CGI | Sci-fi Art

Started texturing phase on the freighter. It's looking a bit worse for wear.




Have to fix the center parts of the hull plating where there are mirror artefacts in the texture mapping, as well as finish the landing gear and the texturing on some parts, like the wings and greeble sections, but otherwise, it's looking pretty far along, now, I think.

Dan

So, this is a behind-the-scenes video of the vocal session which happened on Saturday afternoon.  The equipment and engineering expertise came from my friend Danny from EarShock.com.  Many thanks for your help, Danny.

The video is not professionally done, but at least it gives an idea what the sessions are like for recording the dialogue for these things, and how we do it.  Sometimes it does get silly, and it almost always feels weird doing these characters and acting like this, especially when playing a scene where the characters are supposed to be in horribly perilous situations and you're standing in your bedroom.

Hope everyone is doing awesome.

Dan

This is the kind of storyboard I use.  Perhaps I may have a future as a doctor... or some kind of cryptologist somewhere forging secrets... if the only person you need to unlock said secrets is myself, I suppose.

The little sticky note on my monitor should be an indication why this is so rushed.  With four concurrent projects, all getting behind, it is unlikely I'll have a lot of time to work on this animation project.  But I'd really like to try my hand at effects and explosions and stuff instead of just static spaceship designs, so I decided to start with the first 3 shots of the animation and storyboard them out (roughly, obviously).  Perhaps something will get done.

Hope everyone is doing awesome.

Dan

With work for one client almost finished, I might have some time to work on something I've had in mind for a few weeks, now.  An attempt at doing a massive effects piece, 1 minute long.



Requirements: Better computer.  I'm hoping I'll be able to do a modest upgrade to my personal workstation shortly.  Also, I will need to build the following items: the bridge of the Retreat.  The drone mentioned.  The interior room of the unnamed crew member, and the observatory.

The drone and the interior room will be easy for the most part.  The observatory and the bridge will be difficult.  The most challenging aspects will be the character animation and the simulations, which will involve a lot of bullet physics for the debris and smoke simulation for the explosions.

It'd be grand if I could do it, though.  We'll see.

Dan

Hey all,

So, just a sending out a message to all the friends who follow me on this site.

I haven't updated this page in a while because I have been inundated with work for customers who have requested privacy.  As such, I have not had time to produce any of my own work and so have had no content to put on my website.  I'll try to get some stuff up soon, including another tutorial on CGCookie.com, this time a 3 part series on how to create science fiction interiors quickly in Blender.

Hopefully everyone is doing okay.

Thanks,
Dan

CGCookie asked me to do another tutorial for them.  Here it is.  This one ended up much better, so I'm pleased.

Hopefully it helps everyone out.


http://cgcookie.com/blender/2014/08/12/create-laser-beam-blender/

Please note: You'll need a paid membership to CG Cookie to download the files.  I didn't know this when I made the tutorial, and so the tutorial reflects that ignorance on my part.  But at least it gives an idea on how to do the effect, and hopefully everyone can get something out of it.

I'll see about releasing the laser cannon mesh on BlendSwap, though.

I guess I must have done something right, though, because they've asked me to do another tutorial for them.  Let's see how this one goes, now that I've learned from the mistakes on this one!

Best regards,
Dan

A few years back, I wrote a movie called Armranath.  It's still the best thing I've ever written, and it's not bad, as movie scripts go.  It'll probably never be made, but I might just put it on Deviant Art one day, just so anyone who cares enough to trudge through a 2 hour script can read it.

Anyway, almost all of the action takes place aboard an aging space freighter captained by a middle aged Thrassi man named Seranno Nero.  Since he owned the ship at the time, he named it the Nero's Fire.

I've had a few iterations of the ship over the years, but nothing I was really satisfied with.  I've been working on this on my free weekend time (which isn't much), and finally, now that I've got my computer up and running again, I've gotten my chance to show how she looks so far.

Nero's Fire WIP





Obviously, still a long ways to go, but I really like her.  She's beautiful in my eyes. :)

Dan

So, it finally happened.  My patched and sputtering old Ubuntu installation finally croaked.

And with it, unfortunately, went probably 5 gigabytes of data into the netherworld, including an entire project for a client...


On the plus side, the tutorial for CGCookie is about to work out, I suppose.  We'll see what they say.  I had so many technical issues with that thing, that's what preceded the need to upgrade.  In the upgrade, however, I failed to save every file...oh well.

So, it was clearly about time to upgrade my Ubuntu. Now, I'm getting used to 14.04, trying to figure out what I will do to repair the damage, and languishing in horror at the lost data, realizing I'm about to do hours of work for free.

Dan

Finished the public version of the ship.  Now, onto the private version for the client.

It is available here.  If you know anyone who'd like a space fighter, give a shout out and direct them to my storefront on Turbo Squid.  I'd greatly appreciate any help anyone can give.

Product ID: 835427










Hope everyone is doing great.

Thanks,
Dan

Finishing her up.  The devil is in the details, so they say.  I'd agree.

Dan

Been working on a project for a client who has asked for a space fighter design based loosely off of old Soviet era combat aircraft.  Decided to do a little adjustments, but it's based off an old MiG and other planes.








Still have to add the landing gear and some appropriate space-y looking weapons.

Hope everyone is doing awesome.

Dan

Worked on getting the tutorial finished up.  Just have to review the manuscript and then record the action.

In the meantime, please enjoy this little preview of what can be accomplished with this system!



Hopefully everyone has a safe weekend.

Thanks,
Dan

About a month ago, I received a request from CGCookie.com to make a Blender tutorial.  So, after a bit of deliberation with Jonathan at Blender Cookie, we decided to make a tutorial on how to do laser beam cannons in Blender, using the Cycles render engine.

Today, I started work on the tutorial by building the model which will be used with the tute.  A working turret, fully set-up and rigged with empties so that it always points towards its target.





From here, the tutorial will start with how to make the laser beam effect, as seen in this video:


Obviously, this is an older video, so the technique will be improved.

Perhaps in the future, I hope to have another tutorial which will show how to design and build a turret and how to rig it properly for use in this fashion, but for now, hopefully everyone will enjoy the model.

The tutorial is still about a month away, however.  Still working on it.  Never thought I'd be tapped by CGCookie to do a tutorial for them, though.  It's really a cool deal.

Have a great day, everyone.

Thanks,
Dan

Public version of the apartment set from Plagarus Part 3 is available here.







Hope everyone enjoys it and that someone finds some use for it.

 Sci Fi Apartment Scene 2

Thanks,
Dan

Nearing completion of the public version of the apartment.  Into the detailing phase, which involves fixing up loose ends here and there and dropping props into it.  Once done with that, I'm going to start fleshing out the personal details for the Plagarus version.






Hopefully everyone is doing awesome.

Dan

Still working on the details of the main area of the apartment.  After this, it's creating a door and atrium area, and furnishing and detailing the bedroom loft section.



After I'm finished the publicly available version, I'll put in some additional details, mostly consisting of personal decorations which are specific to the film, and then start blocking out the animation.  Fun times.

Have a happy week, everyone.

Dan

Working on Part 3 of Plagarus.  All of the action this time takes place in a single set, Padoen Titus' apartment.  Working on it, but it's still a lonnnnng way from being finished.




Still have to add a bunch of stuff, like furnishings.  Have to add some futuristic couches, and a table and some nice chairs.  It's going to be tough, because this is supposed to be the bachelor pad of a disoriented and confused young man without much sense of tidiness.  Making messes in 3D art is actually harder than making clean, pristine places.  Oh well.

Hope everyone is doing awesome.

Dan