CGI | Sci-fi Art

New modelling work I've been doing for the film Nem Gate.

 
Modular corridor sets.  Client specifically asked if the corridor could be kept as modular as possible so that it can be possibly reused or set up differently, depending on the scene's requirements.


Conceptualizing some technical control consoles.  Modelling has gotten quick enough that I can concept out work in complex 3D in much shorter periods of time than it used to require.  Usually is good if you can give the client some choice in the matter.  Whichever isn't chosen, I will store in my own library so I can easily incorporate it into my own work.


Work still very much in progress on the scanning machine.  Notice the lack of supports for the scanner bars and the lack of symmetry on some parts.  Still work to be done.

Items which require interaction with real life people are extremely touchy and need to be done pretty much according to how the original plates were filmed.  This can be one of the most time consuming aspects of the process.

Dan

Scale comparison between the Palatine class SSC Adamant and the Sovereign class from Star Trek.

Sovereign Class model: Paul Trenkler

Palatine class model: Me

I finally reached the point where I can put my own work next to Trenkler's models without embarrassment.  Progress, I guess.

Dan

I guess the ol' project isn't quite as dead as I thought.  I recently received a phone call from an old client of mine, Seth Deming.  During the course of our discussion, he unknowingly (I think) gave me some encouragement to keep going on Plagarus, and I guess I took it to heart.  So, here is some extra work I've done.

Here is the run-down, nitty-gritty:

I was never pleased with the opening of Part 2 as it stood.  This was the main reason I never got around to posting it.  It was dreadful.  The audio quality (something persistently pointed out by the viewers for Part 1) was about as bad as it could be, yes, even worse than Part 1.  The voice acting was rushed and didn't have enough nuance and the scene involving the protagonist and the snake robot repair salesman, Ackla, was just not what I wanted it to be.  In fact, I consistently cringed in horror as I watched it and often skipped it because I couldn't bring myself to endure the spectre of its very existence.  I could never bring myself to the inevitable embarrassment of having to upload such a piece in its current state.

So I've decided to bite the bullet and redesign the set and completely redo the entire opening scene of Part 2.

Here is some progress on Ackla's apartment set, about a day's work so far:




The challenge with designing sets for this particular movie is that the protagonist, Lethgoshis, is almost 8 feet tall, whereas the rest of the characters are about average human height. This presents challenges in designing the sets, as many of the doorways have to be big enough to accommodate the height of Lethgoshis while at the same time make sense stylistically.  Also, camera angles have to be carefully contrived whenever Lethgoshis appears in a shot with another, shorter character.  (I call this challenge of putting two characters of greatly varied height in the same shot "Chewbacca-Yoda Syndrome".)

In this case, this apartment complex services a number of alien races, and so, I imagine that the building designers probably tried to accommodate as many species as they could. I can get away with the ultra tall door here, but elsewhere, it may present a problem.

And here is a refined flip/jump that I'm trying to get a rather ungainly Lethgoshis to accomplish.


I'm completely redoing most of the work I've done so far on Part 2, simply because my skills have improved as well as the tools in Blender have gotten more sophisticated, allowing new techniques to be used. Therefore, Part 2 will hopefully be a great improvement over the original version, as well as slightly longer. I'll be rerecording the dialogue as well, once I get a useful microphone.  This will be the most expensive thing I could do in the movie.

Dan

Tutorial on how I do the panel lines and greeble details in the various works I've done lately.

And the space port crawler on a turntable.



Dan

Work continues.  Got a lot done on the crawler today.  Gotta think up a name for 'er.  She's a rather cute gal, and I'm falling in love.  Perhaps a contest to see who can come up with the best name for the crawler is in order? :D

Still got a lot of work to do on it, though.

PS: Yes, the tracks DO work and are able to be animated correctly.  Thanks to the tutorial by Greg Zaal.  Shout out to Greg for his awesome tute on that front. Linky.

