The Plagaran Sandstorm of '98

In a once-in-a-lifetime photo, the Great Plagaran Sandstorm of 1,898 M.E. is depicted as it is about to engulf King Valley, the only visual documentation of the event known to exist.

Until its destruction in 2,005 M.E., the planet Plagarus was a center of macabre activity.  Serving as the graveyard for the Thrassi Republic for over a 1,000 years, it fell into disuse when its star, Plagara Majora, began to enter its final phase of life.  Things rapidly deteriorated for the once grassy world.  Its temperature increased exponentially, driving the local ecosystems into mass extinction as grasslands turned to dust-bowls, and seas turned to vast, empty chasms.

A grisly practice of grave robbing ensued as looters descended on the dying world, stripping the billions of graves there of any commodities they could find.  Most of the grave robbers congregated around King Valley, which was the place where the Thrassi kings were interred in elaborate tombs set into the carved walls of the valley.  Riches of untold value were reputed to be buried there.

On a spring day, in 1,898 M.E., an epic sandstorm engulfed King Valley for almost a day. Estimated to be two kilometers tall, it was evidently created by powerful solar-generated updrafts and apocalyptic atmospheric turbulence.  The result was the deaths of about 200 grave robbers, consigning the men to the very cemetery they were pillaging.  For over a century afterward, up until the day the planet was finally obliterated by its dying star, the stories of the Storm of '98 were nearly legend.  For a long time afterward the storm's effects were immortalized in local sector idiom.  To “reap the sandstorm” meant to suffer terribly painful consequences, often followed by gruesome death, due to short-sighted greed.

This image depicts the last moments of the infinitesimally small, unseen men who died clutching the trinkets and artifacts they so craved.  They were surrounded by colossal monuments which seemed to frown down upon them as if in scorn for their greedy avarice, heedless of the warnings of impending doom, a testament to the irony of their deaths on a cemetery planet.

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Scene modelled and rendered in Blender 2.75, with Cycles. Post Processing: Blender, After Effects CC 2016, Gimp.

Was done in several passes. The ground had both a color and Z pass, as did the clouds. The two ships were later composited in AE.

This scene was designed to test out Blender Cycles' volumetric rendering. There are some issues with it (not withstanding incredibly long render times), but the results weren't too shabby. The sandstorm was created by two models, both using several Displacement modifiers using simple cloud textures. It wasn't too bad.

I'm not thrilled with the image, but ran out of time on it. Hopefully people like it and the story accompanying it.

Thanks,

Dan

New Opening Logo and King Valley Previs

Hey everyone.  Oodles of new stuff coming down the pipeline.  Today, with the move to 1080p, the King Valley scene from Plagarus was just not doing it.  So, decided to bite the bullet and rebuild the scene from scratch using better materials and geometry.  The WIP results of this set so far:

Also, my company logo is about 5 years old, so it's time for a little change and some sprucing up.  It's not terribly great, but it's an improvement, I hope.

As usual, all made in Blender.  But the post processing is now done in After Effects CC 2016.  The lens flare in the logo is provided by a plugin from Video Copilot.

Don't be afraid to watch in 1080p! It's quite a bit nicer. :)

Dan

Plagarus: Part One

Yay! Part One of the short film Plagarus is done! =D  Starting work on Part Two.

Hope you all have a great week!

Dan

Final Render and Composite

Rendering the final shot now!  Things are shaping up.

Now I am passing most of the shots through the make-look-good-erator, which is basically a node setup that adds bloom effects and other nifty, sneaky techniques to make the video look more... uh, more... more good! =D

 As you can see, the images are very similar to each other, but the lower one has passed through the make-look-good-erator and therefore looks more good. =)

Rendering final shot, will be done by Sunday.  Final composite and uploading Part One probably Sunday or Monday! =D

Yay!

Dan

3D Film Challenges!

Making an indie film is a very strange experience, I found.  Especially when doing it in CGI.

Animation, especially character animation, is extremely frustrating and time consuming.  I've reached two shots that I can't avoid, as they make the scene work, and both of them involve some form of character movement that's more than just standing there. 

