maintenance fees. The result is, that they are forced into these big companies to make the stuff they want. And if you are bound in a company like that you have to go every step they demand from you or you are laid off, because the company is bought or it closes suddenly it’s doors forever.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad thing to work in such a company and have fun to work on great blockbusters as a highly specialized member of a team.

But I am a strong believer that we have many more options to make a living from creative work and art development. So for artists with less money and chances from all ends of the world or even for Indie artists which have ideas for art, which is not mainstream or boring mid-standard like the big productions, there has to be a place. 

Why, because it’s important for an artist to have an own voice for ideas, thoughts and also an independent income. Storys are different for everyone, for every culture, age and social groups. They have to been told. For this, software has to be approachable. 

So, in the future I will invest more time into my “Blender for Production” series, to help these filmmakers. I want to show how you can use high quality stuff with Blender and the infrastructure around it. Also I will post more stories like that here, to show you what’s possible to motivate you.

Here is the link to my YouTube tutorials:
https://www.youtube.com/pixeltrain3DVFXTrainings

And if you want to support my tutorials, here is my Patreon link:
https://www.patreon.com/pixeltrain3d

Don’t be afraid, I will still do Houdini FX and NUKE tutorials, because it’s important for you to see, how it is done there. Then you can apply this knowledge to every tool.

I hope you like that.

More in the next days.

Thanks for your support,

Helge

RenderMan 24.1 in Blender 2.93 LTS

I have to say, I’m pretty impressed with the great and well-done integration of Pixar RenderMan 24.1 into Blender.

It’s just great to be able to use the same shader networks in Blender and Houdini FX, to exchange them without any problems and finally to be able to write out all the desired AOVs for NUKE from Blender. 

I think, this will be a good topic for an Introduction … .

Did you know that RenderMan 24.1 non-commercial is a free version? So you can start today with your personal work with this Renderer.


Find more information on www.pixeltrain.net

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/pixeltrain3DVFXTrainings

VIMEO: vimeo.com/pixeltrain

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/pixeltrain

Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/pixeltrain

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pixeltrain3d/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/pixeltrain

Here are the new features:

https://www.blender.org/download/releases/2-93/

And the cool new features reel:

https://youtu.be/fxNlpQYRz7s

Such a great final release for Blender 2+ series – now the Blender 3 can come!

Thanks to all the great developers!

P.S. If you want to start now, my next Blender Animation & Rigging Training (German) is June 17 + 18, 2021.

More information: http://www.pixeltrain.net/events/


If you like Helge’s Tutorials, give him some support to go on!

If you want to support Helge Maus for publishing more free tutorials, you can join his Patreons:
https://www.patreon.com/pixeltrain3d

Or if you want to buy me a coffee or pizza, here’s my Tip Jar:
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=72PHXB852BW5A

Thanks for your support!


Find more information on www.pixeltrain.net

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/pixeltrain3DVFXTrainings

VIMEO: vimeo.com/pixeltrain

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/pixeltrain

Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/pixeltrain

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pixeltrain3d/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/pixeltrain

As many of you know, I am a huge fan of Blender. I’m convinced that this free software will be a new industry standard for many visualization and animation projects in the future.

I use Blender with Houdini FX in my trainings and also for personal projects all the time. Besides Cycles and Eevee I am also using LuxCore Renderer for photorealistic rendering with deep ray counts, complex camera effects and light linking. It’s best suited for Architecture, Product Visualization, and many more chases when it comes to realism.

The featureset is great!
And best of all it supports CPU and GPU (also on Mac with AMD cards).

Version 2.5 was just released, take a look here: https://luxcorerender.org

Thanks to the development team!


Here is my YouTube for all my tutorials about Houdini, Blender, Nuke & more:
https://www.youtube.com/pixeltrain3DVFXTrainings

BTW, if you want to support my work with these free tutorials, please subscribe to my YouTube channel, give me a ThumbsUp for the content you like. Also, I have a Patreon page, starting with $1 per month. That’s a nice way to say “Thank You”:
https://www.patreon.com/pixeltrain3d


If you like Helge’s Tutorials, give him some support to go on!

If you want to support Helge Maus for publishing more free tutorials, you can join his Patreons:
https://www.patreon.com/pixeltrain3d

Or if you want to buy me a coffee or pizza, here’s my Tip Jar:
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=72PHXB852BW5A

Thanks for your support!


