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.: The Lancer DVD Project :. (* unfinished project *) — Page 12

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the footage is 720 x 430 ie 2.35:1 anamorphically stretched vertically, use either VLC or media player classic and stretch and shrink it so it's looking less tall.

as to shadows, the SE2004 and original have inconsistent shadows in these two shots.

light is coming from top left if we're looking from behind, but the gas giant underside is lit, when the death star isn't bit silly.I might reverse the orientation of the planet so it's at the bottom of the shot instead. making the shadows more consistent.

at the moment, the camera on the first shot matches the ORIGINAL star wars, not the SE. in the original, it was a static establishing shot and remained so even when the fighters flew past. as was the reverse frontal shot. I'm going to have to introduce some movement I think otherwise like you say, it feels odd.

When a woman says yes, she means no - when she says maybe, she means no.

http://www.auky37.dsl.pipex.com/falconlogo_web.jpg
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ooh special treat for you people today.

an upload of my first flyby animation to go into my project. reds 1,2,3,5 and 6 are present in the scene along with two y-wings. everyone is textured as per the actual shooting miniatures. CG death star and planet and starfield in the background.

crits and comments please, particularly concerning the motion of the ships in the scene, lighting, engine flare, motion blur etc. this is important, I need to know if I got this right in peoples opinion. I think it looks pretty good. I don't think it's completely where I want it, but it's damn close.

rendered in LW9, comped in Vegas.

flyby mark 1
When a woman says yes, she means no - when she says maybe, she means no.

http://www.auky37.dsl.pipex.com/falconlogo_web.jpg
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Very impressive tellan! What are you using to render out your animation? In my opinion, the ships need a little more movement. In your shot the ships have little or no independant movement. They just movie in a straight line, then when it cuts to the SE footage, the ships have more independant movement. So what are you really tryng to match, the classic 77 footage or the 97 SE footage some what? Also, there seems to be a bit too much motion blurr. Make shure your camera shutter is 180 degrees, and the shutter speed and over all film speed matches a 24fps film speed. I also reccomend speeding up the ships just a tad, and lastly, I reccomend bumping up the light intensity just a tad to better match the Lucasfilm footage, but then again whats your real goal, to match the classic footage or the SE footage some what?

These are just my own thoughts, opinions, and reccomendations of course.

Venerable member of the “Red Eye” Knights

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the SE footage is there as a placeholder because I havent rendered the other angle yet.

brightness, check, its needs a bit more brightness to match the other CG SE shots later on in the space battle. as I'm not going to replace all the SE shots, I need to key to that really.

everything was rendered out in LW9.2 and comped in Vegas 5.

I'm aiming more for the original shots that the SE replaced with one grand panning move. the originals had NO camera movement and little ship movement. the SE has both so I'm aiming for a middle ground. I think the ships need to move a bit faster in the shot, they're a bit lethargic.

too much motion blur? I'm running at 125% particle blur at the moment, what should I be having for 24fps?

I could do with a plugin that provides random linear movement to the ships to make things look more natural and not like they're running on rails.

When a woman says yes, she means no - when she says maybe, she means no.

http://www.auky37.dsl.pipex.com/falconlogo_web.jpg
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I think the new one had better rendering, although I liked the movements into frame from the first clip. And maybe it is just me, but the X-wing's models wings seem a bit stubby.
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no not stubby. that might be the anamorphic stretch playing tricks on your eyes.

I'm changing things around a bit. I'm looking for that sense of speed from the xwings and ywings to make it more dynamic.
When a woman says yes, she means no - when she says maybe, she means no.

http://www.auky37.dsl.pipex.com/falconlogo_web.jpg
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too much motion blur? I'm running at 125% particle blur at the moment, what should I be having for 24fps?


Shutter speed determines how mutch blurr the moving object will have. A 180 degree shutter spinning at 1/48 a sec will give you the ( assuming your animating at 24fps ) 24fps motion blurr and exposure to match 35mm movie look. Check your camera attributes and see where they are at. I believe the particle blurr you mentioned is for shadows but I guess LW works differently, from what I use. I'm a Maya user, so my appologies if I have made any mistake on that. Does your particle blurr work from sampling?

You stated using LW earlier, I was curious to know what you were using to render out the animation. Are you using mentalray, Brazil, or Renderman perhaps, or are you just using the LW software render'er?

My appologies if I'm way off base here.

Venerable member of the “Red Eye” Knights

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I'm using the software renderer in lightwave.

I found a link to a great article by one of the guys who worked on Battlestar Galactica. very good regarding rendering break outs of scenes, multiple composition etc.

mini update. I'm working on a new model of an x-wing at the moment which needs completely re-texturing. anyone who's done 3D will tell you that texturing takes a bunch of time. still, things are going well. the 3D work is now much much better and it will enable me to broaden the number of shots I'm thinking about replacing/redoing.

y-wing has also been reworked with new more accurate canopy and textures as well.
When a woman says yes, she means no - when she says maybe, she means no.

http://www.auky37.dsl.pipex.com/falconlogo_web.jpg
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Can you post a link to the Battlestar Galactica artical? I would like to check it out.

