Improved Med Center Exterior

If you recall from the 11/13/11 blog post, we recently changed the model for the med center exterior. As a result, I had to update some of the animatic scenes after Yane leaves Bibble's Bar.

Here are 2 before-and-after comparisons showing the old med center exterior and the new-and-improved med center exterior:

This is just a VERY rough draft. I didn't even bother to add Stormtrooper stand-ins in the new model. I'll definitely clean this up before the final version!

Aside from looking more Star Wars-like, I also think the new version is less cluttered. The Imperial shuttle is more prominent and it looks more imposing, rather than being dwarfed by the med center building.

Here's another scene showing a close-up:

Again, this is just a rough draft. I'll definitely fix the texture maps, etc. before the final version.

Later,
Bob

Improved Carinda Shuttle Scenes, continued

I finished replacing the old Carinda shuttle model with the new Outrider model. Here are before-and-after comparisons of Scene I500a showing the Carinda shuttle landing on Alderaan:

(In this scene, the Carinda shuttle flies towards the city visible on the middle-right of the screen.)

The next scene, Scene I500b, took a little more work. Instead of just replacing the Carinda shuttle model, I re-did the entire scene because I was never happy with the way the old scene looked. Here's the old scene, showing the Carinda shuttle flying into the Med Center's docking bay:

To make things easier to see, I circled the Carinda shuttle and also drew an arrow showing its flight path into the Med Center's docking bay.

In the old animatic, I didn't like the way the Med Center looked -- it was incongruous with the rest of the architecture. I also didn't like the way the overall shot looked -- it looked too CG and fake.

Here's the 1st revision, which I eventually discarded, along with the reference photo I based it on:

The red arrow shows the flight path Yane's shuttle would have followed as it descended into the Med Center's landing area (the same flight path the Slave I ship is following in the reference photo on the right, above).

I ultimately discarded this version because it still looked like crap. Here are 2 screenshots from the 2nd version:

In the 1st screenshot (above left), I drew red arrows showing the animated parts of this scene:
1) The landspeeder on the left goes from the bottom-to-top of the screen,
2) The droid (barely visible in these compressed images) goes from left-to-right in the middle-center of the screen, and
3) The Carinda shuttle lands in the Med Center's landing area on the right.

In the 2nd screenshot (above right), you can see the animated models in their final positions:
1) The landspeeder is at the top of the screen,
2) The droid has disappeared going through the doorway to the Med Center's landing area, and
3) The Carinda shuttle has landed.

This version is still rough, which is why the shadows look crappy. I'm also going to animate some of those people walking along the road, and probably add more set dressing. Nevertheless, I think it's a huge improvement over the old animatic.

Those were the final 2 scenes with the Carinda shuttle, so now that they're complete (at least for now), I'm going to go through the animatic and re-do all of the Carinda shuttle's interior shots. The interior shots are going to use the Millennium Falcon's interior, so they should look a LOT better. Hopefully I'll have some nice before-and-after shots ready for next week's blog post.

Later,
Bob

We're Back!

I can't believe it's been almost a year since we've worked on this project!

On the bright side, taking the extended break has allowed me to watch our movie with fresh eyes. Most notably, there are 2 changes I'm going to make immediately:

1) Change Yane's shuttle, and
2) Change the Med Center on Tatooine

Here's the 3d model we've been using for Yane's shuttle:


It's cool, but I realized we might want to change Yane's shuttle to a YT-2400 "Outrider":


Here are the main reasons FOR changing the model:
1) It looks more "Star Wars"-y with that "used universe" look, and
2) It looks like a precursor to the Millennium Falcon, which fits into our movie's timeline (which is after "Revenge of the Sith" and before "A New Hope").

And here are the main reasons AGAINST changing the model:
1) It looks like the Millennium Falcon. We don't want to look unoriginal or look like we're copying "Star Wars" TOO much,
2) I'll have to spend hours upon hours improving the models (I'll have to improve this model of the exterior, and also the model for the interior cockpit and/or cargo hold) so that they can handle close-ups, and
3) I'll have to spend hours upon hours replacing the old models with the new models in all of our shots.

After discussing it with Brad and Sarah, we decided to switch to the new Outrider model because it just looks better. When we started this project, we decided to do everything within our limited means to make the best movie possible. So if that means throwing out the old model and replacing it with a new model, so be it.

I'm currently in the middle of improving the Outrider model, so I don't have any before-and-after comparisons yet. Hopefully next time...

The 2nd change I want to make is the Med Center on Tatooine. Here's a screenshot from the animatic:

The red arrow is pointing to the enormous Med Center and the red circle shows Yane's shuttle flying into the Med Center's docking bay.

Truthfully, I've never been happy with this scene. The Med Center looks a little incongruent with the other architecture, and I've never been happy with the way the city (presumably Mos Eisley) looks either.

I haven't figured out how I'm going to improve this scene yet, but I'll worry about that after I finish improving the Outrider's exterior and interior models.

Anyway, that's what I'm working on now that I'm back on the project. Hopefully we'll have some super-cool blog updates over the next few months.

Later,
Bob