A couple shots from an upcoming project...

martok2112 · March 21st, 2012, 09:59 PM

And now, here are a couple of test shots from a much more attainable upcoming project...BattleSTAR GalacticaWARS. This is going to be the fruition of a video I'd wanted to do a few years ago with miniatures, but now that I've gotten remotely decent at CG animation and machinima, I figure this is the best route to go.

I built the bridge of the Star Destroyer with light up holographic display. I also made the Imperial officers, modifying a Wehrmacht Officer's uniform from Reallusion. I built Lord Vader's mask and life support equipment in Blender, did the usual conversions, and then imported them to iClone. It turned out better than I thought, but it could look better. He also has a working lightsaber...modeled off of my replica Vader lightsaber.

Officers running the bridge of the Star Destroyer:

Lord Vader confers his plans for this star system to Captain Raffor and Commander Greers.

martok2112 · March 22nd, 2012, 02:47 AM

Here's a quickie test animation with my Blender/iClone built Darth Vader character and lightsaber. The 2D background is an image taken from the Star Destroyer set I'd built. The lightsaber sound effects I got from my Master Replica light and sound lightsabers. It offers me great freedom when producing the lightsaber effects.

This is only a test...and not a final product. And yeah, I did the voice of Darth Vader in this. [Smile]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zcda...ature=youtu.be

Thunderstruck · March 26th, 2012, 08:55 AM

Hey not too bad. The hips looked a bit odd.

Trying to animate a walk with bare bones stuff while learning is no easy task.

ball of foot always stays upright perpendicular ,foot toe ankle leg, knee.

then there are rigging with poles and stuff that allow for chain-linked movements.

then there is cappuchino and other animating tools that can make the stuff
much much easier and more realistic, but I am just a man

lol

Ah,, i was going to say,,,

did I read that right, you did the vader voice?
I must know how. I must have now lol That might be a useful way of
disguising a Cylon voice maybe

That was cool

martok2112 · March 26th, 2012, 01:05 PM

Thanks, QH.

Yeah, I just used a standard walk animation that came with the program, and also remember, he is walking with a 2D background image...so the "deck" might not be apparent in the render....thus why he looks so weird in his walk.

But, I will try to be more mindful of the walk in the future. I did just get iClone 5 (I used iClone 4 when making this particular vid....so maybe there've been some improvements

).

And yes, I did do Vader's voice. I just spoke in a Vader style voice, and then ran it through Music Maker to provide the chorusing effect which gives it that "synthesized" voice sound. I had also downloaded a vocoder for Music Maker which allows me to do a Cylon styled voice as well.

Speaking of my recent purchase of iClone 5, the new version has a "toon" feature, which creates a cel-shaded look. You ought to see what my ships look like with the cel-shade feature on. If you saw the Family Guy Star Wars parodies, that's what my ships look like with the toon feature on.

Super cool!

martok2112 · March 26th, 2012, 01:05 PM

Thanks, QH.

Yeah, I just used a standard walk animation that came with the program, and also remember, he is walking with a 2D background image...so the "deck" might not be apparent in the render....thus why he looks so weird in his walk.

But, I will try to be more mindful of the walk in the future. I did just get iClone 5 (I used iClone 4 when making this particular vid....so maybe there've been some improvements

).

And yes, I did do Vader's voice. I just spoke in a Vader style voice, and then ran it through Music Maker to provide the chorusing effect which gives it that "synthesized" voice sound. I had also downloaded a vocoder for Music Maker which allows me to do a Cylon styled voice as well.

Speaking of my recent purchase of iClone 5, the new version has a "toon" feature, which creates a cel-shaded look. You ought to see what my ships look like with the cel-shade feature on. If you saw the Family Guy Star Wars parodies, that's what my ships look like with the toon feature on.

Super cool!

Thunderstruck · March 26th, 2012, 05:02 PM

I wonder if I could. aaaah I doubt it, do the voice in Wavpad....

yeah, maybe, but not in this galaxy lol.

C4d has a module, and I got it, called sketch and toon.
And I have yet to look into it. Sounds like it may be similar
to what you describe.

Have not had a chance or time or need to look at it yet. COuld be interesting.

KIU.

We'll make more.....

martok2112 · March 26th, 2012, 08:59 PM

Yeah, I like the tooning feature a lot.

When it comes to photo-realistic faces, it leaves a little to be desired, but, that's just a matter of going into PhotoShop (or your favorite photo-editor...GIMP is a good, free alternative to PhotoShop) and reducing the detail on the face.

As for Vader's voice, well, it kinda helps that (according to the opinions of some other folks) I'm a pretty good impersonator.

martok2112 · April 2nd, 2012, 04:01 AM

My Imperial Stormtrooper with improved helmet (over previous versions I've done) and sporting an E-11 blaster rifle and holster.

Thunderstruck · April 2nd, 2012, 10:30 AM

That looks pretty darn good to me. Like it.

maybe a few more lines,scratches, gizmos on his "uniform"?

but it works.

martok2112 · April 2nd, 2012, 01:41 PM

Thanks, QH.
Yeah, I'm gonna be working on some blend textures for other troopers, like sandtroopers, so that he can look dirty with just the move of a slider bar.

martok2112 · April 2nd, 2012, 02:36 PM

Here's a couple of shots with the stormtroopers on guard in the bridge. Shot in glorious 1080p Hi-Definition.

martok2112 · April 4th, 2012, 10:43 PM

PROGRESS REPORT:
Have completed my first scene of dialogue for this endeavor. It plays out nicely in project mode. Will have to see how it plays out as an exported movie. But...that won't happen for a while.

martok2112 · April 10th, 2012, 10:42 PM

UPDATE:
The project continues apace. More dialogue scenes and transitions have been shot. The flow is going smoothly so far. Animation is not "Clone Wars" quality, but it suffices to tell the story.

