Status report on BattleSTAR Galactica WARS

martok2112 · September 13th, 2012, 02:11 AM

Hi, folks

I am doing a complete re-edit of my project. It still right now only runs 35 minutes, but as I've stated before I have a LOT of other footage I still have to throw into the mix.

For starters, as some of you know, I am doing reshoots of certain effects shots, and the reshoots are turning out tons better than the originals. Hell, I think even the opening crawl and shot looks far more impressive than the original when I presented Part I of this story a few months ago.

Also, some had commented (rightfully so) about the "gun camera" montage near the beginning of the story. The Imperial Flight Commander and Captain Raffor were discussing the footage, but, there was no audible dialogue. The intent was to make it a silent sort of transitional montage. Also, the dialogue I had originally come up with would end up being repeated only a few minutes later in another scene. So, you'll be pleased to know I was finally able to come up with some dialogue that set the scene apart, and yes, the dialogue is audible now. So, it is a complete scene.

I will get the full story out there eventually, but obviously as I sometimes review my footage, I look at it and say: "I can do better than that!" So, I set out to do so, with usually very satisfactory results. I guess you can say I'm pulling a George Lucas, but at least I am doing it before the completed film is released. And, I'm not retconning elements of my own story. Ha ha ha.

Anyhoo, for those interested, that's the status report of BSGWars right now.

Gotta get back to editing. Peace,
Martok2112

Thunderstruck · September 13th, 2012, 03:33 AM

hey ,

it is totally understandable. u know me, I know, I do it too....

GUILTY !!!!

I think you got a good one going here.Luv the voice overs too.

It is still exciting to make stuff and try and get others to see what you have done. ( though it may not register to some- what is involved and what level
you are working from)

I learned this, though I may not practice it-

patience- the more time and testing you do, the more review, the better.
But often this even fails me and things get missed, overlooked,omitted.
Often you find it aint working,or needs re done or whatever.

"on Civil War I got tons of footage that is not used.
Tons of test shots I could fill a Disk Drive if I dint delete"

Spose their is a market for scrapped footage? LOL
lets make a deal LMAO

KIU- looking forward to more.

Regards,

Randal R>

martok2112 · September 14th, 2012, 03:55 PM

Oh, yeah....all the .avi footage I created in iClone takes up almost my entire external HDD...and it's a 1TB HDD. I convert the .avi to .mp4 though...and after it is all done, I'm probably going to delete all the .avi footage.

Senmut · September 16th, 2012, 12:01 AM

Addy?

martok2112 · September 17th, 2012, 09:45 AM

PROJECT UPDATE: Continuing to do reshoots of some effects shots, and still adding on story footage. I did a redux of the first slugout between the Galactica and the Irrefutable (name of the Imperial Star Destroyer), and I think it looks much better. Also added in some starfighter combat footage.

Thing I love about iClone's "motion puppet" system when it comes to props is that it allows me to create that sort of slow waver you sometimes see in starfighter movement up close when fighters are traveling in a straight line as two pilots are talking to each other. It, to me, creates the sensation (beyond just having a moving starfield in the background) of the Vipers actually being in flight. Besides, that seems to be how real-world aero-fighters would fly.

I am also continually refining how my lasers work in some situations, trying to come up with simpler solutions for scenes with a broader scope. I think I've found such a solution.

martok2112 · September 17th, 2012, 09:46 AM

PROJECT UPDATE: Continuing to do reshoots of some effects shots, and still adding on story footage. I did a redux of the first slugout between the Galactica and the Irrefutable (name of the Imperial Star Destroyer), and I think it looks much better. Also added in some starfighter combat footage.

Thing I love about iClone's "motion puppet" system when it comes to props is that it allows me to create that sort of slow waver you sometimes see in starfighter movement up close when fighters are traveling in a straight line as two pilots are talking to each other. It, to me, creates the sensation (beyond just having a moving starfield in the background) of the Vipers actually being in flight. Besides, that seems to be how real-world aero-fighters would fly.

I am also continually refining how my lasers work in some situations, trying to come up with simpler solutions for scenes with a broader scope. I think I've found such a solution.

martok2112 · October 17th, 2012, 07:35 PM

PROGRESS REPORT:

Reshoots are the order of the day for the bridge and crew of the H.M.I.S.D. Irrefutable (His Majesty's Imperial Star Destroyer).

I have textured the walls and corridors and such of the bridge, and arranged the starfield in such a way so that it does not appear through the back walls of the bridge. She looks HELLA better now! Will be doing reshoots of ALL the ISD bridge scenes. Will post pics of the refined bridge shortly.

__________________

Senmut · October 17th, 2012, 10:06 PM

Question...when the Galactica fires on the Imperials, we see a deflector shield flare up. We saw nothing like this in the films. Why this addition?

martok2112 · October 17th, 2012, 11:39 PM

I kinda borrowed from the idea on Episode I with this. I just wanted to emphasize the notion that the Empire's shields were pretty durned effective against the firepower of the Galactica at this point.

I had thought about redoing the shots, and understating the shields flaring up a bit. But, this is, after all, designed to sorta look like a cartoon, so I took some liberties.

And the most important thing to remember is, I do NOT always go by what is seen on screen.

I leave such trivialities for fanboys who scream: "Hey, that ship can't do that! It didn't happen on screen!"