One problem shot is of the character walking down a ramp.  The results thus far have been, sadly, a nightmare!  Open GL Render!  What looks fine in still image can be very awful looking when animated.  The character walks as though he had just dropped a load in his breaches.

 

The second shot is, hopefully, going to involve a lot less frustration.  So far, it LOOKS great, but the animation is of the character stepping in front of the camera, unfocused in shot.

 

Needless to say, most of this day's efforts have been largely in vain, unfortunately.

Hopefully tomorrow works better.  I've got to get these two shots done before Friday.

Fun fun fun!

Dan

Learning Cycles Nodes

So, learning nodes in Cycles is a very interesting and challenging quest.  In short: I'm really enjoying it, and the results from the Cycles engine are really impressive, especially considering we're completing one or two shots per day. =)

It starts with this:

A simple animatic to get a general idea of what the action will look like.  The animatic is animated at full resolution and frame rate, but is rendered in what's called OpenGL, which is a very fast render (on my computer, about 1 frame a second, depending on scene complexity).  Obviously, it's not very pretty, but it gives the initial idea that we want.

Then it goes to this:

The video is rendered with full lighting and texturing.  This can take a while. Again, this is depending on scene complexity, but it can take days to render a 120 frame shot.

Then we take this:

 

We need to do several passes for each render.  This is the z-depth pass.  Basically, it's an image that tells the compositor exactly how far away from the camera each object in the scene is.  Lighter objects are closer.  This is necessary for the fog pass, which is next.

Fog pass:

 
We take both images and pass them through a special node system inside Blender Compositor which makes the distant objects fade into the background.

Final composite:

Now we have the final composite.  These noodles can get very long and convoluted.  Final details include dirt on the camera lens. Vignetting to center the eyes on the subjects in the scene, and other stuff.  Some of this stuff doesn't go into every shot, especially vignetting and dirt on the lens.  But in the desert plains of the planet Plagarus, camera lenses tend to get a bit dirty. =)

Hopefully, if you didn't know anything about 3D art or compositing with Blender 3D, this little jaunt into the world of 3D art has given you greater appreciation for the awesome coolness that is Blender 3D. =D

Hope you're all having a great week.  It's Friday tomorrow! =D

Dan

New Movie Project!

Well, I've started a new project.  I'm tired of doing still images, so now I'm doing a movie. =D

Without further ado, I give you, PLAGARUS!

 It's a movie that's modeled (mostly), composited, rendered and edited in Blender 3D!  I will be trying to use the Cycles renderer for the entire shebang!

Probably going to release the film in short, two minute segments as episodes, and then will release the whole thing once completed.

I hope you're all doing awesome. =D

Dan

Dockyard Finished!

Another work finished.  This one is goin' on my backdrop.  Feel free to do the same with it if you want.  I won't mind. =)

The Dockyard

Hope you're all doing awesome!

Dan

Nearing the End

Almost done with this picture.

Still have a little more tweaking, but I'm getting sick of working on it. =D

Dan

Minutiae

Starting to fix some details, such as the ground, the antennas and the various details.  Still working on this thing.  Don't know if I'll ever be done this picture! =D

Details, Details, Details...

4K RENDER

Docking Bay 95

Nearly done the docking bay picture. =)

Dan

Space Freighter Finished

The unnamed freighter is finally done! =)  You can buy it here.

And some pictures. =)

Hope you're all doing awesome!

Dan

Unnamed Freighter Continuing Work

Well, more work done on the unnamed freighter.  Almost ready to post on the storefronts.  Rendering one final turntable showing the ship in its pretty much completed state.


I've started work on a picture to showcase the freighter. =)

Getting close to finished, now. =)

Dan

Introduction

I figure a picture of what I do is as good an introduction as any.  So I decided upon this, an earlier work I did, but am mostly proud of.

There are some things wrong with it, however.  I was never pleased with the footprints in the sand, and the depth of the scene isn't as well played as it should be.  The towers are enormously tall, though you wouldn't know it by the picture.  What would have sold it better is more atmospheric haze, though such stuff wouldn't logically exist on a planet this dry.  And I didn't make the character.

Despite these imperfections, I'm still proud of the effort, however.

I hope you are all doing well!

Dan