9/25/09

Re-Texture Mapped Med Center Room

Unfortunately, we didn't shoot live footage last Friday. :(

We haven't shot live footage since I moved, so we had some technical difficulties with our set. However, we're pretty sure we figured things out, so we're currently scheduled to shoot live footage on 10/10 and 10/24.

On the bright side, we needed to create/buy some props anyway, so we're using the extra time to build/buy the necessary props.

Since I didn't have any live footage to play with, I improved the texture maps on the med center room. Here's a before-and-after comparison:

Hmmm... seeing these side-by-side for the first time, I'm realizing the changes aren't as obvious in these tiny little pictures. Here's a bigger version of the "after" picture:

I changed lots of things, but they're still hard to see in this compressed image. The biggest changes are the lighting and re-texture-mapped kitbash droid.

Since we won't have live footage for a few weeks, I'm going to continue improving texture maps. I'll probably do Bibble's Bar next...

Later,
Bob

9/11/09

Re-Texture Mapped Med Center Hallway

I just finished improving the texture maps for our Med Center Hallway. Here are before-and-after pictures of Scene I501a when Jen helps Brad limp down the hallway:

I left-out the Stormtrooper "size reference" stand-ins for Brad and Jen in the "after" picture, but aside from that obvious omission, it's still hard to believe it's the same model, right?

Here's another before-and-after comparison:

Unfortunately, I didn't realize that our camera lens got reset in the "after" picture. Sorry about that. Sometimes 3ds corrupts our file or something and our camera settings get all screwed up. I'll have to fix this later.

Despite the different lens, you can still see how much more realistic the "after" picture looks. No more mirror-perfect shine on the floor, better lighting and shadows, and no more fake, CG-looking, perfectly flat surfaces.

Geez... so few pictures after spending so much time on this. Oh well, I guess that's just the way it is.

Sarah finally finished Brad's Jedi costume, so we're planning to shoot live footage next Friday! I can't wait! We probably haven't shot live footage in about a year. I'm so excited!!!

Since I'll be busy planning and preparing for the live shoot next Friday, I probably won't spend much (if any) time on the CG-side. In fact, Brad and I have to build or buy props before next Friday, so that's going to keep us busy too.

Hopefully the next blog post will have some amazing pictures with live footage!

Later,
Bob

9/1/09

Alderaan Royal Palace and Carinda Homestead

I finished re-texture-mapping the Alderaan Royal Palace hallway to match the room that I did a few weeks ago. Here are before-and-after pictures of the hallway:

Looks much more realistic, right? Just so you don't have to scroll down and find a picture of the Alderaan Royal Palace room, here it is so that you can see how they match-up for consistency:


After I finished the Alderaan Royal Palace, I moved onto the Carinda Homestead. Here are a few before-and-after pictures:

In addition to improving the texture maps, I deleted the speederbike (mostly to decrease the size of our digital model, which was getting unmanageably huge). I also made the lighting less pink. Here's a reference shot from "Attack of the Clones" that I used, mostly to see how the ground looks:


Here's another before-and-after comparison of the Carinda Homestead:

I got rid of those fake-looking round things and replaced them with a more realistic-looking exhaust vent.
I also changed the texture mapping to more accurately match this reference photo from "Attack of the Clones:"

I never realized how rough the stucco is on exterior walls, but after seeing this reference photo, I changed our texture maps.

Finally, here's the last before-and-after comparison of the re-texture-mapped Carinda Homestead:

I'm done with the Carinda homestead... for now. I'll probably refine them in the future, but they're good enough for now. In the meantime, I'm going to keep improving the texture-maps on our other digital models. I'm not sure which one I'm going to work on next, so I guess we'll all just have to wait and see...

Later,
Bob