Brad's Jedi Costume and Jedi Temple Footage

As mentioned last time, the Jedi belt pouches finally arrived the day before shooting. Upon their arrival, we finally had a complete Jedi costume for Brad. Here's Brad's Jedi costume compared to Obi-Wan Kenobi's costume:

Not bad, right?

Since we had a COMPLETE Jedi costume, we could finally shoot live footage below Brad's waist (before, we were limited to cockpit shots).

Here are a ton of before-and-after pictures using last week's live footage:

Here's Brad using The Force to distract 2 Clone Troopers guarding the Jedi Temple:

Not only have we replaced Brad's "Stormtrooper size reference" in the original animatic with live footage, but we've also improved the Jedi Temple model.

Although it wasn't in the original script, we shot a close-up of Brad using The Force to distract the Clone Troopers so that it would be more obvious to the audience what was happening. Otherwise, Brad's a tiny little figure in the background and it was easy to miss. So here's our new, unscripted close-up of Brad using The Force:


After distracting the Clone Troopers, Brad sneaks past them into the Jedi Temple:

I had to change the camera angle to match our live footage.

We may have to reshoot this scene anyway, because our green screen was too narrow to get enough footage of Brad running right-to-left. He could only take 2-3 steps before going off the green screen. We tried shooting this scene in parts, intending to hide the splice when Brad disappears behind each Clone Trooper, but it didn't work very well because his feet and speed were inconsistent between takes. Oh well, we'll figure something out...

Here's footage of Brad sneaking down the corridor towards the Jedi Databank. This footage appears on a security monitor in the background when an Imperial Officer is talking to a Clone Trooper:

I didn't have a screen shot of the original "security camera footage" (i.e. with the on-screen text, horizontal lines, and other effects), so I included the original animatic before adding the "security camera" effects.

The "after" shot shows the new-and-improved shot, including the "security camera" effects and a digital reflection in the floor.

Here's more security camera footage, this time inside the Jedi Databank:

Since we don't have a crane, and since I now live in a one-story house, we couldn't get the correct downward camera angle shown in the original animatic. That's why the camera angle changed in the new-and-improved shot.

Here's Brad removing the holodisc from the Jedi Databank:

After seeing this scene in the new animatic, I realized we need to shoot a close-up of Brad removing the holodisc from the databank. It's just too easy to miss in this shot, and it's such an important plot element that we need to emphasize it.

Here's Brad planting a Merr-Sonn command-detonated bomb in the Jedi Databank:


Here's Brad planting a second Merr-Sonn bomb, interrupted by the arrival of 2 Clone Troopers:

We had to shoot Brad from the waist up because he had to stick the Merr-Sonn bomb prop onto something so that it would stay in-place. Unfortunately, the only thing we had that he could stick the bomb prop onto was about 3 feet tall:

So... we had to cheat the shot by cropping it below his waist and digitally-moving him down so that it looks like he's standing up in the final shot (above).

Anywho, the 2 Clone Troopers shoot at Brad, but he deflects the blaster bolts back at them with his lightsaber:

Everyone used to make fun of the old animatic because it wasn't even animated. It was just the Stormtrooper size reference with his lightsaber in 2 different positions. I don't see what the big deal was... the shots pretty much look the same to me! ;D

BTW (Brad), I only did quick-and-dirty rotoscoping in this shot, so you'll have to do real rotoscoping if you want your lightsaber blade to look right.

After killing the 2 Clone Troopers, Brad leaves the Jedi Databank:


After checking the corridor to make sure it's clear, Brad exits:

(No, that is NOT final texture mapping on the "after" picture. Don't worry, I'll improve it before we have final footage.)

Also, we shot 4-5 versions of Brad's exit from different angles because the flow was choppy and confusing in the original animatic. After having lots of options to experiment with, this camera angle worked best.

Here's Scene C113c (after Brad exits his first flashback, interrupted by the arrival of 2 Clone Troopers):

Again, WAY temporary texture maps in the "after" picture. I haven't had time to re-texture map that model yet. Ditto on the lighting.

Here are the 2 Clone Troopers confronting Brad:


Brad uses The Force to pull the Clone Troopers towards him:

I moved the camera to show inside the Jedi Training Veranda (and the dead Younglings). It was a more interesting shot, rather than just seeing a wall behind Brad.

Here's Brad slashing through both Clone Troopers with his lightsaber as they fly through the air towards him:

Is it just me, or does Brad have anger management issues he needs to work on? :D

Here's Brad encountering a roadblock during his escape from the Jedi Temple. He's asking R7 (via comlink) to make sure there are no life forms behind that blast door on the left:

You may notice that the model in our "after" picture is totally crappy. I forgot that I hadn't yet cleaned it up, so that's yet another item on my infinitely long "To Do" list for this movie. :(

Here's a close-up of Brad after receiving R7's confirmation that there are no life forms behind the blast door:

Again, the lighting and texture mapping is totally messed up in our "after" picture. Sorry about that...

