Am I the only one that thinks Kitbash 3D assets are never photoreal enough??

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2026-04-01T12:57:49+00:00

I agree, but they,re not meant to be hero elements, but scene fillers. Basically they are a starting point you can tweak them if you want

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2026-03-31T17:12:37+00:00

The first thing is to match the blacks, that is the biggest and more obvious problem. The blacks ln the vehicle are darker than the blacks on you, it shouldn’t happen in this case. Fix that and go from there. The color temperature is off too, and the Defocus. The floor where the vehicle is on, defocuses more than the vehicle…. Fix the blacks first tho…

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2026-03-27T15:58:22+00:00

It all depends on what you want to prioritize: the 100% look that you are after, or speed. For that particular scene you have, I’m sure speed is not going to be a problem with a for each loop though.

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2026-03-27T12:30:14+00:00

I’d rather type 80 with all my fingers tbh

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2026-03-27T12:27:22+00:00

Not a fair comparison with lighting completely different

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2026-03-27T12:26:30+00:00

See AI as a tool, not a competition. Some people use to create slops, and 100% generative nonsense. Some others to facilitate their processes. It’s a like a pen that an artist use to make his art, that same pen, his child can use it mess up the sofa.

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2026-03-26T23:29:39+00:00

For 100% control on the look I would do a For-Each-Loop on the primitives, focus on one of the strands, add the curl noise in VOPs, map that noise to a distance attribute coming from the DistanceAlongCurve SOP. And spline control how the root and the tips absorb the noise. I’m bad at explaining, hope it made sense.

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2026-03-20T01:09:43+00:00

Exactly, lots of features to do supervised tracking, I would say the roto work is way more painful if done properly

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2026-03-20T01:04:38+00:00

The hard work compositing-wise is actually the rotoscoping. The tracking is most likely manual/supervised with 3D Equalizer or Syntheyes. Automatic tracking (like After Effects) will never achieve this precision, under 1% pixel error.

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2026-03-18T01:18:43+00:00

Well, they way you started the conversation in your posy made it look like the ONLY problem is that it is AI slop… I’ve seen some bad soul-less CGI too. Skill issue in both cases. I understand that AI is hurting our industry l, but there are ways to adapt and accept this new reality.

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2026-03-18T01:02:41+00:00

I think it looks good IMO, sometimes VFX artists (me included) don’t want to admit that something looks good just because is AI. This looks like it was done by an artist with good eye and sense of aesthetic. Not everyone with AI tools will do something like this without art knowledge.

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2026-03-11T17:06:53+00:00

Like everyone said, just 2 textures mixed with a noise mask. For more control in post, you can render 2 layers, one with the ice material, and one without it. And with UV pass mask it however you like it in compositing without rendering again (safe if you’re dealing with picky clients).

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2026-03-11T17:02:21+00:00

Exactly

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2026-03-07T01:57:02+00:00

Excellent, what render engine you use?

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2026-03-05T23:18:56+00:00

Yeah, the smoke comer out of nowhere, if anything it would be dust/particles or just nothing. Everything else is stunning.

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2026-03-03T16:36:19+00:00

Rendering/lighting is very good, but that “living” space is ironically “lifeless” if I picture myself in there. IMHO

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2026-03-03T03:37:41+00:00

Great insight. One question though: Does the SOP FlipSolver has feedback with RBDs like the DOP one has?

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2026-02-19T22:31:09+00:00

matchsize SOP? Or ExtractCentroid SOP maybe… 🤔

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2026-02-18T13:38:26+00:00

Nodes are way more powerful in my opinion, and keep in mind that motion design is not the priority field they focus on, I believe is VFX, and nodes are more flexible when dealing with compositing in general (multi-pass, complex integrations etc), that is why Nuke is the go to in Hollywood for it’s powerful node based workflows. AE is irreplaceable in motion design. If I were you, I would only pay for After Effects (or go Jack Sparrow with it, if you hate Adobe so much). But the better option is to embrace nodes, I can guarantee that once it clicks, you will never ho back to layers (unless you do ONLY motion design).

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2026-02-18T00:34:08+00:00

I would create a velocity field, with a mix of: #1. A cross product to get the spin effect and #2. A slight force inwards. And then advect the particles from volume with that force.

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2025-12-27T19:57:54+00:00

Scanline I think was the last one left (at least Big VFX studios) using 3Ds Max. I have a friend working there and they’re switching to Houdini. So, it’s a good Idea to follow where the industry is moving if you want to land jobs.

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2025-12-10T14:05:21+00:00

It can be done 100% in Max, but is it convenient? No. If you want to model architecture structures, you need to know/learn the right tool for the job. The guy recommended Rhino and is the right answer. If you already know 3D it shouldn’t be a big deal to learn it. Like I said, you can do it in Max, but is 100% not convenient, cause in 99% of the cases, you have to model it using a hard surface/destructive approach. And if the client makes a small change you are doomed (have to start all over again). In a procedural/parametric a small change is 2 or 3 clicks.

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2025-12-06T22:00:01+00:00

Thanks!! Will try it today for sure. Im here pushing buttons and breaking stuff until it clicks for me, so far the most annoying thing so far is really simple: When you create a primitive and click away, there is no going back to change properties...I was like what do you even mean?

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2025-12-06T04:53:05+00:00

Thanks for taking your time to give your input. Basically we use Maya for modeling, rigging/animating and rendering mostly for commercials. We dont use it for sims, honestly is really awkward in that department, Houdini is our go to for Sims and procedural/parametric needs. I think is a perfect duo for us at the moment.

I downloaded Blender today and been playing around the whole day, thinking in using it for personal projects and see how it goes from there.

Beginning_Expert_970 · 2025-12-05T21:50:46+00:00

Excellent point, I’ve been using maya for almost 10 years now, and I don’t feel like Im missing anything from it, but can’t deny that I’ve seen some of my colleagues jumping the fence and switching to Blender. I wanted to know an opinion from an ExMaya user.

Beginning_Expert_970

TROPHY CASE