JELLYFISH! (asset, breakdown)
Added 2020-10-16 05:20:38 +0000 UTCAfter years of tweaking, I finally made a jellyfish I'm happy with!*
The above isn't really a full tutorial, because I haven't found a way to make them consistently good, but the technique is very straightforward (basically just: "wave modifier"), so feel free to check out the video above!
Here's the blend file, if you want to use it for anything, or go poking around in the nodes (they're... nonsense). It's under a megabyte, which is wild, but I guess makes sense? Or something went wrong and the file will be empty.
I don't think an FBX export for this would be practical, since it's using a blender modifier for motion, and a bunch of mixed-up blender shaders, but I should really look into how forgiving shaders are between programs.
Here's the texture I made, if anyone wants to use it (you might want to open the image in a new tab before saving to make sure you're getting a non-compressed file?)
*[and for those of you conceivably thinking, "wait jellyfish? Wasn't he working on a robot arm for the hyperbole so he could finish that so he could go back and finish Dynamo Dream? Has he lost the plot a bit"YESsss I definitely have and the detour has lead me straight into the venomous appendages of our aquatic friends. And also because I'm phasing back into trying to wrap up Dynamo Dream, and I want a vendor that sells jellyfish in little jars as "Luckfish", which I guess isn't a good way to keep wildlife, but since they don't have brains, as long as they're well taken care of, maybe it's jellyfish heaven? Look what do Jellyfish want we can make this happen. Create a Jellyfish Matrix for their nonexistent Jellyfish Minds as we turn their phosphorescent bodies into nightlights.]
(I'm pleased by the embossing on that jar! Also-while the jellyfish render fairly quickly in general, once the light paths are refracting with jars and water and bump maps and all that stuff gets pretty wild)
Comments
This is so awesome!
Remedy
2023-03-02 07:09:18 +0000 UTCOH! I just saw this half a year later! Yeah that's a great idea!
Ian Hubert
2021-04-25 08:58:27 +0000 UTCCould you put an Alembic up possibly?
Noah Miller
2020-10-27 20:34:56 +0000 UTCI swear every time I think I've learned every way to select things, I watch one of these videos and you select something in a way that blows my mind...maybe a selecting super-tutorial in the future?
John Zwick
2020-10-25 01:15:27 +0000 UTCMy Vimeo feed just show me this [ https://vimeo.com/236908378 ], and after 2:10 the only thing I could think was "Wowww this would make a great texture for that Jellyfish Tutorial Ian posted this weekend" It's not really CC0, but at least give us ideas of how to make awesome textures for different jellyfish. Also, I think every single 3D artist is obsessed in doing 3 things at least once: A good Jellyfish A Photorealistic render of Earth A Spiral Galaxy So, thanks to Ian, one down, two to go. xD
2020-10-19 19:23:22 +0000 UTCHow do you go about making the black and white texture? It seems to be just like the one you made for the moving water as image planes. Did you start with just images of jelly fish to see all their parts and then adjusted the levels and curves in photoshop? Thanks so much!
2020-10-18 05:22:10 +0000 UTCWhen you subdivided the tentacles to use the fractal thing, you can randomize the vertices with out subdividing by using mesh tools then vert tools then random vertices. Also Dude, you seriously make me surprised on what you can do with just unsubdivided mesh.
2020-10-17 02:00:23 +0000 UTCYou're unbelievable! There's a reason I tell my coworkers you're a Blender god! Also, you're so adorable and charming too. Such talent and skill but also super nice!
Colin Stein
2020-10-16 18:56:37 +0000 UTCBOOM, amazing! I was like: ok this is gonna be a long one... 20 minutes after I feel like Neo learning Kung Fu.
2020-10-16 18:46:57 +0000 UTCBiologically, cucumbers are fruit.
2020-10-16 18:39:26 +0000 UTCI really loved your short! very inspiring and fun!
