Monroville

adywan said:

sketchrob said:

Yeah this isdef Paypal being retarded cause funds have cleared my end... *sigh* stupid internet....

yeh, the funds cleared in my paypal account but they needed to be transferred to my paypal topup card because its a pay as you go visa card and the site doesn't accept paypal. I did this at 00.06am last night. They say that transferring from your paypal account to the top up card only takes 24 hours. the cash funds i had that i put on the card today went on immediately. i hate how paypal drags its heels

 

It may be too late now, but I applied for the Paypal credit card.  I use it primarily for my Ebay or Amazon transactions, some of which can go up to a few hundred dollars or more.  The cool thing is that I can send a payment directly from my bank account or from my paypal account to pay off the card, all within the usual 20 to 30 day grace period at no interest.   That way I can buy something expensive now and have a full month to pay it off.

Something else you can do is just use a regular credit card, and transfer the Paypal funds directly to your savings account.  It usually takes Paypal (at least for me over here in the US) @ 3 to 5 days for a transfer, and again if you have the usual 20 to 30 day grace period, that will leave you plenty of time to send an online payment without being charged any interest.

Another idea is to bring a dvd of your ANH:R, tell the salesman what you are going to do with the camera, put the ANH:R on one of their dvd players so he (and the customers) can see it, get excited and lean towards saving the camera for you to buy.  Of course a deposit might help too.

I know I'm going to get rapped in the knuckles for this, but Ady: how do you feel about Vaderios' red AT-AT cockpit shots?  I know you nixed the red windows, but now that Vaderios has done an example, it would be interesting just to hear how you feel about the look of it.  Even without the red cockpit, any ideas on what to do with the AT-AT cockpit shots (if anything)?

I notice that the home page is strickly a login page.  How can one register to even create a user name and password if you cannot get past the login page?

:: WTF are you on about? Wrong thread maybe?

adywan said:

Octorox said:

I have a Canon HV30 (1080p), it even has a 24p mode. What do you need shot?

it would basically be all the new models and set pieces i'm having to make to replace certain shots. i am shocked just how much the UK is getting ripped off with prices after following those links. The canon would be a godsend because i just love canon cameras ( i own a 350d digital SLR & the quality is unbelievable) but at the prices we're getting charged it could never be a possibility

Is there any way just to order it from the american website and have it shipped to the UK?   Even with a 6% sales tax, it shouldn't come out to more than $636.00.  If you have someone over here you know you can trust, if Amazon.com doesn't ship to the Uk someone here could buy it at the cheaper price and then ship it to you.  I know that's a big risk, but $636 is a lot better than essentially $1009.85 (at least converted through xe.net)

Also, I take it that the US version is locked at the 24fps rate, or can it be altered between different frame rate settings?

Ziz said:

That's called "dramatic license".  We don't need the audio cue to tell us that Vader was told the ship is clear.  We see the ship clear, then we see Vader go to talk to Palp.  Why else would he be moving?

A movie isn't a football game where you have to see every fraction of a nano-second documented and re-counted 87 times over before moving on.

So does that mean we won't get the scene where Vader and co. are waiting an hour or two for Leia to get out of the bathroom before the Cloud City dinner?

Could you imagine some of the real-time filming you would have if you had to follow Vader around on the Executor or Death Star?  You'd have a day's worth of film of him walking around... no wonder he breathes like that!  It's like Tarkovsky's SOLARIS and the 10+ minute car ride in the beginning of the film.... yeesh!

vaderios said:

Thats good news :)

Yep some additional red lights and stuff can be done more easily than the red tint.

 

I liked tho the colors red-blue/cyan. They make a strong combination :)

 

-Angel

 

DEFINITELY.  Even if you just made the windshield red, and maybe had the red TIE panels behind Veers, I would still keep the light and control effects you currently have.  The added details really improve the scene and bring some life to it.

Regardless, it would be nice to do a side-by-side comparison between the red cockpit as you have it now, with a version with a red windshield and the inside not tinted as red so much.

vaderios said:

It seems Monronville dint take his christmas present.

Note: This is not going to become in the ESB:R. Just was an artistic something...

It has too many elements to add that is nearly impossible to make it animated.

