Galactica comp

[HercDestin]

Just having a quick play with my worked meshes. will work on this until I get the style right. The lighting is off, as it was a quick comp from Max to after fx. Hope ya like it.

[David Kerin]

I think it looks really good! Love the nice subtle glow. Gives a nice atmosphere to the rendering. Too often images are so sharp and crisp that it shouts out CGI, but this has a nice look to it.

[martok2112]

NNNNNNNNNNiiiiiiiice!

[HercDestin]

The man himself...................thanks for the comments David. Like Steve Wilson, your name is up there when it comes to BG. Have followed your work for sometime now and my hats off to you buddy. Love your work.

Although put together in a flash this pic was intended just to show off the worked on the meshes and help create the look im going for. Ive done my fair share of Sci Fi animation over the years and always find better ways to do things and different moods and atmosphere. A lot of 3d sci fi art work is either to crisp or the specular bloom effect overdone. I render out a RLA sequence containing z depth and import that into after fx. I duplicate each layer and apply a set matte, gausian blur and have the layer mode set on screen. Tweaking the settings gets you what your after. In my case a subtle bloom.

So what about you. Are you still making meshes?

cheers buddy

Originally Posted by David Kerin

I think it looks really good! Love the nice subtle glow. Gives a nice atmosphere to the rendering. Too often images are so sharp and crisp that it shouts out CGI, but this has a nice look to it.

[David Kerin]

Hi Herc...

Sorry for the delay in response. I use After Effects quite a bit ar work, and at home for the rendering/compositing. Fun tool. Always something new to learn in it as well. The transfer modes work really well sometimes. sometimes they also don't work quite the way I expected. It all comes down to some fun experimenting.

I have not been doing as much on the lines of mesh building, at least for BSG. I've done some for a different scifi project some friends and I have been working on. I've also done a "fan re-edit" on some of the original BSG episodes adding in some deleted scenes and additional/new FX. That was fun to actually edit and add to the original episodes/footage. Definately some blurs, glows and additional features of After Effects used there. I would render the cgi as separate passes with an alpha channel and then composite them together to make various shots. Much like they did on the original where they would shoot the separate model passes, and combine them for their shots.

If you do any other renderings please post them, would love to see them.

Also, if interested, the re-edit of Battlestar Galactica, Saga of a Star World is online as a bittorrent file though http://www.demonoid.com. If you search there you should find the link. And if you wish to see anything on the scifi project I've been working on you can find it on the site http://www.fireflyonline.com Go there and click the link to "Synk-ronyzed."

All the best,

Dave

[martok2112]

Definitely check out Synkronized. That is one hell of a piece of work. Way to go, Dave.

[evil_genius_180]

That's awesome work. I like the lighting and the ships look awesome, better than on the show. It looks like if they'd done the real (original) BSG using today's technology.

[gmd3d]

The thing about the Big G in that picture .. "It looks BIG" It has scale .... in many pictures you don't get that impression .. mine included

[HercDestin]

Originally Posted by evil_genius_180

That's awesome work. I like the lighting and the ships look awesome, better than on the show. It looks like if they'd done the real (original) BSG using today's technology.

Hey thanks there buddy. Great to get some feeback. Even though the composite shot youve seen was a quicky to see lighting etc, it will give you a preview of things to come from me. Most of he space projects I have done have made me proud, but it is my aim to make this project a go slow and be prepared job. I want the models to be great, not just ok and I want to pre plan all my background pieces as well. We are all capable of producing film like effects work with most of the programs we all have......................we just all need to work on our skills more and more. If you have the passion......................like you sure all do...................there is nothing stopping you getting to where you want. My story is pearler.....................now if ya have a few minutes to read this ......................I will enlighten you.
One of the only days I wagged school was to go and see the first screening of Star Wars. Like many, it blew me away and I knew I wanted to make all that felgercarb. Being an avid Star Trek fan since the early days of Star Trek pyjamas, Amt models and video 8 trek films, I knew this was want I wanted to pursue...............Film FX.
I was taken in by a well known film producer and became his apprentice, attending film college and all. But as the industry in FX work in Austraila was in its infancy, I continued along the film making course. After a number of years and many ups and downs I became disillusioned with it all and decised to leave it once and for all. With a strong background in competitive track and field I took to the books and studied Sports Science at Uni and purseud a career in the sport and fitness industry. though I was in it for sometime, I never gave up my artisitc dreams. I experiemented in many mediums to find the answer to my passions.............sculpture, model making, sfx makeup you name it. While I ws pretty good at it, it never really fed me what I needed. So that now takes me to where things took a decided change for the better. An ex of mine was going on holidays and asked me if I could look after a few things of hers..................namely a pentium 33 desktop PC. Having not a FFFFing clue how the damn thing work, my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to turn it on. One of my clinets who I trianed at the time was a bloke named Michael, a british film producer working in Austraila on a 12 month contract. He was also a compositor and help me to better understand things like......................'' Whats windows explorer...............whats defrag...........................oh felgercarb Michael................my screens gone all blue and it wont work. You get the picture of where I was...........yeah ? Anyway, I found the paint program and thought , hey this is cool. Then he gave me a copy of photoshop............................and the rest is history. So while coaching, training and general day to day shot, I immersed myself in PS and worked day in, day out to get better and better. I used the net endlessly for tutorials................read books and did short courses. Then the day came when I felt I was ready to find a job and was confidant the work paid off. Secured my first paying full itme job as a photoshop artist for a big production comapny working on a hit tv show called Catch Phrase. So basically I swapped my day job as a coach to part time and my hobby to a fulltime job. Mate I will tell you all something...................passion is what peple want................passion and enthusiasm...................confidance in your skills. I was promoted to Mutimedia director about 12 months later. Wooo hooooo!