Find more information on www.pixeltrain.net

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/pixeltrain3DVFXTrainings

VIMEO: vimeo.com/pixeltrain

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/pixeltrain

Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/pixeltrain

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pixeltrain3d/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/pixeltrain

First “official” work day for 2021: Preparing my next Houdini FX classes for my SAE Students in the following weeks.

After starting last year with the fundamentals with them, we now dive into Particles, Vellum, RBDs, Fluids and Pyro. Exciting weeks with a fully motivated group. Such fun besides my normal studio trainings to teach a student group again.

Thanks to SAE Institute Germany for your trust!


If you like Helge’s Tutorials, give him some support to go on!

If you want to support Helge Maus for publishing more free tutorials, you can join his Patreons:
https://www.patreon.com/pixeltrain3d

Or if you want to buy me a coffee or pizza, here’s my Tip Jar:
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=72PHXB852BW5A

Thanks for your support!


Find more information on www.pixeltrain.net

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/pixeltrain3DVFXTrainings

VIMEO: vimeo.com/pixeltrain

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/pixeltrain

Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/pixeltrain

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pixeltrain3d/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/helge.maus

Twitter: https://twitter.com/pixeltrain

Today I have finished the first module of our „Nuke Practice Hour“ with the last tutorial about Linear Color, 32Bit Floats and EXRs in Foundry Nuke 12.2. The title of this Module is “Let’s start in NUKE 12.2“ and I have covered the most important concepts you have to learn when starting with node-based Compositing in NUKE.

Thanks a lot for all the positive feedback.

The next module will follow soon 🙂

01 Introduction to the NUKE 12.2 Interface

02 Making your first compositing in NUKE

03 Layers, Channels & Shuffle Nodes in NUKE

04 Understanding Premults & Alphas in NUKE

05 Linear Color, 32Bit Float & EXRs in NUKE

Here is my YouTube for all my tutorials about Houdini, Blender, Nuke & more:
https://www.youtube.com/pixeltrain3DVFXTrainings

BTW, if you want to support my work with these free tutorials, please subscribe to my YouTube channel, give me a ThumbsUp for the content you like. Also, I have a Patreon page, starting with $1 per month. That’s a nice way to say “Thank You”: https://www.patreon.com/pixeltrain3d


If you like Helge’s Tutorials, give him some support to go on!

If you want to support Helge Maus for publishing more free tutorials, you can join his Patreons:
https://www.patreon.com/pixeltrain3d

Or if you want to buy me a coffee or pizza, here’s my Tip Jar:
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=72PHXB852BW5A

Thanks for your support!


Find more information on www.pixeltrain.de

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/pixeltrain3DVFXTrainings

VIMEO: vimeo.com/pixeltrain

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/pixeltrain

Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/pixeltrain

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pixeltrain3d/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/helge.maus

Twitter: https://twitter.com/pixeltrain

Learn the Compositing Workflow inside of Blender!

Today, I have started a new tutorial series for Blender 2.9 “Blender 2.9 for Production”.

This tutorial series „Blender 2.9 for Production“ focuses on Blender 2.9 as a full Production Suite for (Indie) 3D- & VFX Productions. In this tutorials, I will explain how to work with the different Modules of Blender 2.9 and how they are connected to each other. I will give you an introduction of the specific functionalities, but also the production context and workflows, which can help you to use Blender in your productions.

The first tutorial is online now on my YouTube – enjoy!

These topics are covered:
  • Overview over the series
  • Understanding the Blender Render Process
  • Rendersettings
  • Image Editor Window
  • Direct Saving of Render Results
  • Images in Blender’s Memory
  • Re-open a previous render
  • Slots for Comparison
  • View Layers (Renderlayers) & Render-Channels / Passes / AOVs
  • Differences in saving Stills vs. Animations
  • Understand Blender’s Post Processing Pipeline
  • Adding Channels in the View Layer Properties
  • Denoising Data, Mist, Cryptomatte Passes
  • Renderlayers & Composite Node
  • Loading pre-rendered images or sequences
  • Outputting compositing results as EXRs
  • Adding Output Channels for the EXR export
  • Using the Node Wrangler
  • Adding useful Keyboard Shortcuts
  • Node Search Shortcut
  • Adding some Quick Favorites
  • Adding Nodes to the stream
  • Deleting Nodes
  • Working effective with the Viewer Node
  • Backdrop Image / Image Viewer
  • Saving out final stills directly
  • Finding the control widgets for special nodes
  • Performance Settings
  • Sampling Colors
  • Float normalized Colors Adding a Glow
  • Rendering & Comping a whole animation at once

If you have questions or topics, which should be added, please let us know.

