Digicel Pacific Commercial
Stefan Wernik writes:
A new Digicel commercial shown in New Zealand and the Pacific. This is the second in a series of commercials where we’ve used Blender in the pipeline. After my experiences with the film Lighthouse which was all made in Blender, it has become part of my tool set for projects. There will be more to come in the near future.
As with the first in this series (which was kindly posted here earlier) all the characters were modelled and UVed in Blender and animated in Maya. The rendering was then done with VRAY.
I wrote and directed the project with James Hackett at Hackett Films.
Wow this looks pretty good! I’m impressed, well done!
“and animated in Maya”
Why ?
Because Blender has a really good set of UV tools, and is complimented by Maya’s animation tools. Or maybe the artist just knows how to use the UV tools in Blender better than Maya, as well as the animation tools better in Maya than Blender. Either way, the integration of Blender into professional environments, which tend to use multiple software packages, is a good thing for the software as a whole. :)
– Because Blender plays well with others.
– And that’s a good thing.
– Also, we can only wish that everyone played so well with others as Blender does.
– When we act this territorial, it is to the detriment of our community, as it is offputting to non-Blender users in the profession.
– Happy Blending.
I’m not sure how why you read Vblend’s straightforward one-word question as “territorial.” I had the exact same question simply because I wondered whether Maya’s advantages might justify my buying it. Stefan’s subsequent response was very helpful, so I’m delighted the question was asked and answered, and I hope most people, Blender fans or not, aren’t so quick to read things into a reasonable question. it’s not like this is a political discussion…
I agree.
‘Territorial’ blenderheads, although just a few, can be irritating.
BUT.
Many here have an neutral heart too.
Ask before you accuse,…… not ….. just accuse and don’t even ask.
btw the [author] stefan already answered this below.
It’s a manpower issue.
@c295d2a843b82f160aeb720a99bbd14e:disqus Better, rock solid tools perhaps? Maybe Stefan Wernik can reply better.
No offense, but I rarely see this question when it comes to other paid tools. I mean, if the movie is made in Maya, nobody asked “why the particles is done in Houdini?”, or “why the world is generated in Vue?” and blah blah blah. But when it comes to blender, this question pops up. As if you started open-source, you must end open-source, preferably with single tools. For me, that’s just strange…
The commercial looks very good, professional touch. Now, you switched to Maya to make the animation. My question is a bit more specific than why? My question is: Did you switch because you found better rigging or Animation tools within Maya or because you preferred to use Maya Rendering tools? I ask you this because I usually found renders within Blender Internal lacking a bit of depth, however this seems to be improving with the cycles engine. Other question for reference only: How long did it take to render just one frame?
rendering wasn’t done with Maya it was done with a renderer called V-Ray
Great work BTW. I found this project interesting, because they are not overly complicated scenes, or animations. I find the simplicity of it wonderful to watch. Mind you I sort of expected the coconut to fall on the plate again at the end… I also would have expected him to have called for someone to remove the tree as well. I would have anyway…
Regarding using Maya, so what? Perhaps the animators prefer maya to blender for animation. I think it is great just to see professionals use the tool in their pipeline somewhere anyway. I don’t use maya, so I cannot talk about it’s strengths, but as far as I am aware it is the tool of choice by animators anyway, as that is what they were taught during their schooling.
Anyway, Kudos to Stefan Wernik for a job well done.
Great to see Blender being used in another professional pipeline. I myself love Maya, they teach me at school, but that does not mean it’s my only tool. Blender is my tool of choice for modelling, Maya is the tool for animation because all my class mates and other industry guys know how to use Maya, they are used to it and probably used it in school. This does not mean Maya is ‘better’, it’s just another tool like any of them out there. Like Fablefox mentioned, Houdini is used a lot for particles, just a tool. They all have their strengths and weaknesses.
But, more importantly, people trust their own toolsets. It takes time to integrate a new tool in a pipeline because you are not the only one in the team that should know the tool. Blender is just a tool like all the rest, accessible to anyone. And sure, there are people that don’t like blender and tried it, just not their tool for the job.
Great to see blender finding its place in the pro world. Even if its just used for modeling and/or UV mapping I’ll always have a soft spot for the software and be happy to see it being used professionally.
