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Hey all!

About a week ago, I got some comment on YouTube from a user called: CNR Games. He was very excited about the Node Groups I was using in the Compositing: Toon Shading with Soft Shadows tutorial. As many of you know, Node Groups are a way of putting together sets of nodes that just make your setup look cleaner and function better. You could say it is a form of logic visual programming.

Anyway, in my projects, I usually use a very specific set of nodes that I use in pretty much every rend...
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Hey all!

What a busy few days!! Goodness! I am so thankful that GOD gave me the efficiency to be able to produce so many videos so quickly!! :D

I received a comment on the Camp Fire tutorial from a Cycles user and that he had a fair idea on how to produce it in Cycles and I kinda of felt a little tug from GOD that I need to do a little bit more towards the Cycles side of thing and I couldn't shake the sense to do it and felt lead to start doing more towards toon shading in Cycles, so this is th...
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Hey everyone!

GOD is good! Last night, when I got to my room, GOD had me record a new tutorial. During the passed week HE showed me how to make this and I was thrilled about it, but didn't know when HE wanted it done, well I think we can consider that one answered, haha. Here it is:

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Hey all!

Last week, GOD had me on Cycles toon shading. I tell you, I was looking for a reason to use Cycles for the sake of faster renders. I have a huge project I want to complete and crunching the render numbers do not look promising, hahaha, that is, apart from a render farm, but that's not an option atm.

Anyway, I've found that despite all the turn offs and corners cut in Cycles, Blender Render, at least on my PC, is still faster on CPU than Cycles is on GPU and I can get a more complex res...
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Hey all!

GOD challenged me to try something today and I'm glad I listened. Basically, HE challenged me to use OpenEXR to export a clean animation to, to work on compositing afterward. Let me explain why.

OpenEXR is a format released by Industrial Light and Magic a while ago (source). It is by no means a format I would recommend you export to on a regular basis, simply because I don't believe that was why it was made. I believe, because it was made as a High Dynamic Range format, it was, at leas...
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Hey all!

Recently, I was prompted by GOD to look into making stronger backgrounds for toon objects and that meant higher sample rates and smooth shading - none of these are good for toon-shading, because they all produce smooth colors and areas, not hard ones, but through about an afternoon's scene building and a night's compositing, HE helped me get it done, so now you can get a result like this:


Now, this may not look like much, because it seems like a silly example, but you have to look beyo...
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Hey all!

As you all know, I've covered this topic quite extensively, but after the Anime Style Sea tutorials, I asked GOD what HE wanted me to do next and quite a few videos resulted, but this one is the only full tutorial that resulted so far:


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Hey all!

Yesterday, I did a post about this on the portfolio blog and today I got to finally record it as a video quick tip for you guys! :D

So, for those of you who prefer the video:

And for those of you who prefer the text version.

Have a great one!!!

Thank YOU!!!!
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Hey all!

As you all know, I am a huge fan of the cartoon looks out there and especially how the style is approached. After a while, I realized, by GOD's grace, that essentially, you can treat a finished animation as raw footage from a camera. That allows you to get a very distinct look. This is a very very basic scene, but it illustrates my point:


Okay, now, this also works for video, especially if you have access to render layers, like in Blen...
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Hey all!!

Today we cover the last in the series on underwater compositing! There may still come future posts on certain features that still apply, but as far as compositing goes for a basic underwater scene, we're ending today :D.

As you've seen, we're covering softness today. While this is not always required, there is a certain presence to water that to most often presents itself as a softness. You'll find it even out of water in very humid conditions, but really makes most underwater scenes ...
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Hey all!

Been a while since the last post, but this one is something I've learned a little bit on, so I hope this helps you tons! :D

Something that can easily be missed when it comes to underwater compositing is mist or a cloudiness. This comes from the way light bounces in the water, as well as other particles in the waters. Just think of a misty day. You can only see so far. Depending on the kind of water you are in, you will have varying decrees of clarity.

BUT! This is not a white mist. Ther...
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Hey all!

Now we're on to part two of the series on underwater compositing. Obviously, I'm no expert at this, but what I do know I do like to share, so I hope you find this helpful.

Personally, I used Blender Render a lot. It is the old render engine in Blender and it does not support caustic light. I remember when I started out with Blender, I really really tried to figure out how to make it make that light, but nothing, haha.