And I got a little done on the space port itself.  Making preparations for the large doorway, complete with huge doors.  Need a great design idea for them.  Trawling the 'web for ideas on that front.  After that, we're onto the inside and finishing up detailing the grounds outside.  Probably going to put up a few defenses, like laser turrets or shield generators or something, along with the obligatory science fiction shipping crates (they probably explode when shot).  We'll see how those turn out.


Request was made to show how I make the lines on the geometry.  I'll try my best to get a tute up next week, as I will have the whole house to myself during that time, depending on how much time I get between the two clients I'll be working for that week.

Have a safe weekend, everyone.

Dan

End of day one.

Dan

Decided to build a spaceport to house all of these spaceships I've been working on.  Poor things never get a chance to sit and refuel.




Dan

I'm a second generation small business owner.  My father owned a cleaning business back in Maine.  One of the things he taught me was professional pride is a healthy thing and that if someone doesn't take pride in their work, its quality will suffer.

My previous job as a house painter here in Florida a few years ago helped drive this lesson home for me.  The owners of the company weren't afraid to absorb cost if it meant that it would save their company reputation or add to it in some way.  They say that they lived by an old Hebrew proverb, and I believe them. 



I finally learned this lesson first-hand with my own business.  And especially in the laboratory set I recently built for Nem Gate. Lesson learned: Don't be afraid to absorb cost for a customer if it means getting the job done to your satisfaction.

As it was, the client did not indicate he was happy with the completed set, but was unable to spend any more time or money on getting it to spec.  This left me with a conundrum: do I want to go the business-first route and put out a product neither the customer or I was happy with, and potentially could lead to embarrassment if it was released to the public? Or do I go the artist-integrity route and absorb a chunk of money and make sure the final product is up to snuff?

I chose the artistic-integrity route, I guess.  I can only hope it pays off in the end.  If not, I will have to be content with the fact that the client was happy, and I'm more satisfied with the results, though there's always room for improvement.





Make the day of death better than the day of birth.  When you're dead, you can't enjoy the money.  But if you leave a good reputation and people speak and think well of you after you're gone, well, then I guess it's all well and good.  I'm never completely satisfied with any of my work, anyway.

Dan

A large machine for Nem Gate. Work on this thing gave me a headache!  It was very difficult to get the ideas flowing on this.  But in the end, I think the result was okay for the most part.  I just wish it hadn't been such an ordeal for the client and I to try and drag it into existence.

It wasn't the client's fault, mind you.  He's always understanding, patient and cooperative.  It was me, struggling to actually see how to make it work.  The room came relatively easy, but I do rooms all the time.  It's become second nature.  The frame and the reactor, on the other hand.  Well, I've got to work on my skills in that area, I guess.


Even then, however, it goes to show you that even with years of experience, if the idea doesn't want to come, it's not going to.  Artist's block can come from stuff like family or personal issues, stress from having to help loved ones, just not getting enough sleep one day, your blood sugar dipped too low, or sometime as simple as someone cut you off in traffic.

Resistance immediately sets in at that point.  If you're an artist with unfinished work on your hard drive or in your studio somewhere, you've experienced resistance.  And resistance, which is when you're working on a project and lose interest in it or it just won't go any more and you want to give up, is the worst thing for a professional artist.  We're under contract to finish a work for someone. We're getting paid for this.  We don't finish it, we don't eat.  We don't eat, we get irritable! 

There are exercises, they say, which help with combating resistance, but in my experience, it literally comes down to just forcing yourself to sit at the computer and start making geometry. Any geometry.

So, I plug in "chill" on Pandora Radio, and get out my tea and a few snacks and start working.  I add a greeble here, or a panel there.  Then it just starts coming, but it's always a struggle to get art to thrive.  Art for me requires peace and clear thoughts.  Nowadays, those things are getting rarer and rarer.  So, we adapt as best we can to the changing times and hope for the best.

Dan

Dan