Making Of

A behind the scenes look at the film. As part of the submission we had to produce a 'making of' film documenting the production process. A few folk have expressed interest in seeing it so I've uploaded it.

This was made right at the end of production when I was pretty worn out, so much as I tried, I don't sound very alive. Maybe I'll hire a narrator to re-do it...

Explosion in Progress

Went back to work on the explosion scene tonight. This bit was painstakingly drawn frame by frame, with a little blur and glow effects added after. Still some other elements to add to the explosion so this isn't the final thing.

B*tch Slap

Scene 2 Playblast

Just need to sort the textures and lighting and then this baby's getting rendered!

Trooper 3d shots from Rob Connor on Vimeo.

After that I just need to composite the 2D animation to the window on the ship and then add engine and cannon fire effects!

Scene 4 Finished

For real this time. First scene to be cleaned up on paper.

Really not sure how much camera shake to add to this scene. On a small scale like this, it almost seems like too little, but on a big scale it seems a bit extreme...

Explosion Shockwave

Having never properly animated an explosion before I decided today was going to be the day I started working on it. And I've ended up spending all my time on a new idea of having a shockwave element.

Ignore the crummy explosion in this video and just enjoy the first shockwave test.

EDIT: Okay, at that quality you can't really see anything. I'll upload a better quality version once I've animated the explosion itself.

RE-EDIT: It'll be interesting to experiment with the sound for this scene. I guess the sound of the explosion shouldn't be heard until the shockwave hits the camera (which isn't obvious here due to the quality and not enough camera shake).

Pirate Flag Animation Test 2

Again, the flag motion is driven by a robotic arm which will be holding the bottom right corner.

Pirate Flag Animation Test

It's a flag in the vacuum of space, I know. That's why there'll be a wee robotic arm at the bottom right corner waving it.

EDIT: I think I'll make the background of the flag a little lighter so it's more visable against a space background.

Cannon Ball Smoke Update

I realised I hadn't uploaded this test before. It's an updated test of modifying particle smoke generated in Maya to help blend it with 2D animation. You can see the previous test and the concept art in this post.

BALLS - In stunning 3D!

The beginnings of another 2D/3D blended shot, with help from Paul for the 3D. When the balls are shot from the right angles and toon shaded I'm hoping it will work well.

«Spoiler warning! Click 'read more' below to see the video»

Read more...

Line tests

Some of the stuff I've done the past three days. No in-betweens yet.

Impact

Hello to all my blog buddies! Just stopping in to announce that my dissertation is finally finished and submitted, and none too soon! I can now finally devote some more effort to my film. So, expect more of this in the near future!

(No inbetweens yet.)

Cannon Ball Smoke Test 2

Paul and I have been tweaking the previous test animation and have come up with this. It's looking much better. A lot closer to the concept drawing. Didn't use it as reference mind you so the colour's a bit different.

Concept:

Cannon Ball Smoke Test

Paul and I have been working for ages (or half an hour) on turning my 2D drawing into 3D. The cannon ball is going to be travelling and spinning in slow motion in the shot, so animating the gas/plasma it vents by hand would be tricky. Here's our first CG test...

Here's Paul's particle smoke:

And here's it again after I played with it in After Effects:

It's early days but we're on the way to getting a good 2D-style effect. I've devised a way to make it fade out like the picture, and Paul's working on getting it wavier.

Trooper Animation Test

My opening shot. Spoiler warning.

Better quality version available here.

A concept piece, one of my ideas for a title sequence. This would then fade into the opening shot.

At this quality you can't see the stars, but when it fades at the end it should be a space scene. Might need to tweak that.

2D/3D and Effects Animation

A few bits and pieces I've been working on. There's nothing final here, just tests and animatic material.