Enjoy :D

-Angel

 

Thank you for that Vaderios.  After seeing it now, it reminds me of Bowman in the pod in 2001  <:)

Another idea others and I had was to make the window red (and with read-outs like the binoculars); that way you wouldn't have to worry about the red lighting effects on the people inside.  Would it be okay to try that out too?

Maybe include some of the red lighted panels from the TIE cockpits to put in the back on either side of Veers, and have yellow colored read-outs on the red window (I always imagined the read-out to be akin to those in the BLADE RUNNER spinners, with a moving rectangle over the snowspeeders as they flew by the cockpit.  You could take the shot of the snowspeeders strafing the cockpit when Luke makes his first pass).

Even so, I think it looks really good like that; also reminds me of CRIMSON TIDE and a lot of other war movies when said sub, carrier, etc go into battle mode.

Regardless, that made my day.  Keep up the good work!  >:D

I think what Adywan has done is pretty fine as it is.  If I COULD make any changes, they would be as follows:

at the least, it seems that there are some music ques that are a little odd sounding,

(1) the sad music when Obi's robes fall down after Vader strikes him
- while I can go either way with the DOTF music playing during the Vader/Obi duel, it seems that something needs to be done so the music doesn't sound like it's crashing into each other from the dramatic music when Vader makes his blow, the sad music when Obi's robes fall down and then the Luke's shock music begins.  If you took out the sad music in the middle (but left the sound effects), it would create a buffer between the two dramatic pieces as well as give a pause right before the Luke's shock music que kicks in.

(2) the EMPIRE theme during the TIE reveal in the Last Battle
- I love the new TIE reveal (which balances the X-Wing pan reveal earlier), but the EMPIRE theme is more designed for the larger ships, being that it is similar to Soviet parade or march music.  If the music could be replaced with something faster paced and more ANH sounding, it would help the whole sequence flow better.

If I was skilled at photoshop and after effects, I would:
(3)  replace the planet below the Death Star with the matte shots of Endor to essentially give the impression that Endor was the Empire's "Area 51" so to speak.  I love the addition of the planet, but the planet imagery itself is a little "Babylon 5ish".
(4) replace the Alderaan explosion with the original sans explosion ring, or at least something as close as possible.
(5) when the MF escapes from Tatooine, I would either re-insert the spinning star field or have the stars streak as the MF sped away.  While the spinning star field may not make much logical sense, it served as a visual que to help deliver the scene emotionally. 

Other than that, I think that Ady's edit is about as good as ANH could ever get.

Granted, the idea of the sphere on Tarkin's desk projecting a hologram I think is a good idea (again, to give it purpose) and would make sense that the officer sent to investigate would contact Tarkin from Dantooine.  In regards to the Jabba scene, I was never keen on it remaining in the movie as Greedo essentially states Han's situatuion quite nicely.  While it may be an interesting scene (like the Anchorhead scenes), it doesn't quite fit in with the way the editing of ANH as it currently exists.  Doesn't mean one can't put it in though...

Oh yeah, something it seems Ady and others may have missed:
in the hanger sequence at the end, there is a Y-wing in the foreground in the expansive hanger shot.  You can clearly see that the engine pod and Y-wing head are completely seperate pieces and are not connected - the body doesn't exist!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnphZJKGIoI&feature=related
(you can see it at 5:19)

vaderios said:

-Angel

THERE we go!  Thanks for the pics, Vaderios!

BTW, that would help explain how the battle at Endor is more of a pitched battle when the Rebels should have been overwhelmed.  It would be really cool seeing a line of rebel ships firing ion cannons simultaneously and knocking out a whole group of SDs.

I think you wouldn't have to do anything dramatically different other than adding some texturing to the teeth, inner mouth and the outside body.  The teeth could keep their original shape, just add detail to give the impression they are huge (with stalactite detail on the teeth, and that detail spreading from the teeth into the gums and inner mouth).

I also agree on improving the Space Slug's movements and adding dust and debris coming out of the cave it is launching itself out of.

Vaderios: kudos on the Ion Cannon shots.  Kinda remind me of the V'ger plasma bolts in STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE.

