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Marius Oberholster Hey! I'm having an incredible learning experience, not only learning how Blender works (yes, still learning), but also about Open-Source and the incredible software available. Stick around!

Anime Impact Frames - Product and Why

January 19, 2022
Hey all!

Recently, Marquis Miller messaged me on Facebook with a suggestion for my CGT - Impact Frames!

Initially, I wasn't too excited about it, until I actually got into it! It was such a challenge. I'm starting to see a trend here - what I'm not too excited to get into, turns out to be the most useful, LOL!! The last time this happened, I created the NPR shaders, based on a lot of work between myself and Wasili Novratidis. I like to give credit where it's due.

Anyway, moving on, I started working on them, researching and looking at what kind of impact frames you get, that really has that KA-POW!! vibe to it, and turns out, there is quite a few that go into making what we know as impact frames.

To illustrate, I created a very cute cartoon:

GOD is so awesome!!


All the filters

1 - Darken Background

2 - Flash Frame

3 - Normal Rotation

4 - Linear Lines

5 - Centralized Lines

6 - White Background Glow

7 - Inversion

AND

8 - Master Mix(er?)

And here is the link to purchase! Only $10 for all 7 filters and the master mixer!
https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-models/scripts-plugins/rendering/for-anime-in-blender-impact-frames

So, why, what, where and how?

1 - Darken Background
As one of the simplest, it's also one of the coolest! A simple masking let's you darken everything not selected for your cryptomatte - AND, you can animate it from nothing to darkened and softened. SO COOL!!!

It literally just takes the mask as a factor and uses a secondary mix node to darken the background and mix the two (original with darkened version). Over that, is a blurred version, factored with a non-blurred version - giving you softness.

So simple, but soooo effective, especially if you mix it with your depth information to include some environment details!!

2 - Flash Frame
Just adds brightness based on the normals and of course where no normals apply, the image itself. The masking technique is an absolute GODsend - no joke! Facing the normals forward, to the camera, you use all the pure black values as a mask for the image part. ColorRamp! Boom! Done!

So simple, no controls needed.

3 - Normal Rotation
This uses a series of normal nodes that are set to varying degress of rotation, to create two directions of rotation over time - that cycle. This is cut from the background using the mask so that only the shape we want is visible, over a procedural background - either linear or wobbles.

Outlines are generated from the normals (laplace) and these helps us see the contours well.

The linear and the wobbles consist of noise textures. The wobble is just one noise texture affecting another and they're animated.

Since all this runs with the harsh nodes (greater than, less than, constant colorramp, etc), the AA filter node is such a blessing to just finish off our final result with some smoothness! :D

I did not add an offset for the animation, because it's excessive, BUT, I did find the flickering too much, so I, totally by accident, created a fade between each rotation position with the keyframes. LOVE IT!

Key take away - try to make everything work with every project you possible can think of and cannot even comprehend. Test your stuff!! You'll be amazed what you discover you missed or that's not working well.

4 - Linear Lines
This one uses the less than or greater than functions to create the stunning sketchy vibes between the smooth normals and the busy noise. Because it has an either/or kinda thing going, it does NOT allow you to have smooth gray values inbetween, giving you that sketchy feel!

Of course, these things have to be distorted to be different, just like sketches, so I added some distortion. PROBLEM - the distortion created an edge on my image... I removed this with some clever texturing and inpainting - PRAISE GOD!! so it gives a solid result!! :D

The dissolve feature adjusts the brightness of the image going to the threshold (not the noise, but the image) and this let's it break up progressively, to not just fade, but literally dissolve the shapes into the sketchiness! So cool!!

Not to forget, you can rotate the lines to whatever degree you feel - just keep it hot! LOL.

5 - Centralized Lines
BY FAR the most complex out of the group. While Linear Lines was the first to get made, the centralized took it to a whole new level!!!

Basically, it uses a spherical gradient texture, to pinch to a point a noise texture and this get's run through a math node with the normals (and or image) to produce an image consistent with the sketchy lines. Of course, distortion applies!

In addition, I also added the dissolve effect, because of course, it needs to be able to! AND, because it has some additional features that the others do not, it took some special adjustments to make sure the whole gets adjusted, not just one segment.

I'm AMAZED at how fast it is for how complex it is! LOVE IT!

6 - White Background Glow
A staple of anime surrealism (IKR, like every show, LOL), this one is also used for slow motion, focal points and key moments in a story. For example, if someone drops a vase in shock, at the moment of impact, it can quickly flip to the white background glow effect, for example.

Again, very simple, and very much the same as the darken background, EXCEPT, this one has a glow effect as well, because light tends to overwhelm.

