Weapons Check

rjandron · October 2nd, 2005, 09:14 PM

I wanted to post a shot and animation of what I've been working on this weekend. I've taken a break from the Viper to try to get some R&D in on recreating laser effects as we saw in the classic series. Here's a quick shot:

And here's a link to the animation. Right-click to save to your computer. The animation is in Xvid format, so you'll need the Xvid codec to view it.

I'm more concerned with the lasers at the moment. Yes, I know that the whip pan is pretty rough in the animation--I'm trying to fix it.

Comments and suggestions?

Darrell Lawrence · October 2nd, 2005, 09:51 PM

That's the same area I have probs: Making the weapons fire effects.

Titon · October 3rd, 2005, 02:11 AM

Cool Rj.

First off were the laser's done in lightwave? Looks like it to me.

Alot of times the best way to do them is in post production using After Effects.

Sept17th · October 3rd, 2005, 02:32 AM

RJ, it's looking good I was was looping over and over while listening to some Stu Cylon music. If it had sound effects I think it would been an impessive shot.

Titon · October 3rd, 2005, 05:52 AM

Say Jon, did you ever see my really bad Millenia stuff from a few years back?

ernie90125 · October 3rd, 2005, 06:01 AM

Don !

Your Millennia stuff from a few years ago was not "really bad" I enjoyed it a great deal, and in fact I re-watched it a few days ago. I thought it was a very enjoyable fanfilm...

rjandron....this animation is really great and I would encourage you to keep working at it.

This just shows how much talent there is in the fanbase, that if we all worked together could lead to something really productive.....like a Continuation !!!

Titon · October 3rd, 2005, 06:12 AM

Thanks Daniel but it was a first attempt.

I guess the main reason you haven't seen anything from me for all these years is because i'm to much of a profectionist. Trying to make it what it should be. After i made that little flick i realized that the ships really needed to be top notch in order to stand up.

But like Jon, Peter and other's will tell you i haven't finished yet! GET TO WORK!

rjandron · October 3rd, 2005, 06:13 AM

Thanks for the comments guys.

Ther lasers are done within Lightwave. I set expressions that drive the particle emission and a hypervoxel muzzle flash. The laser bolts are instanced to the particles. I also set up a spare lightwave camera as a gun camera so that I can actually aim the shots. With this setup it takes setting three keyframes to fire the lasers. Everything was rendered as a different pass and composited in AE.

I'm thinking that I have to change the geometry and colours of the laser bolts. The deep blue glow is a bit too dark, and the bolts tend to fade at any distance--so the core has to have its size increased.

gmd3d · October 3rd, 2005, 06:52 AM

Nice jod.. I don't fully understand the animation setting yet It a bit over my head. but I enjoyed your animation looks great

Sept17th · October 3rd, 2005, 07:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Titon

Say Jon, did you ever see my really bad Millenia stuff from a few years back?

I don't think so, please to send a link my way.

Titon · October 3rd, 2005, 09:09 AM

Can't believe it but the fan club still has these hosted. Part 1 is pretty bad but was fun, part 2 is more polished.

I did these nearly 4 years ago.

http://battlestarfanclub.com/battlestar/av/part1db.mpg

http://battlestarfanclub.com/battles.../part2test.avi

Sorry RJ, i don't mean to steal your thread.

Don't laugh to hard!

ernie90125 · October 3rd, 2005, 09:35 AM

Titon,

I'm not laughing at all. Whilst these animations do show their age, they are an excellent example of what 1 skilled fan can put together. So imagine what might be achieved if 10 skilled fans worked together on 1 project. A project so imprssive that the original actors might consider putting their voices to it. Imagine an animated Continuation made by the fans for the fans !

Sorry from me too RJ, but I felt the need to reply !

Titon · October 3rd, 2005, 11:29 AM

There's always hope Daniel.

ernie90125 · October 3rd, 2005, 11:48 AM

I know Don....I'm going on and on.....feel free to say that if you wish....

I just see so much amazing talent within the fanbase, and so much frustration at not being given what we want. I'm just hoping that people will entertain the idea of doing it ourselves...then we'd get exactly what we want !!!!

This old phrase spings to mind ! : "If you want something doing properly...do it yourself !"

Once again sorry to rjandon for taking over your thread !!!!!

rjandron · October 3rd, 2005, 09:58 PM

Don, thanks for posting the links to Millennia.

Guys, don't worry about the threadjacking...this time

Millenia looks very cool. How did you do the Cylon voices?

In any event, I didn't have any time tonight to rework the scene above, so I just settled for re-rendering it from a different angle. This is the link to an animation showing a closeup of the chasing Cylon Raiders. Again, right-click>save link as to download, and you'll need the Xvid codec to view.

Nays · October 4th, 2005, 12:05 AM

thats pretty neat

Titon · October 4th, 2005, 03:54 AM

Looks cool Rj.

The one thing you might want to try is decreasing the frame lengths on the lasers themselves. They seem a bit to slow right now but i like how they looked!

Your welcome on Millenia, but like i said it's really outdated. I figure by the time were done here we'll have enough talent to make something really stand out.

They cylon voices i just captured from video tape a while back with my capture system. I used another program to rip the audio from the show and place it inline with the rest of the audio.