louisdumont

Scary Maze Halloween Breakdown

Happy Halloween!! In this video I'll share some of the production techniques I used to create this little animated project. You can download the projects files attached to this post, I just ask that they not be used commercially and without credit.

"Too Cute!" Animation Breakdown

A silly Easter animation, but with some little techniques that I found very handy.

Making of Fuffy Gamer

A small sketch, sculpt and animation project featuring a character playing a video game. The project has some handy little tips and shortcuts that might be interesting to those looking to create something similar. Blender file attached.

Need to pick up a phone?

I'm putting together a showreel and needed a way to present some work that was made for mobile, so I put together a generic phone model that I deemed relatively future proof, with hardy any bezels and ports :) Maybe you'll find it useful too!

Render Nomad Sculpts as Clay in Blender

This video is for Nomad Sculpt users that want to take advantage of the increased fidelity of a pathtracing renderer like Cycles in Blender.

Scene with lights and material attached. Thanks!

Blender VHS Shader

A shader material that mimics the look of an old VHS tape. Great for some creepy videos! :D

Making a Movie Title in Blender

Using 3D text, volumetrics and particles to create a blockbuster style movie title.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/louisdumont<...

Converting 8bit 360 Environment Maps to HDR

In this video I explore a technique for taking compressed 8bit 360 images and expanding the dynamic range to better resemble the higher values of True HDR's, for use in the lighting and reflections given by environment maps.

Attached is the full blender file of the toy robot test. You might need to re-import the C0022.MP4 (The only asset I couldn't pack into the file). 

Command Line Rendering with a GUI on Windows

Create a custom interface for rendering blender scenes via the command line. The tool is called CMD GUI and is available free from the Windows Store: https://www.microsoft.com/store/productId/9MSWMFZ9XV2F

I've attached a few of the CMD GUI files I've setup to render animation, frame ranges and stills. They are setup for my steam installation of Blender so the first line might need updating to ...

Using DJV to playback EXR image sequences with Filmic colour transforms.

In this video we look at setting up DJV player with view transforms from Blender (Filmic) using OCIO.

DJV: https://darbyjo...

Simplify Ultra - Global Toggle for Modifiers and Constraints in Blender

Hi! This is a handy little add-on for hiding modifiers, constraints and bone constraints for all selected objects and armatures. This add-on was made to speed up the viewport of animated scenes with lots of objects that use lots of modifiers.

Why you might want to comp renders.

In this video we look at recombining Cycles passes from a multiEXR file as well as a couple of reasons why you might want to do this. We setup the various blend modes required create our beauty pass, but if you're in a hurry I have attached a node group that greatly speeds up the process. Here's a video on appending and using the node group: https://youtu.be/jp6JDByWaZk

Many thanks, Louis

Creating a flock of low-poly birds

Hello! I find adding a flock of birds really helps sell the scale of certain scenes. There's also a step-by-step video that can be followed here: https://youtu.be/eSL98LLr1kw. And, if you want to save a bit of time, I've attached the .blend file to this post. Thanks!

Herbert the Frog Breakdown and Scene File

Here's a breakdown of a fun little frog scene, featuring a fully animated character and environment, and the scene file attached. Thanks!

Creating an infinite background

Using a gradient layer and shadow catcher to create an infinite background. Useful for showcasing models in a 360 turntable. 

Tutorial: Importing Vector Illustrations into Blender

In this tutorial we explore a few techniques for importing vector illustration from Affinity Designer (although Illustrator would work too) and giving them a little three dimensionality with bevels and extrudes. Both the SVG and .blend files are available.

Tutorial: Creating Fluffy Clouds in Blender

In this video we'll look at creating fluffy, candy floss like clouds in Blender using metaballs and procedural textures. Blender file attached.

Tutorial: Lip-sync Rig with 2 Controllers in Blender

I’ve been producing quite a lot of talking animated characters recently and due to fast turnaround have been looking at way to speed up rigging and animation. In this video I look at a setup that works quite well for stylised characters and is speedy to setup and animate. 

Tutorial: Using Musgrave for roughness in Blender

Apart from the content showing on the display, all the materials are simple and procedural-ly created using various Blender noise textures. I put together a quick video that should the Musgrave texture node, and how it can be used to add some roughness to pristine CG surfaces. You can also find the Blend file attached for both the monitor scene and the title text.

The Eye - Animating with modifiers

Attached is the blend file for this animated eye test to see how modifiers can speed and enable certain rigs.

Fun Shapes - Particles and Collisions

This was a quick test for a commercial job that didn't end up going ahead. It features a particles test and rigid body collision test to create some fun 3D mograph. 

Tutorial: Creating an LCD face effect in Blender EEVEE

Using simple shapes, layered up to create a low-fi face screen. Also driving the mouth movement automatically with drivers. Example file attached :)

Tutorial: Creating a Custom Bokeh in Blender 2.8

This video covers a process for creating a custom bokeh using an image transparency map to give character to the out of focus elements in a Cycles render. I've attached the image textures I've used in this video.