View Full Version : space footage from 2148
This little project has been swimming around in my head since the early 80's. It's a sci-fi idea that I have nurtured, changed, abandoned for over 20 years! I once thought it was dead in the water, but then some fool invented the PC and made it affordable for me to realize the creation of this old dream. While the rest of my buddies went camping and fishing this long weekend (in Canada) I hunkered down in front of my trusty PC and spent two of the three days tring to get the look right for the cgi in this project. I'm not there yet! I want to create live action footage with carefully designed sets that make us believe we're on the flight deck of a deep space tug/transport essentially. Now assuming I get that stuff right, I don't want the exterior shots of the ship to look silly and break the spell of the film if you will. So...In the link I'm providing is the state of the art 4mb clip that I slaved all weekend to produce. Cuold you fine people please take a look at it and give me all the reasons you can as to why it still looks silly!....Thanks:)
LINK (http://www.visuflex.net/flics/ride.mov)
Isaac_Brody
08-07-2006, 10:42 PM
The motion of the ship, camera, and planet seem unnatural. Why would the planet be moving that fast? I think the ship should have some type of glowing light thruster in the back. And the lighting from offscreen right is odd. The lighting stands out and I think it should be much more subtle. I don't think I should be aware of it.
So, recap, planet still or very little movement, ship with glowing thrusters, and less light from the right.
Oh yeah, how about a little motion blur too?
Jared Meyer
08-07-2006, 11:20 PM
I think Isaac's suggestions are spot-on.
Also, (I had to do the research for another short) you can see how the pros do this exact scene by plugging in Star Wars: Episode III (Probably any of the movies, but that's the one I used.) Almost every single chapter on the dvd begins with a ship flying towards a planet. Might be helpful.
-Jared
Kirk Gillock
08-07-2006, 11:41 PM
Did you change the video since Isaac's comments? I didn't see the planet rotating at all. But thruster lights would look cool (and maybe a lens flare from them).
It looked really good to me. I'm impressed with how much you've learned since your first 3d stuff posted here. Keep building, Mino. :)
EDIT: Oh, I get it now. I didn't look at it as if the planet was moving. I saw it as if the camera and ship were moving. Sorry. But I still think the motion is fine.
Thanks for the suggestions. I should have mentioned the motion is a known flaw. I just put the elements in the scene and moved them where ever I was more concerned with the look of it. You would never have known that because I failed to tell you. As it is right now, I was imagining that I was on another ship heading past the planet while the crazy bugger in the other ship flew right under me. The engine glow is another known flaw or not...Once this craft is up to speed, the main engines go off line at this time only small course correction jets/rockets are used, and, (because mino doesn't know how to make a believeable engine glow yet) Motion blur is a good idea to play with and I have been watching lots of footage of believable ships during rendering and seeing that models seem to produce the best ships out there. Thanks guys.
Barth Gimble
08-08-2006, 12:22 AM
....the reflective light on the surface of the ship never changes....
Brandon Rice
08-08-2006, 12:29 AM
motion blur... stagger the movements so they aren't the same speed, nor pass each other at the mid-point of frame...
BLUESPIDER
08-08-2006, 01:45 AM
It almost looked like set minatures.
Isaac_Brody
08-08-2006, 06:52 AM
It's good modelling though. Much better than I can scrape up, and you spared the fish.
thanks for all the comments and suggestions, i will have a new clip up incorporating some of your ideas in a few hours even thruster glow since isaac has agreed to pay for the huge amounts of fuel those babies use....:)
The Machinist
08-08-2006, 03:57 PM
Is your ship design a little homage to 2001 and 2010's Discovery?
A little homage that's exactly what it is and has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that spheres and boxes are easier to create than weird convoluted shapes that everyone else seems to use!
The Machinist
08-08-2006, 04:07 PM
A little homage that's exactly what it is and has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that spheres and boxes are easier to create than weird convoluted shapes that everyone else seems to use!
hahaha. Touché buddy.
Well...Everything was going OK till the damned throttles stuck wide open and melted the ship...WTF. Oh well back to engine dynamics 101
LINK (http://www.visuflex.net/flics/ride2.mov)
Greggl
08-08-2006, 04:25 PM
Thruster lighting.. ideally something 'new' that we havent seen before...
You may also want to bounce back some light from the planet onto the
under-belly of the ship in the pallette of the planet. Atmosphere on
the planet'd be great too.
The fast movement of the planet in relation to the ship/camera also blows
your sense of scale. Slow the whole thing down by 50% and you'll more
than quadruple your 'scale'.
Anything else, I mean would you like the big tree on the bottom of the planet moved up towards the middle or....LOL! yes I'm with you on the thruster lighting and am trying to create something new there. Planet atmosphere, I'm working on that too but my understanding of 3d max is less than a chimps understanding of a ball point pen! I'll try the 50% slowdown on the planet on next render. Thanks a bunch for your suggestions:)