I’d love to have a go at rigging and animating in Maya just to fully understand the differences between the two but the software is outside of my budget. That said, Blender’s animation system works grand and is available to me. Perhaps its not as fast or as versatile as Maya (speculation) but it gets the job done which is good enough for me =)
Speaking as a sculptor, there is a different feel to different tools. shaping with routers is different to shaping with a dremel or non powered woodcarving tools such as knives, gouges chisels and mallets. There are many tools and each of them inform your style and practise. and each of them will inform the future directions of tools to come.
Nolan
Holy wrinkles! :)) I want to my problem with light in the corridor will be fixed that easily too :D
Cool anim anyway!
I’m not sure how to parse that sentence, so I’m stealing it for my new signature.
Hey Guys
Thanks for all the great comments. As to why use Blender for modelling / UV’s and Maya for animation there are 2 main reasons
-Neither I nor Tristan Lock the main modeller on this are fans of modelling in Maya, Blender has great modelling and UV tools.
Tristan pretty much uses Blender on all our projects for modelling.
-I also think Blender is great for animation and rigging it’s curves are better than Max and on a par with Maya. If you check out Lighthouse or Kajimba they were completely animated in Blender and I loved using it, but these commercials have a very quick turn around and you often have a matter of days to find freelancers. It’s hard to find people good enough that also know the software, everyone seems to know Maya. I think it’s something that is changing but not there yet. To be honest you just use whatever software people know so you can get it out the door quickly and to high standard.
Thanks so much for your very well explained answer. I like how you interpret questions regarding other software Packages. I always ask when I see someone good enough in blender as well as other 3D packages. Intention? Basically to learn about other tools out there, strength and weaknesses mainly. After seeing The Lighthouse long ago and see this commercial, I knew you were the one to answer this question. I always wonder if other software’s have “preferable” tools for rigging-animation ( as muscles etc ) to work with.
Unfortunately most readers take these kind of questions to the Political field, like this ones from above:
“”He made it in Maya, so what?”””
“”some Blender heads may be irritated”””
that kind of comments usually derail the article creating a pile of stressful comments. And that’s not the point ! We ask and discuss towards technical information. Many take it in the wrong way unfortunately. As it has happened in former articles here at Blender Nation.
I like very much the curves in Blender 2.5, but it is always good to ask what is out there and keep eyes open !
Wow !
So many reactions for such a little question !
Thanks for your answer Stefan. Very interesting for me…
And I think it’s a good answer for Blender too…
So, I won’t have to buy Maya, and I will still be able to use Blender only…
Because, you know, I’m a “territorial” Blender user…
;)
Hey, no worries. You aren’t [“territorial”], your decisions are well reasoned, and you use what works best for you. There’s nothing wrong with just using one tool well.
Ok so Blender is only good for UV and modeling,And Maya is the major player in this company.It’s look that blender is the mail boy delivery.It time for Blender stand out on it own.Regardless of whose opinion… I don’t trust autodesk period! they are up to some sinister plan.
This is exactly the kind of paranoia that makes us look like a bunch of rugrats. We’re better than this.
beautiful ;D
Blender 2.5 is easy to use, to learn, really intuitive UI, but some basic features are really left behind, its renderer is very dissapointing (, layer system, animation issues… ) , thats why talented/professional people dont stick to blender, and cycles will not solve that. Anyway, realy nice commercial, nice atmosphere!
I think this a political (in the broad sense) issue more than anything else…IMHO the “pro touch” thing will always be on the side of paid,commercial software…and the reason why is quite simple : we don’t live in an entirely “open source” based society,do we?..so some guys have to feed their families by trying to “commercialize” everything (their programming skills included) for the whole financial system (investing (time,effort,raw material…whatever)/ aiming for profit) to keep working properly.
Having that said,it has to be a measurable,material profit for the time spent,otherwise why should I not better go out and start hunting or fishing?…this is so evident here,in this commercial,where a “non commercial” tool has been used for creating a commercial “video product”,which,in turn,is trying to increase the “overvalue” of the product that is advertising,thus,aiming at generating even more profit…
it is of no importance ,allow me to say,which one (the “commercial” or the “non commercial” tool is better…what really matter is that it GOT to be out there a commercial software tool!
so,what we have here is a “production/consuming” chain which is the basis of all our modern economical system…
unless if you were a hobbyist (not a professional) you wouldn’t expect to feed your family by using a “non commercial” product for creating a “non commercial” commercial (lol)..would you?…so the next logical question would be : why a programmer (who writes the software tool’s code) should?…:-)
PS Sorry for my English…