In fact, Vaderios, maybe you could do some shots of the Avenger as it is getting hit and incorporate some of those electrical FX from ST:TMP into the ion blasts (electrical energy arcing around the Avenger superstructure hitting other parts of the ship [like the conning tower], not just cause the flashing lights on the impact zones), as well as show the "lightning" arcing around the Avenger to limited degrees as it drifts downwards and the rebel transport flies beside it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwLrEcwtFM4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkywRUAd0_w&feature=related (ion cannon scene at 4:45 - BTW, bad matte shot at 1:04)

You know, watching that clip, I didn't have a problem with the "two fighters against a Star Destroyer?" guy so much as the weak "Yay" uttered by the rebels at 5:07.  Granted, it's not going to be like at the end of the Super Bowl, but maybe there could be some tweaking there to make it sound better.

vaderios said:

"There will be a substantial reward for the one who finds the next great debate. You are free to use any methods necessary, but I want them to be epic. No short ones."

And let's not forget the "farting" asteroid debate, red AT-AT window debate, Needa shuttle debate, Executor tractor beam (ugh) debate, crashing Star Destroyer debate...

I think we may be all debated out. >:)

Or to quote the Penguin: "I think the words you're looking for.. are.. AHHHHHH!!!!!"

BTW, what was the great flipper debate?  And the snowflake on Chewie's foot?

Okay, one last bit and then I'm thorougly done with the Bespin stuff.

Ady: will you consider making the background set area Luke comes from a bit more bluish to match with the bluish area around the carbonite chamber:

vaderios said:

Monroville said:

I think Vaderios is close here, but you could still keep the more "triangular" shape of the teeth, but include the texture of the stalactites.

 

It supposed the edges to be a bit "eaten" because of the nature of the creature.It eats spaceships for living. It should have a bit more round edges ;)

 

-Angel

 

Heh, heh, true... it's teeth wouldn't exactly be in very good shape.  Maybe if you could still keep the triangular shape but make them jagged (to account for the spaceship munching) with rows of other stalactite teeth (ala the shark suggestion)...

So what would a Space Slug brush his teeth with?  And can you imagine the amount of toothpaste he would need to get out THOSE stains?

You know, I'm surprised that the Space Slug wasn't CGed with the SE edition of EMPIRE, considering the advances in monster tech (JURRASSIC PARK, the yet to come GODZILLA, etc)

Another idea: when the MF escapes the Space Slug in the long shot, maybe the texture of the SS could be improved as well as add some dust and debris shoot out from the cave entrance as the Space Slug lunges out to gulp down the MF.

Shut your mouth!
I'm just talkin' about the Millenium Falcon!

ImperialFighter said:

I think Vaderios is close here, but you could still keep the more "triangular" shape of the teeth, but include the texture of the stalactites.  I also agree with another poster in that you could darken the inside of the mouth or change the coloring from the pink to something more brownish.

ImperialFighter said:

Monroville -  you're not related to someone called 'Kurgan' by any chance, are you?  ;)

Yeah, yeah I know... I kinda deserve it.

But unlike Kurgan and the great "blue TIE fighter debate" I don't keep bashing on about something 10+ posts in.  Like I've stated before, I will go 3 posts on any subject and leave it at that.

And as far as my previous comments, they are exactly that: just comments.  Ady, you ARE doing this for yourself and showing you are a proper fan.  You don't do this stuff frivolously nor quickly.  It is nice you are listening to others out there to make this the best presentation possible, but ultimately this is a personal project and there is nothing wrong with that.  So please don't get TOO mad at me, because while I may not be a part of the choir I still applaud the conductor.

Monroville said:

adywan said:

Now onto the Carbon chamber issue. I was looking over your plans to have the chamber at the top of the shaft but this creates more problems than it solves. That is a hell of a long way for Luke to travel to find Vader and really doesn't make sense. Why would Vader run all that way away from Luke just to lure him to the vane? All that needs doing is redesigning the actual vane so it can contain the carbon chamber at the top and explain where the corridors that led them to the chamber disappeared to. Its quite plain to see now i have gone through the Luke jumping down from the chamber to the pipe that you can clearly see that behind him is the base of the carbon chamber as the architecture and piping is very similar. It is meant to be one complete sequence as you see Luke drop from the chamber (even though you can clearly see that he jumps from hanging onto a pole in the first few frames of the pipe sequence, but this was just to simulate his drop during filming). So this means that the carbon chamber is indeed meant to be built into the vane. Now it looks like i'll have to build some sort of model for the vane shot and do a lot of redesigning, but at the same time keeping the look of the original. 

