New Talent: David Adan, from Arch Viz to VFX, Mexico to Qatar with thinkingParticles and more.
 


Cebas: hello David, we're delighted to have you here with us today. Please give us an update on the latest with yourself.


David: Before introducing myself, I want to thank Cedar Thokme and the Cebas team for inviting me to participate in the Cebas Insights section, I feel quite honored to be amongst many great artists and colleagues. I must say that more than a few times I have looked into the works of the community as a means of inspiration, some of them have even helped me at times when I encountered technical challenges or simply with their advice.

Cebas: Thank you David :) 

David: about myself: my name is David Adan, I was born in Mexico and I have a Bachelor degree in Graphic Design. Although I have just recently decided to pursue my career as a VFX specialist, I have more than 15 years experience working as a 3D artist for the Television, Films, Games, Architecture and Education Industries. During this time I have been involved in all aspects of production, so I am comfortable doing everything from modeling, texturing, lighting, rigging, compositing and even animating, although character animation in not my mainstay. More recently I have also been involved in VFX production.

My professional career started back in 1999. I partnered with a friend and colleague from school and together we founded a relatively successful design studio. We started getting important projects from local and national clients. Although business was good, I felt I was drifting away from my passion and decided to form a new company, specializing in 3D animation production and training. This is how “Studio 3D” was born, back in 2004. By that time I was very proficient with 3D Studio Max and Combustion software so I received the “Discreet Certified Trainer” Certificate from Autodesk, and shortly after that, my studio obtained the first “Discreet Certified Training Center” title in Mexico. From then on, I have continually worked in 3D projects, both as a producer and trainer.

Currently I am doing VFX and Compositing work as a freelance artist so I am always looking for new projects. You can contact me through mail at: david.3d.vfx@gmail.com

You can also watch my demo reel at Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/163671827
(featured above) 

Or check out my personal page at: www.davidadan.com


Cebas: what is your most recent projects? And when will they be released.

David: My latest contract work just completed was with an architectural firm in the State of Qatar. My main work was to generate photorealistic architectural imagery, mainly for the Qatar Armed Forces and the Royal Family. I show a few favourites here: 

 

 

 



David: and more recently as a freelance VFX Artist and Compositor I finalized several sequences for the Austrian film “Herbst” that will be released later this year. Here are the sneak peeks:

Cebas: please fill readers in as well on what are the current developments in Mexico for VFX work? What are your thoughts as an artist from Mexico? Are you happy with the directions the market is moving?

David: It is an interesting time for the VFX industry in Mexico. Although there are not many VFX films produced in the country, but being a neighbor to the United States has allowed local Studios to grow by collaborating in outsourced projects from large studios. Actually, Ollin VFX, the largest VFX Studio facility in Latin America is Mexican based. Their work has been featured in many Hollywood blockbusters like “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, “Tron Legacy” and many others. Also some of the big VFX players are turning towards Mexico for business. Studios such as MPC and Stargate now have offices in Mexico.

Today in Mexico, there is also a huge advertising market for Television commercials and a growing need for VFX in Television Series produced locally.

David: Hopefully in the coming years, we will also see more Mexican movies being produced, now that some Mexican directors and cinematographers like Del Toro, Iñarritu, Cuaron, Lubezki and Garcia Bernal have gained international recognition. These are just a few names but there is a great amount of very talented people in Mexico giving impulse to the industry.

Cebas: how did your career in art and design started? And how did you transit to VFX side of things? Did u decide to become an artist in high school?

David: as with most VFX enthusiasts, I believe my interest for Visual Effects was born during my childhood, within the cinema theaters. Back then most of the effects where practical effects, and creature animation was mostly stop-motion. I was greatly impressed with movies like “Clash of Titans” and “Star Wars” but I was completely mesmerized by the CG scenes in the original “Tron” movie back in 82, particularly the Lightcycle sequences. Although I fell in love with the work I saw in those films, it wasn’t until my high school years that I had the chance to work as an intern in a small postproduction studio. The reason I applied for the internship was that the studio had acquired one of the first “video toaster” editing systems, which included its own 3D animation software, named Lightwave 3D. I was totally blown away when I saw the demo scene with a 3D car, you could see the car in any angle and add virtual lights and cameras. That was the moment I decided “This is what I want to do for a living”.

Unfortunately, back then there were very few ways to learn the software, I started by reading the software manuals and poking buttons until I became fairly proficient with the 3D software. Since there were no schools offering 3D animation in Mexico, I decided to pursue a bachelor degree in Graphic Design which had some related topics like photography and digital illustration. I managed to finish my degree but in parallel I kept learning 3D modeling and animation on my own.

