CGI | Sci-fi Art

A good evening spent with friends also produced much more amazing results than I ever anticipated.  The quality of the vocals (there is a comparison between the original Part I dialogue and the new, unedited, Part I recording at the bottom of this post), was far more superior than I ever imagined possible.  This was despite the fact that the environment we were recording in was still less than ideal.

Thanks go to #1 Dan for his enormous help and expertise.  It's great to have someone around who knows what they're doing.

What voice actors stare at for hours on end

Danny's a Mac guy. We shall call him Mac Danny from now on

Mac Danny.  The hat picture is the only picture we've got

The nameless voice actor, of questionable taste in hats.  The sign next to his head may indicate what's usually on his mind

We decided to use a Blue Baby Bottle microphone.  I admit, I was incredulous at first when I saw it, but it turned out to capture the voice much, much better than my own microphone, which was used to record Part I.

We got all but three lines done on the written script (the last part still needs to be written out). We're aiming for this Sunday to pick up the last few lines. There are a few issues here and there, but overall, the recording was surprisingly rich and clean.  We averaged about three takes per line of dialogue, with four characters, all aliens, being represented.  The quality is a vast improvement over the previous Part I recording.  Take a listen.


Hope you're all having a great time.

Dan

Well, normally I can't show my commercial work that I've done with the public, as typically I'm under a non-disclosure clause.  But I've received some leeway in this to show that while I'm not updating this site, I'm indeed working.

These shots are from my interior modelling I've done for an independent film called Nem Gate. 

I'm just a modeller on this, so I'm showing my work only (without final materials).

The third model, the large lobby, was a model I received partially built, but I changed it enough that it barely resembles what it used to look like.  The only things that remain from the original model are the pillars, part of the exterior wall and the floating sculpture in the center of the room.

Please bear in mind that all of this is definitely work in progress, as the textures and materials haven't been added in these images.  Also, additional changes to the geometry may be made sometime in the future to some of these models as the director changes his mind or needs some object moved for continuity's sake.


Additionally, I've got some work being hung in Museum Victoria in Melbourne, Australia.  My work ended up being featured in an exhibit they're putting up about the future of space flight.  The exhibit isn't up, yet, I don't think.  It should be up sometime next year, they tell me.

Always thought an artist had to die before his work was put up in a museum. I don't know if I'll ever be able to make it there to see it in person, but if anyone ever is in Melbourne, please stop by the museum and take a picture of the exhibit for me, if you can.  I'd really appreciate it!

There is also more work than this, but I've spent a lot of time on this post already, so I'll let you all go.  Happy Blending!

Dan

Misanthropic: (adj.)

1. Of, or relating to a misanthrope
2. Marked by a hatred or contempt for humankind 

Retreat: (v.)

1. (a) The act or process of withdrawing, especially from what is dangerous, difficult, or disagreeable; (b) The process of receding from a position or state attained
2. A place of privacy or safety: REFUGE

A good old classic space scene with a spaceship, the Misanthropic Retreat, Lethgoshis's private spacecraft from Plagarus.  A spaceship is a great way to get away from it all, isn't it?

Dan

Working on a movie by yourself can be pretty daunting.  The biggest problem seems to be discouragement, believe it or not.  The general quality of all aspects of the film seem to suffer when one person has to work on basically everything.  And when you're a perfectionist who must send stuff out without being up to your standards...

Unfortunately, it actually may take more time and effort to coordinate with others than to simply do it all myself.  In the end, Plagarus won't be the best movie out there, but it'll be the best I can produce in the time frame we're looking at. :)

Just one more shot of the conversation scene in the Plagarus Part Two.  Then we're onto a nice, fairly easy musical interlude.  Hopefully it works well.


New rendering techniques have made the rendering times much faster.  For instance, the original Plagarus scenes were extremely noisy due to the fact that I had to use CPU rendering, while keeping render times reasonable.  Now that I've got a pretty good graphics card, GPU rendering has allowed render times of less than a quarter what it used to be on the i7.

Also, I've discovered that I don't need to have the background geometry involved in many scenes.  The shot above is taken with a simple equirectangular background image.  The advantage of this is that there is nearly instant rendering time for background elements, as well as the camera can pan, letting the background image move with it.

The downside, of course, is that it's almost impossible to completely merge it with the real background geometry when rendered for real.  So, the room will appear slightly different between shots where geometry is rendered and it's just the character in front of  a backdrop.