In compositing, you have, in situations like Blender, values that go ...
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Hey all!

Today I want to share a little trick with you that GOD taught me on compositing for underwater. Now, granted, this may not be anything new to you, as you may have done something along these lines before using the lens distortion node, but using lens distortion has some draw backs which is why GOD taught me this method.

Problems with using the lens distortion node:
- Firstly, it is a great node and it's very useful for adding that special imperfection to a render, but its dispersion is n...
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Hey all!

Super excited about today! I get to share my second video tutorial for Blender! Just a little taste-test:


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Hey all

Today I'd like to take a look at a previous image I had made, also toon shading, but reveal a clever trick I don't think you may know yet, and if you do, it's a great reminder! :D

First, the image:


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Hey all!

When I saw I hadn't shared this yet, I was really surprised. Must be because I'm so tired, hahaha. No worries, here we go:

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Hey all!

Been a long time since I've put up a QBT and I think we're due for one!

Today's QBT is about compositing and finally, saving that result. See, recently, Andrew Price, from Blender Guru, reported what he and possibly a lot of other users, thought was a bug. Honestly, I didn't, but I did think it was odd. Basically, it does not refresh the compositing results to the UV/Image editor, unless you keep it open the whole time.

There is, however, a solution. When you composite, you typically us...
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Hey all!

What is Vector Blur? Simply stated, it is quick way of adding motion blur to your Blender projects. When you move your arm quickly, you basically only see a blur, you don't see the pores, fine hairs, watch (if you wear one) etc. If you do see those details (in a video), it is because there is no motion blur. It behaves like a single high-speed photograph.

Back on point though, I was given the idea for this one while working on the tutorial from the other day; the one on camera shaking....
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That is, to stare into the sun, haha.

Hey everyone,

Today I get to share a little sun glare I've been working on last night. It's not exactly what I wanted to achieve, but very close and I am very happy with this as a sun glare (what I wanted would fit a shiney metal glare, not the sun)!


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Hey all!

Writing these tips take a whole lot longer than I thought they would, hahaha. Today's is a quick one, but wow, can it boost a render!

Many times, we have a render that just does not cooperate. Though it looks cool, it still ends up being a bit too dark, like this one:


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Hey everyone!

Today I give you another freebie :D! This one is on compositing, but specifically making hot metal glow an react to heat. I actually made this for a friend a few nights ago, who didn't know how to separate one material out of everything for compositing and I made this for him and he showed me a great way of making electricity or bolts (however you want to phrase it).

Just to show you what the file makes, you can check this animation.

But for the sake of speed, here we have composit...
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Hey all!

Been working on some things and so haven't been posting as much as usual. But I know you'll luv this one!

A few weeks ago, I received the idea to make a polar bear, sitting on ice, with his paw in the water, but with a very painterly look. That, I believe, was just to show the image had to be simple.

Anyway, having the idea, I started off for MorgueFile to go get reference and there were some stunning shots!! Remember to always check the licenses of the photo's. Very important.

So I want...
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Hey everyone!

Today I want to give a free tip again. Many users may think that because development ceased on Blender Render, that it is now obsolete. While it doesn't have certain features, I really still enjoy this engine and find it surprisingly powerful when used with the compositor.

This tip is about transparency in Blender Render!
There are three types in this case and I have honestly never used the Mask one. Tried once soon after starting with Blender, but I don't really know how it works,...
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I really enjoyed making this. It wasn't one of those 'this is taking forever' projects, just something quick. I've wanted to make something like this for a while now, because I can never seem to take a photo of the moon at night (over here in SA we have some of the most beautiful moon shots to be taken I've ever seen), but I just don't have the equipment to do it. So, I made one, only because HE enabled me to do so btw.

Hope you enjoy it!!


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Hey everyone!

I'm here with some updates on the last post of the Business Warrior project!

I've struggled working on a cloud method HE revealed to me a while back, because it's a very unpredictable way of cloud making, but if you get it right, it can look pretty amazing imo (in my opinion).

Now, before we can start working on the character, we need a place for him to be. So, we need a landscape to fill the background and in this case also foreground. To create or model landscapes is no easy feat...
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