The last two shots I had to complete for the ROAM film needed muzzle flashes from another artist first. So once they had arrived, I got to work on adding the blood. These two shots required some rotoscoping first since there were other characters going in front. This could be a pretty rough mask since the shots are so quick and the flashes distract.
I used the same technique to create the blood as the other shots. Combining VFX assets and particle simulator. This create a realistic dynamic to the blood. The second shot got approved first time, but the second one has been asked to be made more gory, to make the blood spread much further.
I'll be doing this in the coming weeks along with other shots since I have been asked to take on more shots with blood effects because they like what I've done so far so that is nice to hear, and should be good experience.
After choosing my shots, I received the footage from the producer. 2 of the 4 shots that I was taking on, had to have muzzle flashes added first which were being done by someone else, so I did the other 2 first.
These both involved a soldier in a headlock being shot at and I had to add bullet hits, blood and sparks. The predominant effect used was particle world to create dynamic blood effects. This let me move the emitter to cause the blood to react and move realistically with the momentum of the face wound. I then applied a vector distort blur to this to avoid it looking like particles and more like it's clumping together.
I also used particle world for the sparks in the background along with flashes of glow. This came out pretty nicely I think. The part that I wasn't as proud of is the bullet wound on the face. I think this doesn't look realistic and could have been done with more texture and bloody wetness for the gore and realism.
Overall though, I think these first two shots have come out nicely. I submitted these two shots for review on Frameio and they both were approved first time so that is really good, I'm happy with that.
I recently received an email from a film producer based in LA. He is part of a team creating a low budget sci-fi action film called ROAM. He had seen my showreel on Vimeo and wanted to get me involved on the project. There are many VFX artists from the US and UK working on many shots. He sent me a sheets document for me to choose shots that I would take on. For now I am just taking on 4 shots containing bullet shots, muzzle flashes and blood hits and splatters.
This is a quite exciting opportunity and while I may not end up getting paid for it (based on how the film lands) it is still a good thing to be involved in and is still a credit. I will start working on these shots in the next few weeks on weekends and evenings. The producer is very understanding about the fact that I am also working on my own film at the same time.
