The Finished Product!

Storyline change

It should be noted that I have rewritten the storyline as I felt the previous idea was too convoluted and confusing. I decided to simplify the storyline to something that is easily conveyed to the viewer in a video less than a minute long. I decided upon something simple that everyone would recognise, a force overwhelmed by something dangerous with great power and strength. I feel this was a very good direction to take the storyline as it has provided a very satisfying end product that shows the viewer something interesting and enjoyable.

I feel that considering the time scale I have been using this program, which is obviously incredibly in depth and takes a considerable amount of time and skill to become proficient, the end result of this assignment is very rewarding, and has helped me learn key skills to continue using this program.

Post Production

After finishing the rendering of the video and editing it I decided to create a version which featured added effects to better emphasise what was going on in the video and add a little more immersion for the viewer. The effects were added in using Adobe after effects. The effects were from video copilots action essentials effects pack (http://www.videocopilot.net/products/action2/)  and really give the video a boost in excitement and appeal. I featured a version that had the effects removed so the actual physical movement of the objects is more apparent.

Filming pt3

The following scene shows the radar base fulfilling its true role as a hidden Superweapon!

The rotation of the dome was made entirely within the curve editor for rotational movement. The curve was manipulated to give a constant acceleration until it reached it's top speed. The curve editor was perfect for this scene as it allows precise control over the motion. Had I used the normal keyframing method then the rotation would have built up then stopped again instead of reaching it's maximum speed. Manipulating it's curve in this way ensure smooth uniform movement as the weapon charges up to fire.

the scene after is a duplicate of this scene however the camera is viewing it from directly above to give a sense of the scale and magnitude of this superweapon.


The credits then roll showing the title of the film.

Filming pt2

The Scene in which a guardtower is destroyed was easily my favourite to animate. I ungrouped all the individual pieces of the tower allowing me to set keyframed motion to every single polygon It was made from.

In the scene a shell from one of the tanks strikes the guardtower and its debris are scattered across the scene. First I decided to animate the smaller parts as they would move fastest and require less detail than the heavier parts of the model. Using a mixture of lateral and rotational movement I sent the struts holding the roof on spinning in multiple directions, including head on to the camera. I then had the main part of the guardtower drop down from its position and slam into the ground. I gave it some slight rotation, though not much as it is the heaviest part of the tower and requires a lot of force to move it. I then animated the roof spiralling into the sky before falling back down again and slamming into the rest of the ruin causing it to dislodge the main struts and also knock the main body to the floor.

This looked visually impressive and really captures the more intricate mechanics of how the tower would be destroyed if it was real that might normally be overlooked when animating something being destroyed.

Filming - cont.

The first view of the Radar dome was my first use of a moving camera in the video. The camera only has basic movement at this stage, very slightly panning up to reveal the whole radar base.

The scene afterwards shows the radar dome emerging from beneath the ice. This was achieved by selecting the whole radar base and keyframing it's movement vertically up through the ice.
The following shot carries on from the end of the last and shows the base unfurling into its full form. This was made much easier thanks to the grouping I did earlier. The main base, power generator and aerial are three separate groups making this movement much easier.

The next shot uses moving camerawork. The camera was keyframed to move downwards and rotate to face toward the radar base. During this time the tanks are firing rounds toward the base, the turrets movement was deliberately set to jolt backwards with recoil and slowly move back into position again to really give the feeling of the large caliber weaponry mounted within them. I keyed them so that there was a delay between them whilst firing to show them working as an orderly team rather than firing off shots at random and I think it helps to convey the feeling of an organised military force.

Filming

Whilst "filming" the scenes I used several techniques that I found worked well and others that didn't work so well.

for basic movement I simply keyframed the movement in which worked well as it meant i could move multiple objects at once, such as the convoy of 3 tanks at the start. Each of these tanks had been grouped into body and turret sections to make movement and selecting them much more easy than having to select the many polygons that made up the tanks themselves. This saved me a lot of time when wanting to select the tanks and move them around. I also used this technique for the radar base, and grouped it into 3 large sections to help in the later animation.

