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Pixar in a Box
Course: Pixar in a Box > Unit 7
Lesson 1: Introduction to particle systems- Effects overview
- Introduction to particle systems
- Simulating water
- Water simulation
- Smooth collisions
- Smoothed particle hydrodynamics
- Create water surface using particles
- Calculating contour lines
- What else can you make with particle systems?
- Fireworks simulator
- Genesis effect
- Getting to know Matt Wong
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Getting to know Matt Wong
Want to join the conversation?
- I am really grateful for these lessons. It is great for students to see where what we learn in school is actually used. But I wondered, where does the Math come in. You mentioned in one of the videos that math is part of it. How?(12 votes)
- All of the code behind the particle simulators involves a HUGE amount of math. Additionally, different aspects of the particle behaviors have to be calculated and recalculated in order to make them as realistic as possible. Its easy for us to do on Khan Academy because the programs have been simplified, but in real life people put a whole lot of hard work into making it right.(8 votes)
- What was your favorite film to animate(4 votes)
- Thanks, This helped me a lot.
By the way, can you make a Cars 4 and a Finding Marlin?(4 votes) - Why does the video keep crashing on mobile devices?(3 votes)
- as someone who already has a basic experience with unity, I could probably now roughly recreate the cloud people. probably make the mesh first and then set it to cutout so nothing shows through, then create a thick, slow and highly varied gaseous particle system to almost cling to the skin. Am I on the right track here?(3 votes)
- IDK. I', a bit of a beginner in Digital arts, but it seems to me like you're going the right way. I personally use blender, not unity, so I don't know a lot. Also, blender does not allow particle systems in the game engine, but apparently unity does. I think I should look into unity for myself. Game development is turning into a hobby of mine, maybe almost a career!(1 vote)
- how do you get in to the pixar studios did you have to go to college(1 vote)
- im not grateful for these lessons(2 votes)
- for what, why did your parents give you a science kit?(2 votes)
- Hi my name is rose paisley I’ve been to four foster homes and well am about to go to military so yeah this is my story “Rose down here NOW” “Coming!” I put on my fanciest stuff which is not fancy at ALL and go downstairs oh no why is the FBI here?!?! “Mom?Why is the FBI here?” “Because of YOU I know what you did bought something off of MY credit card and hacked MY bank account so they are here to take you away.” “WHAT!?!?!?” “Yes to military school permanently!” “But why not back to foster care?” “Because I SAID SO.” “Cmon kid you gotta pack and HURRY we DONT have all day!!” How do you guys like my story if I get 5 positive comments I will try and publish this(2 votes)
- what software would work best for beginners in anamation(2 votes)
- I've used Blender a little bit and it seems to be really good especially considering that it is free. Some into tutorials: https://cgcookie.com/flow/introduction-to-blender/ Download blender at blender.org.
But realize this is a difficult thing to learn. So it will take a while and take quite a commitment.(0 votes)
Video transcript
(bell dinging) - As a kid my interests were sports. I loved playing outside,
but more academically, I love math and science. One year for Christmas, my mom and dad got me a chemistry set
and I went wild with it. I almost lit the house on fire. My first film here at
Pixar was Partly Cloudy. It was a short film,
directed by Pete Sohn. The cloud characters were originally hard surface characters,
but we used particles to turn them in to
fluffy cloud characters. The thing I like most about
being an effects artist is the variety. I get to do water, fire,
fireworks, smoke, dust. It's a little bit of everything. In effects we always work in teams. We split up the work into various shots, but we're always looking
at each other's work, comparing each other's techniques, solutions to problems. It's a very collaborative effort. We give and take from each other, and we kinda try to match the look amongst the entire team. In effects, we usually deal
with big hard problems. We almost always get it
wrong the first time, the second time, and the third time. We do things over and over and over again, until we get them right. For some of the most difficult shots, I must have done it at least 15, 20 times before I got it right. And even then it maybe
needed a few more iterations to get it exactly right.