2020-10-16 17:18:57 +0000 UTCAlways so awesome to watch... my heart leaps when a new tut pops in my inbox :) In fact I'm supposed to be working from home... but yeah...nothing got done until I was finished with this baby. I have a question Ian.... do you actually HAVE any "Your Majesty" tier takers?? :)
Doug Brown
2020-10-16 16:38:34 +0000 UTCnice and imaginative piece though :)
Doug Brown
2020-10-16 16:36:11 +0000 UTCMan... those jellyfish look so much better than my attempt - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PEMsc9XckM - and the file size - each jellyfish shot was 1+ GB blend file because I'm running a million hair and cloth sims for each jellyfish... eeks...!
Mike Pouch
2020-10-16 16:19:04 +0000 UTCIf jellyfish are the vegetables of the sea, then 1) What are sea cucumbers? and 2) What is the jelly of the sea?
Zachary Macintyre
2020-10-16 16:13:02 +0000 UTC"I don't know what's going on in jelly fish. I don't trust it, and I don't like it. But I embrace it." Ian, and every person who's ever modeled these things.
2020-10-16 13:45:47 +0000 UTCOooh, as C4D guy I'd love an FBX Ian :)
2020-10-16 12:27:24 +0000 UTC#blendergod
2020-10-16 10:54:43 +0000 UTCGreat! Who doesn't love watching jellyfish but get bamboozled trying to make them! Thanks for blazing the trail again! Also, according to Nat Geo they have their own render and re-spawning particle system capabilities in real life: "...they can make copies of themselves and some older jellyfish can become young again". 🤯
Mike Hay
2020-10-16 09:17:09 +0000 UTCThank you!!! I was always fearful to use the grease pencil because I didn't know how to DESTROY it after!
Ian Hubert
2020-10-16 09:13:07 +0000 UTCOoo- that's a good point! Cycles is struggling a little with that one. It's a LOT of refraction.
Ian Hubert
2020-10-16 08:53:36 +0000 UTCGreat video, thanks! Regarding the "issues" at the end, you forgot the sub-surf!! :)
2020-10-16 08:50:32 +0000 UTCI love how it looks in the jar. Curious how it would look in something like Luxrender or Octane.
Jan van den Hemel
2020-10-16 08:22:24 +0000 UTCBy the way, on the view tab you can go to Annotations and DESTROY them clicking the minus button 🤓
Mornarion
2020-10-16 08:06:33 +0000 UTCOh my! You are brilliant! This is fantastic.
Tyler Adams
2020-10-16 07:22:34 +0000 UTCLOL! "murder arm" - wonderful. :) Looks like your screencast keys modifier has decided to quit... around 2:37 stops working even though you have it selected.
Doug Brown
2020-10-16 07:21:35 +0000 UTCOnce I watch it, I'll see how it translates to Unreal Engine, it would be a nice asset for a stilized game ☺️👍 Oh, and thanks, premium quality, as always!
Mornarion
2020-10-16 07:06:22 +0000 UTCThis is so cool!! I love the luckfish idea and the vendors; all these random details that makes a world so alive, believable and unique. It gives me sweet vibes of Bladerunner and Firefly, two of my absolute favorites of all times, and I think that what you are creating is equally cool and yet very unique (which is one ingredient of the coolness).
Mario Taylor
2020-10-16 05:56:37 +0000 UTCthank you so much! I exported into alembic and the animation and UV's were preserved really well so it was just a matter of reassigning the texture (although I'll have to look more into recreating your blender shader in maya/vray). you're the best!
Justin
2020-10-16 05:30:42 +0000 UTCIt's alright!!! The property was a little intense with that wind storm the other day! I really gotta take care of some of these dead trees before they take care of us. How's across the water?
Ian Hubert
2020-10-16 05:29:56 +0000 UTCHah!! MAN I KNOW!!! Like, they're SO simple they're just taunting us to recreate them, hahaha. I've tried so many times. Honestly I think the only reason this attempt worked is 1.) maybe a wave modifier update?? and 2.) path tracing is a lot easier, now (calculating all these bounces before would be been totally prohibitive), so we can just kinda brute-force it. That said, I think these guys render fairly quickly.
Ian Hubert
2020-10-16 05:29:09 +0000 UTCHands up everyone who tried to do a jellyfish before and failed miserably ✋
Yannick Stahl
2020-10-16 05:25:11 +0000 UTCThis is awesome!!! Thanks, Ian! How's life on the Peninsula?
Fes
2020-10-16 05:24:43 +0000 UTC
