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Major Node Groups Update and news
Posted by Marius Oberholster on Saturday, August 10, 2019 Under: News
Hey all!!
A few things in this post:
- Bring Gerco Home
- Node groups - one update and a few new features
- Update on Exodus and YouTube
Bring Gerco Home is a campaign to fund the money to pay the ransom for Gerco's release. Gerco is was a paramedic at the time of capture and is currently held hostage to the small amount of $1.5mil. I have no idea who they think they've kidnapped, but the family simply doesn't have that kind of money. Not even close. The exchange rate isn't friendly here either... The campaign has an aim of R9 mil. The exchange rate fluctuates so going over may or may not be required, depending on how fast it goes.
Currently, they are only at just over R7000 (checked 5 August 2019), which is not even close. Please be determined to donate if you feel led to. I'll share the link below. You can also scroll for it on their FB page (middle May 2019) if it's not in their about or story section yet. The post is pinned to the top, but on certain mobile version of FB pinned posts don't exist. Do note I donated as well and LORD willing will continue to. I am not affiliated with the project, but want to do what I can to get him back to his family safely - I trust you do too! :D
Link to the FB page
Link to the specific post
Link to the campaign
I recommend the offline method for South Africans, because it gives you a local EFT option - GOD is awesome! Overseas donors might do better with PayFast.
Gerco is not in good shape according to the last video shared in January - he needs medical attention and a lot of support to rebuild his life. GOD is a restorer and a builder and only the enemy wants to kill, steal and destroy...
Help bring him home ASAP!
- Node Groups
Lol, kinda hard to top Gerco, but I felt that was the most important story for the post, so, yeah. Anyhow, so the node groups are continually expanding! Recently, I got to add a brand new one and today more!!
The one already posted is a half tone filter! I just luv it! It just looks so cool! My fav part is that you can combine it with a set of Separate and Combine RGB nodes to make a color version - which is added as well! It already sports a scale feature, so a color and offset one is just such a cool extra.
On the development front, I worked on a node group for something similar to the motion smear technique that is used on comics, which was inspired by the animated spider-verse movie (which I haven't seen - I've just seen people talk about and trailers and so on).
It's working exactly like I wanted it to!! GOD is so amazing!!! It turned out so well, I actually got to make two. One is more manga in it's styling, but also fits anime. And of course the more simple shaped one.
As for the update, I have had the 10 layer defocus available for quite some time, but there was one drawback - depth contours. While these have always been there, they are really faint in general and don't bother you all that much as your attention is on the effect, not possible artifacts. HOWEVER, when I tested it on a project a few weeks ago, I thought that is not good - you could say I came across the case that it does not work all that well for (bright background, dark foreground).
So, the LORD gave me some guidance on how to tackle the issue (overlap the layers a bit) and that worked soooooooooo well on it's own, but HE gave a few more things after I got started - here is a full, though short, list:
- An overlap between layers removed most of the contours.
- Smaller inpainting size for the furthest layer removed additional contours (note that inpainting is pixel amount, not relative, so for really high resolution, this needs adjustment, but should be fine for most 50% HD and FullHD cases).
- Overlap strength made more relative to blur strength (this is where a foreground object has to blur over sharp background objects).
- Additional note will be added about Z-pass vs Mist pass (they are inversions of each other so not interchangeable).
- Removal of premultiply conversion speeds up the node's working a bit (this also roughly doubled the speed of the parallax stereo conversion node).
- Improvements in the efficiency node inside that helps it produce a cleaner progressive blur. Roughly half of the contour issue lay here with the dilation of the mask as well as the inpainting distance.
So, all-in-all I think this is great news!!! I am so ecstatic!!!!!
Summary of the changes:
- Quick Progressive Defocus (10-Layer) Updated
- Quick Halftone filter - Grayscale
- Quick Halftone filter - Color
- For Anime - Motion Smear Fancy
- For Anime - Motion Smear Simple
- For Anime - Underwater atmosphere
Download page here.
As usual, everything on this website is completely at your own risk.
Download page here.
As usual, everything on this website is completely at your own risk.
- Exodus and YouTube
Exodus and YouTube I find at odds. Not in a negative way, because I really need both and enjoy both. However, the videos I've been making lately are not the typical tutorials (not out of ideas, in case you were wondering). I've been targeting the process of making animations more, because the older style of tutorials, though useful, don't always address the underlying issue - problem solving and film making techniques beyond the typical visual.
I really want to delve into that aspect a lot more, and unfortunately those kinds of videos tend to take a lot longer to produce. While this may be considered a spoiler, that is kinda the direction I see the channel going. I still want to make the typical tutorials that show you literally how to make things, but I really want you guys to learn, not just copy without being able to repeat it in an intelligent way and apply it to your own projects. Thankfully, I did not stop uploading; the videos are just taking longer, because I am much more intentional about the content and knowledge transfer. You are more than welcome to enjoy the videos I get to upload inbetween - they also take a lot to make. The Tears Of Steel Afrikaans dub - Trane van Staal, also took over 3 months to make (we had a lot going on - a lot better now, praise GOD).
Speaking of other stuff, work on Exodus hasn't stopped - it simply slowed down because of other opportunities. Unfortunately, immediately paying projects do take precidence over later paying projects, lol. I always try to give a 24hr turnaround, if not sooner, because I value customers coming to me and want them to have the best experience when working with me. The last thing I want is an honestly bad review...
Speaking of other stuff, work on Exodus hasn't stopped - it simply slowed down because of other opportunities. Unfortunately, immediately paying projects do take precidence over later paying projects, lol. I always try to give a 24hr turnaround, if not sooner, because I value customers coming to me and want them to have the best experience when working with me. The last thing I want is an honestly bad review...
So progress on Exodus is currently still at working on Pharaoh's bedroom and organizing. I managed to get all of Exodus' notes and sketches in the same binder and will did some more research on what would be likely in his room. Unfortunately, we don't have an index of what was in his room - all we have are hieroglyphics and even they are vague.
I hope to model more furniture for his bedroom today. The bed is next and the "pillow" - looks sooooooooo uncomfortable. I know we're not really seeing it as it was and I haven't tried sleeping with one, but it doesn't look comfy, haha.
I got a brand new USB mic a few weeks ago, so I am super jazzed about getting back to the song for Exodus (it needs to play a little faster than it does right now, imo). I have written it and mixed the music, but the first verse feels too pitchy (I don't use tuning, because on some notes it tunes me out, instead of in, lol) - no it doesn't work like melodyne, it's automated based on a few parameters, still awesome though! I just sound better without it, imo.
Anyhow, that is it from me. Please do go and donate to Gerco so he can come home and build a new life with his family... Donate and share, again, be determined to do so.
Have a great one and GOD bless you! (^^,)
In : News
Tags: god jesus holy spirit blender anime nodes node groups features news new gerco donate link fb facebook exodus 7-12 kjv animation