During this peroid my 2D animation expertise became 3D, again through shear dedication and a desire to do it. I went freelance and ended up producing 3D animated promos, product launches and training films for a variety of clients. Then ended up working for a UK film comapny running there 3D department and that led me to meeting my fiance and moving all the way to Sweden..........go fiqure

My dreams never died, they may of stayed dormant for sometime, but they came true..........................and I can tell you...................it feels damn fine to be doing what I do.

So all up............................its all about passion, not so much the raw talent. I believe passion is what gets us where we want to be. So if ya want to take your passions further, then never give up....................keep pushing and keep learning.

Wow......................boy can I ramble on. Just felt like motivating you all. Its what I have done for so long....................motivate that is. The best is inside us all waiting to come out. ..........................god I need a beer................and I dont even drink. Ha ha !. Cheers to you all.

[HercDestin]

Originally Posted by David Kerin

Hi Herc...

Sorry for the delay in response. I use After Effects quite a bit ar work, and at home for the rendering/compositing. Fun tool. Always something new to learn in it as well. The transfer modes work really well sometimes. sometimes they also don't work quite the way I expected. It all comes down to some fun experimenting.

I have not been doing as much on the lines of mesh building, at least for BSG. I've done some for a different scifi project some friends and I have been working on. I've also done a "fan re-edit" on some of the original BSG episodes adding in some deleted scenes and additional/new FX. That was fun to actually edit and add to the original episodes/footage. Definately some blurs, glows and additional features of After Effects used there. I would render the cgi as separate passes with an alpha channel and then composite them together to make various shots. Much like they did on the original where they would shoot the separate model passes, and combine them for their shots.

If you do any other renderings please post them, would love to see them.

Also, if interested, the re-edit of Battlestar Galactica, Saga of a Star World is online as a bittorrent file though http://www.demonoid.com. If you search there you should find the link. And if you wish to see anything on the scifi project I've been working on you can find it on the site http://www.fireflyonline.com Go there and click the link to "Synk-ronyzed."

All the best,

Dave

Hey David, Thanks for getting back to me. I downloaded the dvd you mentioned and hope to have a looky see in the ext few days. How much extra effects work was done it? Alos checked out the quicktime of "Synk-ronyzed."...............man thats a lousy copy...............so small and really bad quality......no offence of course. Any chance of seeing a better higher rez version.....would love to see it.

Im hoping to post an animation by the weekend to show a promise of things to come. Same goes for you........................any new work and I love to also see it.

Talk to ya later mate.................and thanks

Herc.

[HercDestin]

Hey David......................just downloaded Real player and watched a beeter copy......................fantastic stuff...................going to watch it later after dinner.

[David Kerin]

The entire episode is about 45 minutes, but for the web the guy who runs the site decided to break it into 3 15 minute segments(episodes). And yes, the quicktime compression used is horrible. I'd say unwatchable. Surprisingly the realplayer version is the better of the two. At some point I may put it online as a bittorrent file. I have an initial edit I did, which is before some various music elements were added. I tend to prefer that version, which may be because I know it so well, and when I heard the music that was added it just sounded out of place to me.

[Fifteen Carrots]

Regarding Synk-ronized:

The QT and Real compressions are pretty rough, but you still get the gist / feel for the episode. The script survives compression even if the effects suffer.

That being said, I fully agree a nice DVD quality torrent would ABSOLUTELY be the way to go. I'll leave my compy seeding indefinitely if the opportunity arises.

SJ

[animaniac]

Great Work Man, the lighting is very well!