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3DImperial Star Destroyer ESB style
vmblast3
Posts: 0Member
I am big fan of SW (original trilogy only) and my goal was always to do reproduction of original tone and atmosphere of traditional SFX using CGI. It always bothered me when I see pure CGI renders of iconic models. Ofc, with CGI you can do good impressions/renders of metal materials, but that was the whole point -original models were made from plastic and they are all matt (lambertian paint job) and shot on celluloid, reproducing that is crucial for striking the right thing.
Tho, I am not fully satisfied, Id say the picture is rather close to the original screen grab
PS -modeling job by Ansel Hsiao (really, really fantastic job)
Tho, I am not fully satisfied, Id say the picture is rather close to the original screen grab
PS -modeling job by Ansel Hsiao (really, really fantastic job)
Post edited by vmblast on
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Here is the link to video clip
[video=vimeo;47519970]
Enjoy
JMoney
Hi,
Everything is completely done as CGI in Maya and composited in AE
No movie footage were used
Here's -making of- footage from Maya playblast.
[video=vimeo;47554014]
Oh, I made that on purpose. It is the wiggling effect made by projection motor, every movie from that period has it and so do SW trilogy. Find on the net torrent ESB 1980 and you'll see it (tho it is hard to find it, since original print of SW has somehow got lost/erased in time lol)
seconded
Maybe you could find a way to "bake" the shadows and illumination into the model texture to avoid the flickering? I never tried it myself and I'm speaking in Cinema 4D terms, so I hope you know what I mean by this.
Thnx
Well, it wasn't over night thing to do. I had to analyze shot first, what kind of light and lens have they used for it. For the light I meant first angles, temperature (K) and reflective surfaces positioning. For the camera was tricky, because ILM used anamorphic lenses.
After that comes render. Ive used Vray with EXR 16bit output. And yes, @DarkSapiens comments about flickering -this was supposed to be fast render test and I didnt wanted to waste any more time on research about rendering optimizations, and I had to balance the settings as well (one frame was rendered 3.5-6mins).
And lastly, compositing magic was forged in AE. But the real trick was to find the right color emulsion, the right color grade. The special editions (I dont know how many are there anymore lol) have changed color balance in compare with the original. Now everything has some bluish cold tint. But back then, the colors were rich and as they shot it.
I think IRLM uses similar technique for his color grading -its that 70' and 80' feel.
So in short -analyze, analyze and analyze lol
I hope this helps you
about the wiggling effect mentioned on the previous page, I think you've done it pretty well, when I do it maybe it's at a higher frequency, it's hard to say, I spent a while trying to get it right looking at lots of different movies - if no one comments on it then you know you've done it right
great to see someone paying attention to all the little film effects, I love it
Hehehe thnx
Yeh the wiggling effect was -a bit- tricky as well. Due to nature of the projection system (motor, celluloid tape and all) wiggle is always just horizontal (x axis) and frequency is about 4-6 per second (24 frames per second and each frame has 4 perf's). So basically its about rotor cycles -how many could there be in one second lol
I had been inspired by your work though lol -when I saw first time (couple of years ago), captains yacht animation, I said to myself -oh yeh, thats what I was after all along -that 70'-80' feel, celluloid emulation actually
New SFX (to shorten my analysis) have tendency to look fake and washed out. Which is paradox, because you actually make in render photorealistic image. So what wen wrong? My answer -too much work, now everything is like building a rocket not a movie. Also general lack of contrast. Now everything is flat and bland, because they need to show the work they've generated, everything needs to be seen. Now movies are like 2 hour long showreel's. Why Yoda in ESB worked as a "living" entity and you've believed he was alive? It was a foam latex puppet, painted,with plastic eyes, with no translucent (SSS) skin, dirty clothes, and with no possibility what so ever to jump, run and even walk right ether than few steps. What made it work? --->Character and Simplicity of the work.
Digital tech made it easier for filmaking but (because its still in stage of advancement) it lost style and volume/vibrance/contrast which celluloid tape had.
Thank you
As you mentioned materials and shaders -my own personal creative opinion (and from experience) is that you have to analyse whole style of the movie (or trilogy in this case). So, in the original SW trilogy all ships models were made (mainly) from plastic, but most important of all is actually the type of paint they have used. Which is some type of mate/half mate (lambert) kit-model paint. Just from that point you have to use similar type of lamertian (or weak blin) shader type. Also, important thing is the lighting of the models and last (but not least), celluloid emulsion or color grade.
My analyses of original SW movies, is that entire trilogy style is matte (or weak blin) -that includes ships models, creatures (Yoda etc.), ships full ratio on stage replicas, costumes. Excluded are storm troopers, droids (tho they are always dirty and half shiny), and ofc Darth Vader...and maybe some floors lol
So, my suggestion if you are making replicas of the original SW trilogy models, do it as lambertian or weak blin shaders