Story running time so far, estimated to be ten minutes...I haven't done a full composite run of the accumulated footage yet.
Will be using an app on my iPad...Music Studio...to create some original incidental music where I might not use John Williams' or Stu Phillips' original pieces....so there'll be a bit of both.

martok2112 · April 16th, 2012, 11:05 PM

PROGRESS REPORT:
Working up for one of my most ambitious shots yet.

A pair of Vipers racing from the front of the Galactica, to the back of the fleet to intercept a large vessel approaching from behind. Will likely be a lot of greenscreen work, but as long as I can get the elements in place, I think it'll work.

martok2112 · April 17th, 2012, 12:44 AM

REGRESS REPORT:
Ugh....well...I'll have to streamline the number of ships I want to use in this shot. I really wanted to try and gun for as close to 220 ships as possible, but the two Vipers I added to the shot irrevocably wrecked the set up. So, it's back to the ol' drawing board.

I think, what I'll do is do my animation according to the precedents set forth by my "Galactica: The Last Battlestar" fanfiction (my retelling of the holocaust and exodus of man, which, admittedly, draws inspiration from the Ron Moore production when it comes to number of ships in the RTF) which only calls for 50 ships. (It'll certainly be easier on my iClone program. Ha ha ha.

martok2112 · April 18th, 2012, 01:38 PM

PROGRESS (again) REPORT:
Looks like I might get my 220 ships after all...or at least damn close to it.

I made a pass of the Galactica first, with the camera continuing on to the end of its run. Then a second pass with the first wave of 10 RTF ships behind the Galactica (whilst removing the Big G from the picture). Then a third, moving those 10 ships back, and rearranging their positions...then a fourth, doubling the number of ships from the last pass, and rearranging them yet again. A fifth, same deal. This is going to be one ambitious looking shot when I get done with it. The RTF ships are largely simplistic, but have just enough beef to them to keep them from looking too much like randomly thrown together blocks. I still have a ways to go, but the shot will be made.

The RTF also features much more detailed ships built by other modelers, including the late, great Steve Wilson.

martok2112 · April 20th, 2012, 03:27 AM

Ok....massively awesome PROGRESS REPORT. (Did I mention it is massively awesome?....Just wait til I tell y'all how.)

I downloaded the 64 bit beta version of iClone 5.2 PRO. (I still have the 32 bit version as well.) With the 64 bit version, I am able to put EPIC numbers of ships on screen, at once, and record them! (I did this based on reports that other users were able to load upwards of 50+ characters --a high poly situation indeed-- on screen without even breaking a sweat.)

So, I put my Galactica, my Star Destroyer, Steve Wilson's Valley Forge/Agro Ship, Tiger Claw's Colonial Movers and Gemini Freighter, and likely around 200 other ships (about 10 ships I'd built in either iClone or Blender, and copied them through the placement grid). I added a very nice starfield sky texture, which surrounds and forms space for the fleet to fly through.

I then flew the camera through the fleet. At the rate I have it go, the shot is about 2 minutes long, but the nice thing was, I was able to do it ALL in one pass....no greenscreening, no compositing. (The only thing I'll composite in later is the two Vipers racing to the back of the fleet.) Or I might even be tempted to reattempt the pass with the Vipers actually on screen, and maneuver them appropriately. (Either way, the shot's gonna look nice.)

Now, here's where I almost had a heart-attack.
Right now, in the 64 bit beta, the only exportable video format is .AVI. So, I thought, ok, I'll give it a shot. Settings: 1280x720 (720p). Uncompressed frames. When the video fully exported (which I think took a little better than a half-hour), I played it back. The playback was choppy. This disheartened me a bit. I looked at the file size (6.7 gigs). "Holy FRAK!", exclaimed I.

Well, I thought, ok...lemme reboot my computer and see if I can convert this down to .mp4 format. Settings: 1920x1080 (1080p) in the .mp4 format. It converted in about 10 minutes. It came out at only 22.3 megs. And it played back BEAUTIFULLY!!!!!!

So, now that I know I can do epic things with this 64 bit beta...I am going to go full bore into this.

Right now, the beta does have some hiccups...one involving particles where projects that others have saved after loading particle effects, end up unable to load. So, until they fix that, I won't mess with particle effects.

BTW, just to let you know....the face count of my fleet fly-through shot was well (way well) over 8 million!!! File size 443megs.

I think iClone is well on its way to letting me do the epic things I've sought to do for so long. Now that I'm decent with Blender, and I have the latest versions of both iClone and 3DXChange....my project will move forward rather quickly.

martok2112 · August 9th, 2012, 02:02 AM

Made another nice little modification that I think goes a long way to making my Star Destroyer look even better.

First thing I did was build a full TIE bay, complete with racks, some stand by TIE's and lighted columns and textures. Looks an awful lot better than the no frills, basic bay I did initially. That picture of the bay is of the actual set I'd made. It is then PhotoShopped onto another metal texture so I could create the sides and fore and aft of the under bay of the star destroyer.

Added in textures to the open bay area so that the ship doesn't look so barren down there.
Thanks to a quick image export from iClone, and a little mixing of the exterior shot of my improved launch deck with some outer metal textures (thanks to some simplistic PhotoShop work), I think she looks a hell of a lot better.

Will come in handy for dynamic launch shots.