Believe me, I'm sure I'll catch enough flak from them for the whole "Hey, Star Destroyers never used ion cannons on screen before! You can't do that!"

Senmut · October 18th, 2012, 01:17 AM

"Fanboys". Hhmm....

martok2112 · October 18th, 2012, 04:42 AM

Heh heh....don't worry, Senmut. I wasn't casting you in that lot.

Indeed, you brought up a good question. Until Ep 1, we never really saw "shield flashing" of any type, unless it was really "close to the hull" like when the Falcon might take a hit from a star destroyer's turbolaser, and then at that, it was a really quick, "blink and you'll miss it" kinda flash, and at that, it was colored more like gun-fire than blue splashy like we might see in Star Trek. I just wanted to do this since it feels more like a cartoon of sorts....at least, that's the visual style I'm going for....a kinda "Saturday morning cartoon, but not quite so kiddified."

Further progress report:
I am just about to finish the redux of scene one in my story, and WOW, I can tell you right now, it already looks hundreds of times better.

martok2112 · October 18th, 2012, 04:49 PM

Here are some sample pix of the improved ISD bridge:

And yes, the side corridor we see is actually part of the set. I wanted to try and convey a sense of enormity for the ISD.

martok2112 · October 18th, 2012, 04:50 PM

...and a few more...
The turbolift doors will open on command, now that I've learned that aspect of iClone animation.

martok2112 · October 24th, 2012, 11:22 AM

Still more reshoots. This time I am redo-ing, for the third time, the first slug out between the Big G and the Irrefutable. I've refined the laser effects yet again, and this time, dropped the "Star Trek ish" blue shield flashes (as seen in the preview) for something that I think is a little more fitting of Star Wars.

martok2112 · October 29th, 2012, 03:30 PM

Hot DAMN! I did it! Finally!
No, the movie's not finished!
But!

I did finally get my model of the Big G up to full actor size.
What I thought I had at actor scale before was still too small.

So, this time, I looked at the scaling system of iClone.

Basically, 1 grid square on iClone equals 1 meter. How did I divine this? I measured my Imperial Stormtrooper against the grid. A stormtrooper, on average, is about 1.8 meters. It matched. He was 1.8 grid squares tall.

So, then came the daunting task of creating enough scale tools (200 long at 10 by 10 squares).

Then I just loaded up my previously thought to be actor scale Galactica, and scaled it up to meet the length set down by my scaling tools!

Now, I truly have an actor scale Galactica. And it works with my already established actor scale Viper!

So, now I've started a new project of getting all my ships up to actor scale. Don't worry, these won't be for simultaneous filming..that would take me forever! But, I want to try to accurize these things as much as I can for size.

I'll do the Star Destroyer and Corellian Corvette next.

Pictures to be posted later.

mjaynes2 · November 23rd, 2012, 12:47 AM

test test is this thing on

martok2112 · November 23rd, 2012, 04:08 AM

Heh heh....yeah....project is still in the works.

As a matter of fact, getting ready to do some shoots right now.

Senmut · November 23rd, 2012, 04:42 AM

Addy?

martok2112 · November 23rd, 2012, 05:41 AM

Hi, Senmut,

There's no addy for anything yet. Story still is unfinished, and I have a lot of footage to work in as it is.

Also, I just managed to get my Movie Edit Pro 2013 Premium (new purchase) to start exporting my mixes in Dolby Digital Surround. Yep, I'm wanting to make sure this thing will sound good if listened to on a Dolby system.

This also means I am going to have to remix a lot of shots.

martok2112 · November 29th, 2012, 12:43 AM

Hmmm....Dolby encoding requires me to make AVCHD MP4's which means "big time file size"...the opening two minutes of BSGWars, as revised and encoded, is 332 MB.

Forget that! I'll just go on making the movie without the Dolby frills. Besides, most folks are not going to watch a YouTube video on a 45 inch HDTV with full Dolby Surround set up.

martok2112 · January 7th, 2013, 11:14 PM

I haven't really made progress lately on BSGWars, but that will change soon. She's still holding at 39 minutes currently (story unfinished at that).

But, to see how a rough cut of it would play, I mixed it down (sans music) as an MP4 for playback on one of my external HDD's.

At 39 minutes in 1080p, she is a huge file: 3.18GB. I can only imagine what her final file size will be when I've finished everything.

martok2112 · January 20th, 2013, 11:32 AM

Even though still far from finished, I was going back over what I had, and started trimming down some shots for pacing purposes....some FX shots that I thought were going a little over-long.

Dag nabbit, I think I just chopped about three minutes off! So right now, it's putting me back under 40 minutes! LOL! Not to worry though, I'm sure I will easily break the 60 minute mark by the time all is said, shot, and done!

Dawg · January 20th, 2013, 01:48 PM

Better a slightly shorter, but tighter story, my friend.

Keep up the good work!

I am
Dawg

martok2112 · January 20th, 2013, 03:13 PM

Woikin' on it. Woikin' on it.

Thunderstruck · February 26th, 2013, 12:41 PM

hey, I just watched one of these again, and I had an inkling to
try and reproduce yours ....

must mean he likes it eh???

KIU

martok2112 · February 26th, 2013, 02:33 PM

I'd love to see what you could do.