I keyframed the movement of the tanks turret simply enough, though it wasn't a case of rotating the turret section as it did not pivot on the correct point. This was corrected by simultaneously moving it laterally as it rotated to keep the pivot point in the centre of the tank. This worked effectively and gave a flawless outcome. These scenes had been filmed using a static camera as it was not required to move.

Creating the Scene

Like any other method of filming or creating a video, before I could shoot I had to create the environment in which the events would occur. I decided to create a vast snowfield with the radar base in the centre.

I firstly created a large plane as the ground surface and gave it around 25 x and y segments. I gave the plane a bump map and displacement value of 10. I was sure to give the map only small geological features as this was not supposed to be a hilly area. I then added a noise modifier to the plane with only small x y and z values to ensure the topography was flowing and rounded rather than jagged and rough. I then added a high resolution snow texture. I had to make sure the resolution was high otherwise it would appear pixelated and unrealistic when viewed closely, such as in the video.
Once I had finalised the appearance of the ground I added in a sky box by creating a large geosphere, halving it using the hemisphere option. I ticked the flip normals box so that I could place a sky texture inside the scene without it showing on the outside. I added some slight self illumination to the skybox to ensure that it would stand out adequately for the scene.

I finally added objects to the scene and then resized them so they were in scale with each other and were the right size for the plane I had created.

Texturing the Models

Before I could place my models in a scene, I needed to give them all textures.




TANK

With the tanks in the scene, I wanted to give them a distinctive military look, that fitted well with the environment they found themselves in. The first thing that I decided upon was a camo pattern. As these tanks were placed in the Arctic, I decided to give them snow camouflage comprising of blacks whites and greys. this pattern was found at the following address: http://www.cartownforums.com/forums/downloads/urban-digital-snow-sample_dOk.jpg

As it is, it would work well however i wanted something with more detail. When applying the regular material to the tanks, it looked slightly bland as it revealed no detail of the texture underneath the layer of camouflage. I edited the texture using photoshop to bring out some of this detail, such as access panels, riveted sheets of armour and other components that would give the model an extra kick of realism and style. These camo textures were applied to the main body of the tank and the turret body. The two textures can be compared below, the original first followed by the edited version.

Other areas of the tank were textured using several custom made textures, comprised of varying shades of grey with similar black detailing to add interest to these areas. Some of the areas that these textures were applied to were the gun barrel, muzzle brake, engine panels on the rear, wheels, tracks and attached items on the back of the tank. By mixing several different textures it makes the model look as though it is made up of many pieces that have different functions and compositions and also made the tank more visible, as camouflage all over would have made the tank hard to see in some shots. I was very pleased with the final outcome, the camo texture looks fantastic and fits in really well with the environment and also looks believable, and interesting to the viewer. The other components look good also, although do not have the same complexity as the camouflaged areas.

Guard Tower

The guard tower was supposed to be a lightweight prefabricated structure that could essentially be "Flat-packed" and shipped off to wherever in the world they might be needed, so would have to be composed of lightweight materials that could be easily sourced nearby. I decided that the roof should be made of wood, along with the struts. The rest of the body would be a lightweight metal for repelling small arms fire, though not impervious to anything larger. I custom made textures for the roof and legs, opting for a light brown with detail lines and white flecks to represent snow or ice covering its surface. This texture looked effective when placed onto the models, the white snow looked particularly effective in the scene, as it really gave the feeling the towers were exposed to the elements.

The other areas of the tower were made using a grey detailed texture to give some surface detail and bring a bit more life to the model.

Radar Base

The radar base was intended to be a bare sterile looking building made from solid sheets of metal and concrete, and as such was not camouflaged in any way. The main dome was given an actual radar dome texture, found at the following url http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/11652574.jpg

This texture wraps entirely around the dome and gives it a nice futuristic mechanical look. The other textures were reused from the other models, which turned out to work well for the heavily armoured outer shell made up of huge metal plates. 