On 2010 I had my breakthrough into VFX for films with the epic Turkish film “Fetih 1453”. I worked as a freelance artist for Epics FX Studio in Mexico City with VFX Supervisor Serkan Zelzele. For the project I did particle and fluid simulations, 3D prop replacements as well as Compositing.


Cebas: Tell us some interesting people that have have helped you in your career, in training and guiding you when you were a new artist. Was there a different mentor that helped steer you into VFX, or it was a personal decision?

David: The work of the VFX artist is very demanding and is constantly evolving and being re-shaped, this is why I always try to keep up to date and never miss a chance to learn new things. I am always taking some kind of course or reading some online tutorial, thus I have come across many good tutors and even mentors. I have been very fortunate to have great teachers in every aspect of my training; I got to refine my modeling and anatomy skills with Cesar Dacol Jr., I received a solid foundation as a Compositor with Steve Wright; and more recently I have received excellent training by Spencer Lueders and Niels Prayer, whose work were a great inspiration to me.

These are just a few of the many people that have helped me along the way, I am grateful to each and every one of them but without a doubt, it was Allan McKay, whom I consider my Mentor, who has helped steered my career into VFX. Beyond his technical prowess and his great experience in the industry, it is also his example of tenacity and dedication that made me realize it was time for me to pursue that childhood dream born from the cinema theaters and make it a reality. There is no reason why we shouldn’t do what we love in life, at least to do our best to attain it.

David Adan (seated) with FX TD Transformation Mentor Allan McKay spending some bro time


'Phantom Fire House' - FumeFX emissions driven by thinkingParticles,
David's latest advanced training mini project based on Allan McKay's training.
See https://liveactionvfx.com/index

 Cebas: what are some of the visuals you do for the educational sphere?

David: actually in the educational sphere, my work has been more of a trainer and consultant than as an artist or producer. After being certified as a trainer by “Discreet” I had the opportunity to design courses and train people in many areas, including Television Channels like “Televisa” and “TV Azteka”, Post-production and animation studios like “Fenton and Friends” and “CS Group”, Universities like “Universidad La Salle” and “Tecnologico de Monterrey” and for some government projects.

There have been many rewarding aspects of my work in education; I have been able to travel, I have met many interesting people and most of all I had the chance to teach many students and aspiring artists that have become very talented professionals.


Cebas: David, is Allan McKay’s FX TDT your first real thinkingParticles intensive at an advanced level?

David: yes, actually I was introduced to Thinking Particles by Allan, and in the FX Technical Director Transformation (FXTDT) program, he explained the system in a very in-depth way but more importantly with a very practical approach. So everything in his lessons are “hands on”, so as he would say, so we can, “we hit the ground running” and by the time we finish the lesson, we are ready to apply our system to a real life scenario.

 


  David's FX TDT reels

Cebas: did you find TP most helpful in your work for TV, games or films, and why?
TP is a very powerful and flexible system and it may be equally useful in any industry that relies on Special Effects, even in Medical and Architectural Visualization.

David: personally, I have used Thinking Particles in a couple of film projects as a Freelance VFX Artist and the reason it has been so helpful is its procedural nature. As a freelancer, I need to be a “One man Army”, you are expected to do your own modeling, texturing, lighting, sometimes even rigging and, of course, your Effects and Compositing. For this you need to be able to efficiently manage your time and resources. With TP I am able to dive into the R&D of a sequence at an early stage with the confidence that the system will be easily scalable and/or editable once the Director or VFX Supervisor starts giving me specific input. For example, if a specific shot calls for the destruction or demolition of a wall, I can prepare a TP System with general functionality, and then refine the effect to match the creative direction of the Director.


Cebas: could you tell us about your most rewarding thinkingParticles project to date… What was your role? Showcase / select some of your most successful vfx scenes with TP - did u do the scenes from concept to finish?

David: my most rewarding TP project has definitely been the “Herbst” film. My role in the project was VFX Artist/Compositor and as a freelance artist, I was in charge of each shot entirely, from modeling to compositing. Actually, it was in this project that I decided to implement Thinking Particles into my Effects pipeline. My main modeling and animation tool is 3DS Max and Its native particle tools are fairly good but its Dynamics tools are not really suited for the realistic effects needed for films and it lacks so completely any fragmenting tools which are essential for destruction effects.