I agree with you completely, Texturing 3D models is a very time consuming task. I hate UV mapping, and I try to stay away from texturing as much as possible. I would rather have somebody else do it for me. Can you post a pic of the progress on the models?

I'm just curious, what all can you do with the LW software render'er?

Venerable member of the “Red Eye” Knights

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well let me put it this way.

the battlestar articel blew me away for two reasons.

1.) a lot of what was said was so obvious but to someone not in the industry, a revelation, plus it has improved my workflow methodology.

2.) battlestar is done entirely in lightwave.!!!!

link

battlestar article link

link to xwing video

still not happy with the engine flares but the rendering and the motion is really coming together.

xwing flyby
When a woman says yes, she means no - when she says maybe, she means no.

http://www.auky37.dsl.pipex.com/falconlogo_web.jpg
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Very nice article. I wish I was using blender, but I'm comfortable with my after effects. The only thing I didn't like about the atricle was his hatred for Maya. I have been a maya user for almost 5 years and it's a wonderful application albeit the price tag. I have noting against lightwave or it's users; I have seen many beautiful works from it. I have even had a few Lightwavers beat me on a few modeling comps. I think his hatered is from the politics within the CG world, and alot of people ( Corporate heads ) just want to make a name for them selves, reguardless of what the CG staff thinks. The corporate office needs to keep out of the work flow and let the CG team get the job done the way they know how to.

Your new X-wing clip was awsome. Your right about the engine glows, they need more work. The Lucasfilm ones are a bit more pinkish. The motion blurr looks good to. Did you set it to 50% like in the BSG link? However, If your at 50%, set it to 48%, that will match the 24fps shutter speed. The llighting still neeeds to be bumped up a little bit more in my opinion.

Venerable member of the “Red Eye” Knights

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48% check.

don't worry about the engine glows. everything is being colour corrected to red anyway. the engine glows in ROTJ and ESB were red so I see no need for them to be pink in ANH.

yeah, the article is a it biased, but you can't argue with the results they get on battlestar, some top notch stuff, particularly in this latest season. it is an interesting article in itself because of what he says about the work ethic etc in the studio.


When a woman says yes, she means no - when she says maybe, she means no.

http://www.auky37.dsl.pipex.com/falconlogo_web.jpg
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tellan, your cg shots are looking better and better. you might make a believer out of me yet.
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short test piece to see if I got the feeling of motion and speed there.

new xwing mesh, new textures, much much better than the old one. holds up very well up close. new lighting rig, new motion rig. you get the idea.

comments welcome as always.



flyby link
When a woman says yes, she means no - when she says maybe, she means no.

http://www.auky37.dsl.pipex.com/falconlogo_web.jpg
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Originally posted by: tellan
short test piece to see if I got the feeling of motion and speed there.

new xwing mesh, new textures, much much better than the old one. holds up very well up close. new lighting rig, new motion rig. you get the idea.

comments welcome as always.



flyby link


I think something might be wrong, won't play on my system...anybody else?

I love everybody. Lets all smoke some reefer and chill. Hug and kisses for everybody.

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LAGS ... Lagarith?

I use Linux so it's a bit of a problem for me to install the Windows codec :/ I'd like to see it though...

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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sorry guys, the codec is lagarith lossless.

I've done a new one using huffyuv. I didn't use xvid or divx for this pass because it is low quality. it is purely there to scope out the sense of movement.

new flyby link
When a woman says yes, she means no - when she says maybe, she means no.

http://www.auky37.dsl.pipex.com/falconlogo_web.jpg
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wow, noone commented on the last file, must be brilliant.

anyway, after a chat with mike verta and a lot of photoshop work today, I've got the xwings much more photoreal.

voila, a new red leader, with a much more photoreal texture, spec maps and diffuse maps applied. also diddled the surface properties as well.

not finished yet, engine housing, engines, and laser tubes, and the nose cone need doing yet.

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/lancerproject/red1.jpg
When a woman says yes, she means no - when she says maybe, she means no.

http://www.auky37.dsl.pipex.com/falconlogo_web.jpg
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wow.

I can't wait to see what you have up your sleeve next. Mike had an awesome cgi R2 test on his site. It looks like his influence is showing through.

I watched your new test shot about 40 times. The horizontal camera movement didn't feel right, but then it was a real short clip, so I don't know how it would have looked in relation to each other. I liked the 'floating' the ships did while in formation.
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been playing around with HDRI lighting tonight.

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/lancerproject/red_squadron1.jpg
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/lancerproject/red1_hdri1.jpg
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/lancerproject/red1_hdri2.jpg
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/lancerproject/red1_hdri3.jpg
When a woman says yes, she means no - when she says maybe, she means no.

http://www.auky37.dsl.pipex.com/falconlogo_web.jpg
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Very nicework tellan! The X-wings look awsome!

Venerable member of the “Red Eye” Knights

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thanks guys. it's tough work getting this photoreal. texturing is a big job. then I've got to get the lighting to match the movie. another hurdle. not sure if I should go HDRI or lights at the moment.
When a woman says yes, she means no - when she says maybe, she means no.

http://www.auky37.dsl.pipex.com/falconlogo_web.jpg