Also, there is the benefit of having better DOF effects in Cycles than before.  This is a huge advantage as well.  Additionally, something new since the release of the previous installment of Plagarus is motion blur.  This is a particularly useful technique which greatly increases the believability of the animation.

The downside? The next installment of the movie is probably going to start looking visually different from Part One.  This is going to be an issue which may involve me having to go back and re-render the entire thing.

There was a chance I had to do this anyway, as I was hoping technology would advance enough to allow me to render a 1080p version of the movie.  Right now, it's in 720p.

Hopefully one day this film will be done.

Here's hoping, anyway.

Dan

One of my favorite things to do is character development.  I've been thinking of a short film that will happen after Plagarus.

Drannica. =) Yes, almost all of my movie titles are just one word.  And they're usually planets, for some reason. =D

Some characters. (And a couple of familiar faces, if you've seen Plagarus!)

The bridge is nearly done!


Now working on some other features of it.  Hopefully will be able to upload to the storefronts soon.  Maybe it'll sell?




Then we'll be moving on to the captain's cabin.  Star Trek calls it the captain's ready room.  Which is an interesting name, if you think about it, considering a ready room is where pilots get prepared for flights on aircraft carriers.

Have an awesome day, everyone.

Dan

I've been working on converting my two favorite spaceships of all time into Blender Cycles. =D

First, the Sacrilege! This is, by far, the baddest ship in Eve Online, as far as I'm concerned. It is also, obviously, the inspiration behind the Adamant. =D It makes the Adamant look silly and amateurish, as far as I can see, but oh well.

The model was imported from the game itself. It's been a bit of a challenge getting all the textures and whatnot to look right, and I've still got a little bit to go before I get it perfect. Obviously, I didn't make it, and it's really got no place here for the most part, but I just thought I'd put it up to show off that I haven't been completely lazy. =)


The second is something I've been working on for a LONG time. This is the model Paul Trenkler made of the Enterprise-E, the awesomest Enterprise, by far. =D It was originally modelled in Rhino, and then saved in .max format. I had to download a trial version of 3DSMax just to get to open the file. And then to export it took a bit of tinkering, which I actually can't remember even how I did.

Then, of course, there was importing it into Blender. Keeping in mind, this is back in the day when Blender was still around 2.3x, and I was using a Pentium 4, it took all night to convert the .3ds file into .blend. In the morning, imagine how thrilled I was to see Paul Trenkler's Sovereign, a ship model I had drooled over for a long time, sitting there, ready for me to play with. =)

Then came the arduous process of texturing the thing. This is the result (in Blender Internal):


And here is the Cycles version, which, in turn, calls on me to once again, completely re-texture!


Finally, since I feel that scale comparisons make things more interesting, and more real, here is a scale comparison of the Sacrilege from Eve Online and the Sovereign class starship from Star Trek.



What do I like to see in spaceship design? I like sleek, masculine designs, which are unorthodox, and are powerful looking.  However, I believe that all machinery and vehicles ought also to express an artistic flair to them.  The finest cars, I feel, down through history have been those that stand out stylistically--smart, beautiful lines and fascinating curves which look good from many angles.  I appreciate Lamborghini more than Ferrari, not because they are necessarily better built cars, but because I like the more sinister edge the Lambo designs have.

To me, the Sacrilege and the Sovereign represent the pinnacle of spaceship style for much the same reasons:

• Outstanding. They are not ordinary rocket ships.  They are not ordinary saucers, and they do not follow the general conventions of general spaceship design.  The designers realized a true, space-borne vessel can look like anything, since there is no atmosphere or any other like encumbrances which stand in the way.  

• Visually Interesting. They started with bizarre extremes: the Sacrilege's deeply dipping nose. The Sovereign's extremely long and thin profile.  These things feel daring, as neither of these design elements are particularly necessary and are not the first thing you think of when building a spaceship.  But they define the sense of the craft, and give it the marked personality which sticks with you.

• Menacing. Both ships look threatening.  They look as if they could hurt you, and you wouldn't want to be facing their might head on. One of the most powerful visuals in Star Trek movie history is this shot:

           
Someone's in for a world of hurt. Aren't you glad it's not you? When these ships are angry, you know it.  They bristle with power and menace.

In the end, this is what I love about these particular designs of starships, and what I would love to be able to produce on my own, had I the talent of the artists who designed the Sacrilege and the Sovereign.

Dan