Guard Tower

The guard tower was a relatively easy model to make compared with the other two. It consists of 4 rectangle primitives that are long and thin for the legs, which were then cloned and rotated to the side to serve as support pylons. A rectangle was then aligned on the top of these struts and hollowed out using the Boolean subtract method. 4 smaller rectangle rods were used as supports for the roof which was a simple pyramid shape, matched in width and length of the tower. I added a searchlight using a cylinder primitive and a security obstruction around the bottom half of the tower by stretching out the vertexes on a rectangle primitive. To add more interest to the object I added a plane base with several crates and barrels to fit in with the rest of the scene.

Mood Board

Radar Base part 3

Finally, using the align tool, I placed the radar sphere ontop of the base. In this picture the sphere is smaller than later versions as I decided to resize it so it would draw the viewers attention as it is the main set piece. In later revisions I also added in a small mast to the generator shed.

Radar Base part 2

I used the polygon tool to give the generator shed a more interesting roof, by dragging polygons upwards from the original shape. This gave an interesting contour than the flat section it previously had. I produced the geodesic dome for the radar by creating a sphere, and decreasing the number of faces it had in its structure to give it a distinctly edged feel, I did not want it to be smooth but instead wanted a disjointed sphere.

Radar Base part 1

I started out with two primitives, 2 rectangle blocks and a cylinder which had it’s number of sides decreased to 6 for aesthetic effect. I aligned the cylinder with one of the rectangles and selected the vertexes around the outside top edge, and by pinching them all together I made a rounded edge for where the radar dome will be sat.

I used the line tool to select the second from top section of the main building and dragged it outwards to create an overhanging area around the top of the building. I then used the polygon tool to extend part of the front of the building, then drag it back to produce an access hatch to the radar facility.

Tank part 4

For the final phase of building the tank, I added in various details to make the tank more lifelike and interesting. Firstly I created thin strips out of rectangles and aligned them with the wheels and wheel arches to create the tank treads. I also created headlights for the tank but creating a rectangular box, and then using a Boolean subtract to hollow it out. I then placed two cylinders inside for the lights themselves. The housing for the lights was then placed on the body of the tank, and using the polygon tool, extruded an area to connect the lights to the body of the tank. On the rear of the main hull, I placed two exhaust vents, which were made of thin rectangular primitives, partially placed inside the tank. Supply crates with rollbars were attached to the back of the tank, created using rectangular and cylinder primitives. Finally the tank was given aerials and radio masts using cylinder primitives.

Tank part 3

I now set about creating the gun for the turret. The barrel was made by creating a long thin cylinder and aligning it with the body of the turret. I then placed a smaller cylinder over part of the barrel to create a gas block. I then began to create a pair of smoke canister launchers on either side of the turret, and placed an infrared, visual and thermal sight on the top of the turret.

Tank part 2

Having built the turret primitive I edited the faces vertexes and lines in order to achieve a more aesthetically pleasing look, with curved, yet still armoured looking section on it. I based the shape roughly around that of the M1 Abrams template I was using. The similarities can be seen in the following picture.

Tank part 1

To produce the tank I first found several schematic drawings of the tank showing it from the front back and side. I then placed these images onto flat planes I produced in the workspace. I then lined these up so I could begin scale construction of the tank using primitives. I started by producing a large rectangular block for the main body, and began to extrude the polygons to achieve the correct body shape. I then produced a smaller rectangular primitive for the turret on top of the tank. I moved the vertex’s around the front of the turret to pinch it inward.

I also created the sets of wheels for the tracks to be added in later.

3 models completed!

My 3 models are now completed. I have produced a Radar dome, a Guardtower and a Tank which will all be used in the final production. These models were produced using differing techniques which i will explain further in the following posts.

First Assignment ideas

For the first assignment, we are to produce 3 models using varying techniques. For my 3 models i will produce a tank, which can be copied and placed multiple times in the environment, a heavily fortified guard tower, and either a warehouse or the large radar array depending on time constraints. As this is entirely new ground for me, i will be using the difficulty in making the tank as a guide to how hard other parts of the scene may be.

James Bond Scene ideas

My idea for this assignment is a remote radar base, which houses a new superweapon prototype far from the prying eyes of foreign surveillance and espionage agents. The environment will be primarily frozen tundra, and will feature warehouses, vehicles and a large radar array.