Revised Jedi Temple, Part 2

I spent more time improving our Jedi Temple model. Here are before-and-after pictures of Scene C104e:

As mentioned last time, the matte painting of the background was temporary and cut-off at the top.
As you can see in the "after" picture (2nd picture, above), I fixed the background matte painting. I also changed the color of our lights to match the color of the sunlight in the matte painting.
If you look carefully, you can see that I need to add a ceiling to the building because the colored sunlight shines through the top of the current model and changes the colors of the interior walls. Oops.

Here's another before-and-after shot, showing the landing platform with improved texture maps, as well as the improved matte painting:

MUCH better, right? Not only do the new texture maps make the landing platform look more realistic, but the background matte painting looks great! Believe it or not, it's an actual matte painting used in "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith". If you want to see the actual matte painting (and a bunch of other cool ones from "Star Wars"), click here.

You may also notice that I added a Jedi Temple spire. This is to give the audience a visual cue that establishes this shot at the Jedi Temple, rather than some random landing platform on some random planet.

Here's a close-up at the edge of the landing platform, before-and-after:

If you look closely, you may notice that I made the landing platform shiny (it's brighter on the right than on the left). Small touches like that add dimension and make our models look more realistic.

Here's a different camera angle (which will not appear in the final movie, I just took this screenshot for the blog):

This close-up shows the new texture maps and soft specular highlight (i.e. the brighter spot on the right side).

Here are before-and-after pictures of Scene C116e when Brad speederbikes away from the pursuing Clone Troopers (Brad is NOT in these screenshots, so don't bother looking for him):

BEAUTIFUL! Can you believe that's the exact same camera angle? Man, our movie's going to look awesome!
(Of course, I'll add more streams of traffic to the final shot.)

I'm still not done with this model, but you can see where I'm at right now. The next set of pictures should look even better!

Later,
Bob

Revised Jedi Temple

I was going to post another blog update last week, but I was in the middle of "open heart surgery" on the Jedi Temple model. It wasn't in any condition to show you guys screenshots, so I had to wait until this week.

After researching reference photos of the Jedi Temple, I decided to completely change our CG model. I was originally going for the "used universe" look that "Star Wars" is known for, but I realized that the Jedi Temple model looked like a lot of our other digital sets.

I wanted to give the Jedi Temple a more distinctive look, so I went with an elegant, majestic look. For example, here's a reference photo of a Jedi Temple (NOT the one on Coruscant, but a Jedi Temple nonetheless):

I paid particular attention to the huge statues, brickwork, columns, and tile, as can be seen in the following before-and-after picture of our model:

Hard to believe that's the exact same camera angle, right? About the only thing that's the same is the door and interior detail.

As you can see, I made the Jedi Temple much taller to make it more majestic and palace-like. I also added the huge statue, brickwork, columns, and tile, as inspired by the reference photo above, as well as the statue in the following reference photo of the Jedi Temple interior:


Unfortunately, the taller building blocked the view of the distinctive Jedi Temple spire. I wanted to keep the Jedi Temple spires visible so that the audience could easily identify this location as the Jedi Temple, so here's another before-and-after picture showing the new location of the Jedi Temple spire:

Again, hard to believe it's the same camera angle, right?
This is still a work-in-progress, so that's why the background image of the skyline is crappy (I moved it farther away, but didn't increase its height, which is why it's cut-off at the top).

Since I moved the Jedi Temple spires, I used a "Star Wars" reference photo for the new location. Here's a reference photo side-by-side with roughly the same camera angle on our model:

The reference photo is from the "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" video game. I haven't finished this model, so the texture maps, geometry, traffic, and background are still temporary. However, you can see that I put actual 3D buildings in for the Coruscant cityscape, rather than the old temporary photo (as seen in the following photo):

This isn't the same camera angle, but it's close enough and at least you can see the old (temporary) background image.

Here's the final before-and-after comparison:

Big difference, huh?

I'm still working on this model, so these are photos of a work-in-progress. The final model will probably look significantly different. Still, I think this is a step in the right direction, as opposed to the previous "used universe" look that I was going for.

Later,
Bob

Jedi Costume and Improved Jedi Temple

Wow... it's been almost a month since my last blog post! Sorry for the extended absence, but moving was a pain in the butt. :(

In brighter news, I got my Jedi costume!

The super-geeks among you may recognize it as Obi-Wan Kenobi's costume, but I'll look cooler in it. ;D

I got this costume from Costumebase, which is the same place that supplied us with the Jedi belts and Imperial Officer costume. They sell high-quality props and costumes at great prices, so we continue to use them.

On the CG-side, I started improving the Jedi Temple model that we'll use for close-ups (when Brad sneaks into the Jedi Temple at the beginning of our movie).

Here's a before-and-after comparison of the Jedi Temple from Scene C104a:

For a faster render, I hid the smoke and Clonetroopers in the "after" picture.

Also, this is a work-in-progress. It is NOT done, so that's why the texture maps, set dressing, etc. still look like crap.

Here's a before-and-after comparison of the Jedi Temple from Scene C104e:


Here's a before-and-after comparison of the Jedi Temple from Scene C116a:

Hard to believe it's the same model, right? Even though it's currently a hodgepodge of texture maps and set dressing right now, it still looks better than the plain old boring model, right?

Here's a before-and-after comparison of the Jedi Temple from Scene C116d:

Again, I hid the Clonetrooper to speed-up the render, but can you believe that's the same background? It will look even cooler when I'm done adding more stuff and improving the texture maps.

This week I'm going to continue improving this model, so next time I should have more before-and-after pictures showing my progress.

Later,
Bob

The Carinda Shuttle Interior Is Done... For Now

I finished improving the model for the Carinda shuttle interior. Here are before-and-after pictures of Scene M400:


The 1st picture shows the original model. As mentioned previously, there were too many lights and it also looked too fake -- like a CG model rather than a real set.

The 2nd picture shows the improved model. I replaced a bunch of the lights with random cool-looking gizmos that I kitbashed from the Millennium Falcon interior. I also threw a bunch of hoses and piping on the walls, and added cushions around the cockpit doorway (as seen in the Millennium Falcon). It looks much more realistic to me -- more organic and "lived-in," rather than geometric and sterile.

The 3rd picture shows the improved model, but over-lit so that you can see everything in more detail.

Even though I added more light (compare the 1st and 2nd pictures), I still think the model is too dark. I'll probably make it a little brighter, though not as bright as the 3rd picture.

Here's another before-and-after comparison, from Scene M408:

Again, doesn't the 2nd picture look more organic and "lived-in?" This is more consistent with the "used universe" look that George Lucas wanted for his "Star Wars" movies.

I also threw in another metal drum (bottom-middle of the 2nd picture) to give the cargo hold a more "lived-in" look:

Not a big change, but I think it adds a little realism to the model.

This isn't the final version of the Carinda shuttle interior, but that's all the changes I plan on making for now. There will almost certainly be more improvements in the future, but for now I'm going to move on to other models and clean those up...

Also, I'm moving next week, so I probably won't be able to work on the movie for a week or two. This will probably be the last blog post for a few weeks. Sorry. :(

Later,
Bob

Carinda Shuttle Interior

I made a ton of progress packing-up my house, so I was able to spend some time working on the movie guilt-free this week.

I made more progress re-texture mapping the Millennium Falcon interior. Here are before-and-after pictures:

Closer, but it still needs lots of work.

At first, I was leaning towards using a modified version of the Millennium Falcon interior for the Carinda shuttle. However, after checking possible camera angles, I discovered that I can't use that model without it being somewhat obvious that we used the Millennium Falcon interior.

That discovery also ruled out my second choice, which was to kitbash the cockpit from the Imperial Shuttle onto the Millennium Falcon interior. That way, we'd have the grittier, more realistic cargo hold and also the cool-looking cockpit with the lights.

So... I ended up keeping the Imperial Shuttle interior as our primary model BUT I'm kitbashing a bunch of stuff from the Millennium Falcon to make our model look more realistic.

Here's a before-and-after example showing what I'm talking about:

In the older version (1st picture, above), there were too many lights. It's even more obvious as video because they're blinking, there are animated displays, etc. It looked like a Christmas tree on steroids. :(

In the newer version (2nd picture, above), you can see that I replaced a bunch of lights with mechanical doodads (hard to see in this compressed, dark image, but they look cool -- trust me! ;D ). I also added hoses and other doodads to the walls.

Here's another before-and-after comparison:

In the newer version, you can see that I added 3 barrels (bottom-L, and 2 in the middle which you can barely see through the light beam from R4's holoprojection). I also added a grate to the flooring to give it a grittier, more industrial look.

I'm still in the middle of improving the Carinda shuttle model, so these "after" pictures only show what the model looks like now. I'm going to keep tweaking it until it looks super duper cool. :D

Later,
Bob

On Hiatus, and Possible New Shuttle Interior

Hi everyone. Sorry for the delay. I haven't worked on the project much over the past few weeks because I'm in the middle of moving. I've been busy finding a new place and packing, and I'm going to busy this month packing, moving, and unpacking. Plus, we're still waiting on costumes from Sarah, so we're kind of on hiatus right now.

The only thing I've worked on recently is a possible new model for the interior of the Carinda family's shuttle. Right now, we're using a model of the Imperial Shuttle interior, as seen in the following animatics:

They're pretty cool looking, but they also look CG and fake. Of course, improving the texture maps and geometry would fix that, but I'm also considering using a different model entirely -- the Millennium Falcon!

Of course, if we use the model of the Millennium Falcon interior, I'd change the camera angles and/or geometry so that it isn't recognizable as the Millennium Falcon. But the model -- when texture mapped -- looks more realistic than the Imperial Shuttle model:

As you can see from the 2 pictures above, the key phrase in the previous sentence is "when texture mapped" because the 1st picture is what the model should look like, and the 2nd picture is what the model looks like now.

Believe it or not, both pictures are of the EXACT same model! It just needs a lot of work -- probably 10-20 hours of texture mapping -- to make the 2nd picture look like the 1st picture.

Although it will take a lot of work, I think it's probably worth it because the Millennium Falcon interior looks more realistic and "Star Wars-y" to me.

Anyway, that's all I've had time to work on recently, and I'm not sure when I'll have more time to spend on this project -- at least not until mid-June or so. Please be patient with us because we'll get back on track as soon as I'm done moving and as soon as Sarah finishes Brad's costume.

Later,
Bob

Improved Animatics

Sorry for the late blog post -- I was out of town last week.

I'm still improving our animatics. Here are before-and-after pictures of Scene F402a (when Darth Vader suffocates Stormtrooper Captain):

You may recall that I can't kneel or fall in the Stormtrooper armor because of the limited range of motion. As a result, when we shot the live footage of Stormtrooper Captain falling to the ground, the best I could do was bend over and pretend to fall. I had to digitally move Stormtrooper Captain in post-production so that it looked like he actually fell to the ground.

Unfortunately, the fall looked fake and I finally realized it's because there should be motion blur. So I added motion blur to the fake fall (see 2nd picture, above) and now it looks much more realistic. Sweet.

Here are before-and-after pictures of another improved animatic:


In the 1st version of this animatic, the 2 TIE Fighters had almost identical flight paths, which looked totally artificial. In the new-and-improved version, I varied the flight paths of the 2 TIE Fighters so that they look much more realistic.

Here are before-and-after pictures from the last animatic I improved. In this scene, Brad's Jedi Starfighter exits hyperspace, then flies past the camera:

In the original animatic, the Jedi Starfighter flew perfectly straight, which looked fake. In the improved animatic, the Jedi Starfighter wobbles a bit after exiting hyperspace. If you look at the wingtips on the "after" picture (2nd picture, above), you can see that the Jedi Starfighter is tilted slightly to the right.


And in this 2nd pair of before-and-after pictures, you can see the wobble to the left in the "after" picture (2nd picture, above).

Happy Easter!
Bob