 

  

Very early in the development of the effects for the “Herbst” film, I started to feel limited with Max’s tools, even for the simplest effects. The shots required a great deal of explosions, bullet hits and dust with very specific motion and “character”. Watching some slow motion footage of bullet hits and explosions, I noticed a very characteristic motion of the sand being displaced, and the flying debris and secondary elements of the explosions. To me they resemble a lot of what fluids look like in water splashes and crashing waves. I managed to create some relatively decent systems with Particle Flow but once I had what I wanted, it took a great amount of time and tweaking just to get it right for another very similar shot. In the end while doing some research I came across the thinkingParticles Water Splash tutorial from Alaa Al-Nehlawi, who is also a colleague of mine from the FX TDT (you can check his work here: www.vfxarabia.co/). And it was exactly what I was trying to achieve, by using very simple geometry, you can have the exact shape and initial velocities for your particles and furthermore, enhance their movement and interactions with the “Flow” operators to mimic the fluid-like behavior I have observed in my research face. I used the principles explained in Alaa’s tutorial and tailored them to my needs. In the end I had a system that was extremely easy to modify and re-use for almost every single shot where I needed impacts or particle emitters for my FumeFX fluid simulations. In the example below you can see a simplification of how the system works (without the “Flow” operators applied). 

 

TP explosion sculpt video


David: Also the TP’s Volume breaker and Shape Collisions tools played an important role on the destruction effects for the movie. One of the first shots I took was the log cabin explosion shot. My first approach was to pre-fragment the piece of wall that had to be destroyed and run a Rigid Body Simulation with Rayfire. The script described a “mortar” hit on the wall and what I had in mind was way different than what the director was envisioning. My first animation test showed only parts of the wall being smashed with a few splinters and debris, after a few more comments from the director the destruction became bigger and bigger, and in the end I turn again to thinkingParticles to create a procedural system that let me make changes very easily to suit the director’s vision.


Cabin Destruction Setup Video

Cebas: what were the toughest part of doing those fx scenes, and how did you
manage to resolve them (with TP)?

David: nearing completion of production, the director came to me with two new shots that apparently other artists had rejected or were unable to finish, I immediately saw why and my first impulse was to reject them as well. The two shots relied heavily on crowd simulations and a considerable amount of explosions and effects. I have always liked challenges so I decided to take on the shots and as I modeled and rigged characters and props, I began doing some research for the crowd simulations, and in the end the solution was relatively straightforward with TP; I used the “SurfaceFollow” operator to drive particles through the terrain, then I used the “GeomInstance” operator to assign the soldier’s geometry and material, I also used the operator’s animation tree to assign several animation sequences to each character like run, fall back, die, etcetera. Finally, with some conditional logic, I made the soldiers react to nearby impacts and explosions, everything within the same TP System. Below you will see the final shot and a simplified example to show how the system works.

Herbst movie airplane bombardment fx shot

RnD reel: Voxel guy explosions

Cebas: what would you say are some of thinkingParticles most functional and powerful operators / condition/ or helpers that you find yourself using over and over again in your vfx work? Do you create blackBoxes ?

David: well, the obvious ones are the Volume Breaker and also the Shape Collision operators, but beyond those I love many of the simple ones or sometimes overlooked ones like the memory node, which I use a lot in more complex systems to keep track of certain values that need to be reused, it’s like having a global variable in a scripted tool. Another one is the “Expression” operator which I use continually to create conditional logic and even simple math operations. Lastly the one that perhaps I use the most is the good old “Random” node.

Regarding the Black Boxes, to be honest I do not use them much. This is more of a personal thing but I believe that first of all, repetition helps me understand my tools more easily, another reason is that I have found that every time I go back to an effect I find more efficient and creative ways to solve them. Of course in production they are tremendously useful and time saving but when I am doing R&D I rather start every system from scratch.

Cebas: in your view, what is your wish for cebas software to achieve that is not currently doing for you?

David: as I said before, TP is a very flexible and robust system, but it may be a bit overwhelming to learn. The software manual is quite cryptic at times so it would be great to see some simple applications or sample files for each operator explained in the manual.

Another wish I had has just been granted with the new TP 6.3 alembic caching. This is a great improvement for cross-platform pipelines.

Cebas: what projects can we expect from you in the future (if you're able to tell us).

David: definitely more VFX for films, nothing that I can mention for now but hopefully I will be posting in the Cebas forums in the near future.

Also, as member of the FX TDT Mentorship with Allan McKay I had an express signup for his upcoming Live Action Series so expect to see lots of demolition with TP soon. I don’t want to get ahead of him, I am sure he will unveil all the details from the course very soon.
 

Thank you so much David for sharing your amazing reels and insights
with Cebas community!