Here's Brad right after the blast door opens:

Nothing against Brad's acting -- he's never claimed to be an actor -- but I wish he could evoke the same emotional response that our Stormtrooper size reference has in our original animatic. ;D

Here's what was behind the blast door, as Brad runs off-camera to the left:

R7 was correct, there were NO life forms behind that blast door! :)

BTW, I am NOT looking forward to animating those battle droids! Maybe we'll let Brad do it...

Here's Brad running out of the Jedi Temple:

We'll have to re-shoot this scene because Brad could only run a few steps before going off our green screen. However, please note that I still added a digital shadow, even though this isn't a "keeper" shot! :)

As you can see, I just did quick-and-dirty chroma keying and color-correction on these shots, so they're still animatic quality. I didn't want to waste a bunch of time in post-production in case we end up re-shooting.

Nevertheless, our new-and-improved master animatic looks WAY better than the previous version. Almost the entire first half of the movie now has live footage (well, for Brad at least -- the Clone Troopers are still temporary CG stand-ins). Progress is good.

Later,
Bob

Props, Improved Texture Maps, and the CSD Studios Title Sequence!

We finally have a "CSD Studios" title sequence!

Thanks to everyone who voted. It was surprisingly close among the top 3 choices, but this version won in the end. I'd also like to thank Videocopilot.net for their awesome tutorials which have helped us tremendously during this project.

I think I mentioned previously that we're scheduled to shoot live footage next Sat. I can't wait! In preparation for shooting, we've had to buy/create a bunch of props:

The Jar Jar Binks doll is for the scene when a Stormtrooper steps on it after massacring the Carinda family. I can't wait to shoot that scene (mostly because I can't wait to step on Jar Jar Binks)!

The 2nd picture shows 2 props: a Jedi comlink, and a prototype command-detonated bomb.

Rather than building our own Jedi comlink, it was faster, easier, and probably cheaper to just buy an off-the-shelf "Jedi comlink" walkie-talkie. Unfortunately, it looks a little different from the Jedi comlink props used in the "Star Wars" movies:

As you can see from the 1st Jedi comlink and the 2nd Jedi comlink (above), there appear to be slight variations in the actual props (look at the top of each prop). So it shouldn't matter too much that our Jedi comlink walkie-talkies are a little different too. Of course, we'll paint ours silver and cut-down the antenna, but other than that we'll probably use our off-the-shelf walkie-talkie as-is. (BTW, the 3rd Jedi comlink, above, is just a rear view -- it isn't a 3rd variant.)

Also, back up to the picture of our Jedi comlink walkie-talkie and the command-detonated bomb prop (a couple pictures above)... since we were originally going to shoot live footage a few weeks ago, I rushed to throw together a "bomb" prop. It looks pretty crappy and I wasn't very happy with it, but it was better than nothing. Fortunately, since shooting got postponed a few weeks, we have time to build a better "bomb" prop, so we'll have something cooler-looking in the final footage.

On the CG-side, I tweaked our shot of the Stormtrooper getting his head blown off. When we shot this live footage, Brad missed catching me and I fell flat on my butt. As a result, you could see me backpedal trying to cushion my fall -- good for my butt, but bad for footage of a Stormtrooper who's supposedly dead and falling to the ground. :(

To make the shot look more realistic, I switched to a "digital fall." In other words, I digitally moved/rotated the live footage to make the Stormtrooper fall straight backwards, limp as a noodle. Here are pictures of the original scene:

You can definitely see my knees bending as I backpedal to soften my fall. Here's the improved scene, using a digital fall:

As you can see in the 1st picture, I'm stiff as a board as I fall backwards, and I also fall faster since my legs aren't slowing my fall (that's why I'm missing in the 2nd picture). I also added a digital blur to simulate motion blur.

I improved the texture maps on the Carinda shuttle. Here are before-and-after pictures:

More weathering and realistic textures on the "after" picture. I also improved the background mountains.

Here's another before-and-after comparison so you can see the texture mapping up-close:


Finally, I improved the texture maps on our Jedi Databank model. Here are before-and-after comparisons:


Here are reference pictures from "Revenge of the Sith" and "Star Wars: Movie Battles II" (an online game):


Here's another before-and-after comparison:

Aside from the fact that Brad's "Stormtrooper stand-in" is missing, you can see that I changed the wall detailing to more-accurately match the reference photos above.

That's it for last week. I don't know how much CG work I'll get done this week, since I'll be preparing for our live shoot on Sat. We'll see... Either way, there should be some awesome pictures -- live footage and/or CG!

Later,
Bob