What makes this one more than the darken background, is that you can use a slider directly to fade from the original, to the effect. It doesn't scale into the effect - it just fades to it. Dissolving into it is a lot of additional computational stuff I did not even consider. Maybe in an update! :D

7 - Inversion
Not my fav, but added, because it really is used, to varying degrees of success. Whenever direct filters are applied to anime footage, it always felt cheap to me, until Nichijou! Those moments with the terrible jam!! HAHAHA!!! There was one point where she ran to the fridge to get some milk, but the carton was filled with the jam and they flipped to photo negative - EXCEPTIONAL use of it. You felt disgusted for her! hahahaha!

If you wanna see the sequence, here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQzEQLuZ4Tk

LOVE IT!

So it shows us that while photonegative can be used as an impact frame, it can also be used as a filter for disghust or shock - I think it depends on the color scheme of the scene that will dictate the vibe it will give - always plan ahead!

Another very simple one, it has some additional controls for brightness and the inversion effect. In the tutorial (below), I show how it can be animated to great effect, so I know it'll help, cause flat gray center! :D

8 - Master Mix(er?)
And finally! The master mixer!

I wondered whether it would be as useful as I saw it in my spirit and OH WAS IT EVER!! I used it for the little cartoon at the top and it blew me away! It made it so easy and so quick! To set up the whole thing is insane for every project. If you have bought it, and your whole impact frames bit is in one scene, THIS IS YOUR BABY! You will not be sorry! hehe.

Simply put, it contains all the nodegroups on the inside, with ColorMix nodes already setup to make it easier to switch between them. I also demo'd the animation with the tutorial (again, below) to just show how easy it is! All you need to do is adjust them as you want them and the rest is mixing on the outside!

"SO WHERE IS THAT TUTORIAL?!" I hear you say; here ya go:

GOD is so good!!

Wiring like a circuit board
While this is not needed, it looks so much better and reads so much easier if you do this with your own projects! I know it's not always possible, but if you can, DO! It makes a world of difference. Sometimes, with tutorials or such demo projects, you just don't, because too much changes to maintain it, but honestly, when you can, it's fun, functional and it looks awesome!

I don't even recall where I saw it the first time, hehehe.

I know some of you guys are disappointed that this was not a tutorial series, but a product on a store. I would've been too, BUT, as much as I love giving away these things for free, I've reached a point where I simply cannot afford to do so anymore... Doesn't mean I don't give stuff away for free, but not everything anymore. You could say circumstances has forced me to find ways of monetizing this skill of analysis and engineering and this is just one such way.

I'm looking into a few others as well, but those will come as and when I get to them, LOL.

Needless to say, I love giving too much to stop, so I still upload free stuff and I help wherever I can.

So, in the spirit of sharing, lol, here are a few locations that are LOADED with my free stuff:



For more to take your journey that much further! My CGTrader is an exceptional place for tools and models!
Specifically here the impact frames! lol.

All the filters in the Impact Frames package:

1 - Darken Background

2 - Flash Frame

3 - Normal Rotation

4 - Linear Lines

5 - Centralized Lines

6 - White Background Glow

7 - Inversion

AND

8 - Master Mix(er?)

Only $10 for all 7 filters and the Master Mixer!


Have a super day!!
GOD bless you!! :D
 

Throwback To The Future

December 15, 2021
Hey all!

Throwbacks are not something I typically do, but with a very productive year, I think it's good to think on what was and what can be - a throwback to the future, hehe. I'd like to invite you to take a moment, and just consider everything you got done and that happened over the past year - and I mean the whole lot and consider what your plans/hopes/aspirations are.

Now, consider how many obstacles there were and how much you persevered and guess what - you're still here!

So, since this i...

Continue reading...
 

For Anime - Post Outlines

December 7, 2021
Hey all!

So after all the posting about the motion smear stuff, there came a bit of a side tangent - how I process my outlines.

Because my system can't really deal with the heavy methods that blender has for outlines, the LORD gave me some workaround over the years and they have kinda come together into this neat little package for you guys.

I kinda threw a bone out there with one of the posts and it wasn't long before I got a nibble and it was set - as quickly as possible a new tutorial will be...

Continue reading...
 

For Anime - Motion Smear - Nodegroup Dev

December 1, 2021
Hey all!



I'd like to share a journey of filmmaking history! Yes, not al history is worth noting, but I think this one might just be the next, uhm, medium to big thing, hehe.

NPR has always been very popular, especially with children, but there are people, like myself and many others, who think of NPR as more of a medium than a genre. In a lot of western thinking, anime is classified as "cartoons" which also says "for children" and let me just say, if you think all anime is for children, perhaps...

Continue reading...
 
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