If you want to support Helge Maus for publishing more free tutorials you could join his Patreons: https://www.patreon.com/pixeltrain3d

Find more information on pixeltrain.de YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/pixeltrain3DVFXTrainings

VIMEO: vimeo.com/pixeltrain

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/pixeltrain

Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/pixeltrain

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pixeltrain3d/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/helge.maus

Twitter: https://twitter.com/pixeltrain

***

It’s finally done! Helge and his team worked for more than a year on this epic publication and are happy and proud to be finally able to tell you all about it. So here are the details about the contents of this video-tutorial:

This publication “pixeltrain – Houdini FX Fundamentals >> Fast Forward“ by experienced trainer Helge Maus is a complete Introduction to Houdini FX.

In 117 lessons with a duration of 18,5 hours, your instructor Helge Maus provides you with a step by step approach to understanding Houdini FX and its workflow as a fully featured 3d application.

This training is designed to get you up and running quickly, enabling you with the skills needed to work effectively in this incredibly powerful 3d and vfx package. Additionally, it lays the foundation of essential concepts and paradigms to understand more advanced topics for other modules of Houdini FX down the road.
In this course, Helge Maus starts from the ground up providing you with a solid and practice-oriented foundation in Houdini FX.

First, he takes you through the user interface, followed by an exploration of the different levels and contexts of a Houdini project. You will conclude by learning how to manage these concepts through the production cycle within Houdini FX.
You will write your first expressions in Hscript. Therein, you will learn the concepts of dependencies between objects, explore using groups and packed geometries and finish by building your first asset.
Once you have those primary skills under your belt, Helge gives you a brief introduction into working with VOPs (vex visual scripting), Digital Assets, Volumes and VDBs.
After that, you will start learning the basics of modeling inside of Houdini FX. You will begin with the basics of NURBS Curves and generating surfaces, followed by the powerful and flexible polygon modeling tools.
Important topics like Deformations and UVs are explained in-depth and demonstrated.
After you have learned to build your assets, you will assemble your scene, set cameras with physical attributes, and finish with lighting and shading.

Helge wraps up with a practice-oriented introduction of rendering techniques using the Houdini Mantra renderer.
After finishing this training you will have the skills needed to understand the more advanced workflows and modules of Houdini FX.

Topics included:

01 Welcome to Houdini FX [01h 52m]
02 Basic Concepts in Houdini FX [02h 57m]
03 VOPs & Digital Assets [01h 44m]
04 Volumes & VDBs in Houdini FX [01h 04m]
05 Working with Curves [00h 57m]
06 Generating Surfaces [01h 16m]
07 Polygon Modeling [01h 45m]
08 Retopo, PolyBuild & Boolean [01h 04m]
09 Deformations [00h 44m]
10 UVs in Houdini FX [01h 22m]
11 Lighting & Cameras [01h 21m]
12 Shading [01h 54m]
13 Rendering [00h 43m]

You can find the entire table of contents here >> pixeltrain.de/images/stories/Houdini_FX_Fundamentals_Content.pdf

These tutorials were created using mostly Houdini 17.5. However, we made sure that everything will work in Houdini 18+. Also, you will receive subsequent information about any version-based technical changes as needed.

After purchasing these tutorials, please contact us by email (info(at)pixeltrain.de), so that we can send you a dropbox link to the training material.
If you have any problems or questions don’t hesitate to write to us.

***

If you want to support Helge Maus for publishing more free tutorials you can join his Patreons:
patreon.com/pixeltrain3d

***

Find more information on pixeltrain.de/en
VIMEO: vimeo.com/pixeltrain
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/pixeltrain
Artstation: artstation.com/pixeltrain

***

We hope, you like this tutorial. We hope, you find it helpful in learning and understanding Houdini FX. It was a pleasure creating this little masterpiece 😉 and Helge and his team will go on producing more tutorials with even more experienced topics. So stay tuned! We appreciate it and wish you all the best and fun in learning Houdini FX!

Helge and his team

Here are two examples taken from the publication: