Improved Props and Backgrounds

First of all, thanks for the comments on the previous post. It's funny how shots that were state-of-the art for us a year or two ago now look totally amateur. It will be interesting to see what our final footage looks like. I can't wait!

Brad and I built new Jedi comlink and Merr-Sonn bomb props. Here are before-and-after pictures:

The 1st picture shows the original Jedi comlink (a store-bought "Star Wars: Episode 1" walkie talkie) and the original time bomb prop (which I clunked together, mostly from a battery charger).

The 2nd picture shows the re-painted Jedi comlink (which more accurately matches the Jedi comlinks in "Star Wars") and a completely new time bomb prop (we'll probably add a countdown display on that translucent screen in post-production).

Even though we only re-painted the Jedi comlink prop, it looks much more accurate:

There are slight differences between our repainted Jedi comlink prop and the real props used in "Star Wars," but I think ours look good enough. Also, in case you were wondering, we went with gray instead of silver because silver creates too much green spill, which means we can't chromakey the footage.

On the CG side, I had to go back and retrofit a bunch of our CG-only scenes to match our new live footage scenes (i.e. Brad in the Jedi Starfighter cockpit). Here are a bunch of before-and-after comparisons:

Scene B100 (Brad flying over the Coruscant cityscape on the way to the Jedi Temple):

If you remember, that's a whip-pan shot where the camera moves quickly from left-to-right as it follows the Jedi Starfighter. The new scene looks so beautiful that I had to include another shot from the end of that scene:

I added an arrow so that you can see the Jedi Starfighter as it banks to the left. What a gorgeous shot! :D

Here's Scene B102a (the Jedi Starfighter landing at the Coruscant spaceport):

Hmmm... I just realized that 2 of our new-and-improved shots (Brad in the Jedi Starfighter cockpit, and the Jedi Starfighter landing at the Coruscant spaceport) are in our blog header graphic (above). Pretty funny that we've already improved those shots...

Anyway, here's Scene B102b (close-up of the Jedi Starfighter landing at the Coruscant spaceport):

Yes, I removed the Outrider model from the new shot. (You can see its blue engine and fuselage in the "before" shot -- it looks kind of like a runt Millennium Falcon, and it's facing 2 o'clock in the "before" picture if you're having trouble spotting it). I decided the Outrider just added visual clutter and unnecessary size to our 3ds file, so I deleted it. I don't think the scene is lacking from its absence...

Here's Scene C118 (Brad climbing into the Jedi Starfighter cockpit as he escapes from the pursuing Clone Troopers):

Like the previous shot (Scene B102b, above), I removed an unecessary spaceship (in this case, the blue/silver concept Jedi Starfighter model) for the same reasons as above.

Scene C119b (Clone Troopers shooting at the Jedi Starfighter as it lifts off from the Coruscant Spaceport):


Scene B121 (close-up of the homing beacon getting shot onto the Jedi Starfighter's fuselage):


And finally, Scene B122 (the Jedi Starfighter streaking away as Brad escapes from Coruscant):


Looking at all of the new-and-improved scenes, you may have noticed continuity issues between them -- mostly with color-correction, but also with traffic streams and other details. I know... I know... I'll fix those later...

In fact, I think some of those shots are too dark, so I'll probably brighten them too... later.

We're shooting more live footage of Brad tomorrow, so we should have more super-cool pictures in the next blog post. We almost had to cancel because I ordered Jedi belt pouches for Brad's costume, but they didn't arrive until this afternoon. Talk about last minute!

Later,
Bob

Live footage and Yane's costume

Now that we finally have Brad's Jedi costume, we shot live footage last Sat. It was the 1st time we've shot since I moved. Unfortunately, things are a LOT more cramped:

Fortunately, we only shot Jedi starfighter cockpit scenes, so we didn't need much space. But we'll have to figure out what to do with all the furniture before next Sat. when we shoot Brad's other scenes.

Although we had a cramped set, we did find a super cool "cockpit panel" for Brad to interact with:

Of course, the Vita Mix "cockpit panel" will never appear on-screen, but it helps Brad deliver a more realistic performance. Gotta love guerrilla film making! :D

Jen also came over for a costume fitting:

The 1st picture is the original Yane costume. However, since that costume was originally fitted for Katinka (who's tiny), the blue outer dress required some modifications to fit Jen properly.

Instead of modifying the blue outer dress, we considered other options. One example is Kali's vest (which Kali wore as one of Bibble the Hutt's girlfriends) over the under dress (middle picture). However, we felt it resembled Brad's costume too much, so we nixed that idea.

We finally settled on a blue velvet sash with the knotted belt (3rd picture). It combines the color scheme from the original Yane costume with a more "Star Wars"-like, Tattooine-ish look.

Anyway, back to live footage. We shot 19 Jedi Starfighter cockpit scenes, but they all start to look the same after a while. So rather than bore you with a bunch of similar pictures, here are just a few before-and-after comparisons:

This is Brad flying over the Coruscant cityscape. Not only is Brad wearing his new costume (notice the dark tabards), but we also added a headset and I improved the Coruscant cityscape background.

Here's a before-and-after comparison of the Coruscant cityscape background WITHOUT Brad's humongous head in the way :D

HUGE difference, right? Funny how proud I was of our old Coruscant cityscape a year or two ago. Now it just looks amateur and retarded.

Here's a reference picture from "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" so that you can compare it to our new-and-improved scene:

Even though the sky is blue in the reference picture and ours is orange, I think you'll agree our new background looks more "Star Wars"-y.

I'm also going to improve the Jedi Starfighter's interior texture maps one of these days. Again, I was proud of myself a few years ago when I created the current texture mapping, but now that I have a better idea of what I'm doing, I know they can look MUCH better.

Here's another before-and-after comparison:

This scene is after Brad leaves the Jedi Temple as he escapes from the pursuing Clone Troopers. In addition to improving the background, I also fixed those streams of traffic so they match the actual "Star Wars" movies better.

Here's another major improvement -- from an original animatic using a CG Stormtrooper stand-in for Brad, to the new-and-improved shot using live footage:

Hard to believe it's the same shot, right? In the "before" picture, I hadn't added the Jedi Starfighter cockpit "interior" model to the "exterior" model (they're 2 separate models). That's why you can see through the walls and see R7's head, the wings, an engine, and the Coruscant spaceport background in the "before" picture.

In the "after" picture, the only thing you can still see in this scene is the Coruscant spaceport background in the top-right part of the shot. Other than that, they almost look like 2 completely different shots!

That's it for now. We're shooting again next Sat., so I have to build some props, prepare the shot list, etc. If I have time, I'm also going to retrofit some of our old Coruscant scenes because they no longer match the new-and-improved look.

Later,
Bob

New cargo box and Jedi landing platform antenna

We always need set dressing to give our digital sets the "used universe" look that defines "Star Wars," so I created another cargo box based on a reference picture from "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" game.

Here's a picture of our new cargo box, along with the reference picture from "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed"

Obviously the cargo boxes aren't exactly the same, but that's because I don't know how to use 3ds very well so my modeling skills suck. This is the best I could do right now. Maybe in the future I'll improve it.

I also created an antenna for the Jedi Temple landing platform, based on a reference picture from "Star Wars: Movie Battles II." Here are before-and-after pictures of Scene C116e:


And here's the reference picture from "Star Wars: Movie Battles II"

As you can see, this model is much more accurate than my cargo box, but only because it's made of simpler shapes.

We're shooting live footage tomorrow and I can't wait! The next blog post should have some great pictures!

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