Helge Maus

9. November 2021

Allgemein

Blender for Production – Blender 3.0 to NUKE Workflow – 04 Cryptomatte Fix, CyclesX & Build Export Nodes Add-on

9. November 2021 By adminLeave a comment

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

9. November 2021

Allgemein

Blender Shortfilm – The Drink

9. November 2021 By adminLeave a comment

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.

Pixar RenderMan 24.1 in Blender

27. October 2021 By adminLeave a comment

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

26. October 2021

New Blender Online Classes – Winter 2021

26. October 2021 By adminLeave a comment

We have good news for everyone who wants to dive into Blender, learn the Fundamentals, and beyond.

Together with Visualisierungs-Akademie Schweiz GmbH, I will host another season of Blender online workshops in the next weeks.

Starting in November with 2 days of Blender Fundamentals, after that in December we have 2 days deep dive into Animation and Rigging and then in January 2022, we finish with another 2 days Rendering in Cycles, Eevee and NPR.

As said, these workshops are in german language BUT, English is planed now. More information on that in the next days.

So keep in touch 🙂

Find more information on www.pixeltrain.net

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

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pixeltrain3d

14. June 2021

Blender Training Courses – Autumn 2021

14. June 2021 By admin

>> Introduction to Blender | Visualisierungsakademie Schweiz, September 2021

On September 16 and 17 I will teach you online taking your first steps in Blender.
If you are interested, please check out the detailed information here:
https://visualisierungs-akademie.ch/bildung/blender-einfuehrungskurs/

On request I also teach this online course in English. Please do not hesitate to ask your questions (info(at) pixeltrain.net). I am always happy, to hear from everyone who is interested to become an Artist in Blender, Nuke or Houdini FX.

Some of the topics you learn in this course:

Getting to know the Blender 2.9 Infrastructure
Installation, AddOns and Konfiguration
User-Interface and Navigation
Scene-Organisation, Outlines, Collections
Polygone-Modeling Techniques
Working with Curves & Surfaces
Modifier
SubDivision Surfaces
UV Editor
Lightening, Types of Lights, Previews
Camera & Physical Setting
Materials & Shader
Using Textures
Photorealism & PBR
Preview with Eevee (Realtime)
Using Shading Workspace
Rendersettings with Eevee and Cycles
Final Rendering
Simple Compositing in the Compositing Workspace
Introduction to Sculpting Workspace
First Keyframes and Animationen
Rendering of Animations

>> Blender Online-Training – Rendering with Eevee and Cycles | Visualisierungsakademie Schweiz, October 2021

On October 7 and 8 I give an Online-Training on Rendering in Blender -> https://visualisierungs-akademie.ch/bildung/blender-vertiefung/

Two days of intensive advanced training for everyone who wants to use Blender to create sophisticated materials and visualizations for architecture, product design, games & film.
In addition to photorealistic rendering, you will also learn techniques for non-photorealistic rendering for animation, motion design, manga, comics and architecture / product sketching.

Some of the topics you learn in this course:

Cycles Render-Engine for Photorealism
Physical Lighting and Cameras
Eevee for Realtime Rendering
Shader Editor
Building complex Shaders
Creating photorealistic Materials
Architecture- & Design Materials
Detail-Sculpting & Baking
PBR Workflows
Image-Finishing with the internal Compositor
Exchang with Photoshop, After Effects & NUKE
Internal Freestyle Renderer for Sketch & Toon
Creating Freestyle Materials
Creating Comic Shader
Refining Comic & Manga Stile in the Compositor

For further information, please visit this website:
https://visualisierungs-akademie.ch/bildung/blender-vertiefung/

On request I also teach this online course in English. Please do not hesitate to ask your questions (info(at) pixeltrain.net). I am always happy, to hear from everyone who is interested to become an Artist in Blender, Nuke or Houdini FX.

If you have any questions, please write me on this adress: info (at) pixeltrain.net.

>> Blender Animation Training | Visualisierungsakademie Schweiz, October 2021

On October 14 and 15 I give an Online-Training on Animation in Blender -> „Introduction to Animation and Rigging“

You learn how to work with the powerful Animation Tools of Blender. You get to know helpful add-ons for MotionGraphics and Rigging and you build your first technical and organic animation rigs. We bring camera animations to life and also learn how to export these animations for game engines like Unity, Unreal or Godot. You will get to know Timeline, Dopesheet, Graph Editor, NLA, Shapes and Drivers.

For further information, please visit this website:
https://visualisierungs-akademie.ch/bildung/blender-animation/

On request I also teach this online course in English. Please do not hesitate to ask your questions (info(at) pixeltrain.net). I am always happy, to hear from everyone who is interested to become an Artist in Blender, Nuke or Houdini FX.

If you have any questions, please write me on this adress: info (at) pixeltrain.net.

Hope to see you soon!

Yours,
Helge

Find more information on www.pixeltrain.net

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

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pixeltrain3d

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

3. June 2021

Blender 2.93 LTS is out!

3. June 2021 By admin

Here are the new features:

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

21. April 2021

Open Source: LuxCoreRender

21. April 2021 By admin

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

14. April 2021

New Compositing-Tutorial-Series: Pipeline between Blender & Nuke!

14. April 2021 By admin

Here is a new tutorial for my series “Blender for Production“.

This time we will talk about an exciting software combination because we start setting up a Blender to NUKE pipeline. YES – Blender is an excellent choice as a 3d application and so it is important to learn how to use it together with Nuke in a compositing pipeline. This series has three parts.

These are the topics:

How to set up a Blender to Nuke-Pipeline
How to compose the Light Passes from Blender Cycles inside of NUKE
How to get a correct World Position Pass. You learn how to fix all the issues which will appear if you try to use a Blender Cycles WPP in NUKE directly. You learn to solve the problems in NUKE, but also in Blender, so you later have a deep understanding of the workflow and solutions. As always we then build our tools for a later production pipeline.

Have fun!
Helge

01 Setting up a Blender to Nuke Pipeline

02 Working with Blender Light Passes in Nuke

03 Building correct World Position Passes and custom AOVS

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