Fair enough, but will you make the connecting arm to the Vane thicker to account for having to hold up the weight of the Vane itself?  I guess that's one reason I never thought the carbon chamber was in the vane itself but either above it or within the shaft wall, and that the tunnel Luke went through was the connecting rod TO the vane - the connecting post to the vane/pod (whatever you call it) just didn't look strong enough to support a structure other than something that was mostly empty or a bunch of corridors.

To further address your points Ady:

(1) as far as Vader leading Luke a few hundred meters or more from the carbonite chamber to the Pods below them, it is not hard to take into consideration that if that was Vader's only choice as far as a secondary trap to set for Luke, then Vader would have no choice but to lead Luke to the pod.   Cloud City is a pretty big place, and some things may not be conveniently close by just for Luke to go from one dead end to another.  This is Cloud City, not The Cube.

Regardless,

(2) when you say that after watching it, it is apparent that the tunnel he goes into is directly below the carbonite chamber, that's what I thought as well for a while (which is why in an earlier post I suggested adding the bluish lighting and maybe some smoke effects to that area Luke is coming from, being that the carbonite chamber was surrounded in a bluish haze).



The problem is just matching the carbonite chamber directly to the pod makes no geographical sense.  Regardless, it doesn't necessarily mean the carbonite chamber is IN the pod. Here are some images to further illustrate what I am referring to:

The carbonite chamber can only be in one of three places:



(A) the area I illustrated earlier, being above the pods (though I still see your point, as the back of the tunnel DOES match the set design of the carbonite chamber.  Even so, we don't need to see Luke go through every stairway or tunnel to realize he is moving through a city to get from one important room to another - we only need to see the important stuff)




(B) the carbonite chamber is within the wall of the main shaft, and the connecting rod to the pod is the tunnel Luke enters.  If this is the case, the connecting rod will have to be moved up to match the angle of the tunnel as well as connect to the pod where the window he comes out of is located.


 



(C) the carbonite chamber is indeed located within the pod up above the window.  The problem here is that even without any gantryways (as shown in the Ralph McQuarrie painting, as well as the fairly poor "forced perspective" props used on the set) the carbonite chamber set is pretty big.  Using Vader (who is roughly 7 feet tall) as a standard of measurement, you would have to add a large cap onto the pod to account for not only the size of the set, but that the set was surrounded by at least a 15 to 25 foot open air area to allow for the blue haze and the fact we could not see the background walls.  Even with a fog, the back walls would have to be far enough away for the fog to eliminate any details, especially any back wall lighting.



- to further add to this, even with Vaderios' modification of the thickness of the Pod, it is still way too thin to account for the carbonite chamber if it is within the Pod, not to mention that if the carbonite chamber is directly above the window Luke is thrown out of (as we can see here), there should be a large bubble or disc visible directly above said window to again account for the proximity and large size of the carbonite chamber.

You may want to also consider (1) making the connecting boom thicker to account for the weight of the pod it has to hold up.  Yes, STAR WARS has artificial gravity generators and all that stuff (and maybe that is what the fins on the bottom of the pod are for), but it still looks flimsy if it is holding up an actual "steel mill" of sorts.

Also i won't be extending the actual carbon chamber in any way. Although it does look pretty cool in the McQuarrie paintings i feel that the limitations reached during filming actually helped the scene and gave that claustrophobic feel that this scene needs. Make the chamber look to big with all these extending platforms and your treading too close into PT  territory for my liking. if you look at the PT everything is just so expansive and flashy which just became a show piece and did nothing to help create any sort of mood for the scene. Less can be more.

In regards to this, while again I understand that this is your edit, and if I or others want to do something different it is up to us to learn Vegas and After Effects and do our own thing, I am still perplexed by this.

What was the planet below the Death Star in ANH:R?  Or even the Lucas added X-wing fly-by, or your added TIE fly-by, or the Mos Eisley CG overhead view?  None of that was really necessary to the story telling, but that is almost beside the point.  Lucas did what he did to test ILM's new CGI rendering to see what he could do for a possible set of Prequels.  I am sure you did what you did just to add some of your own creativity and imagination.





I do not see how including something like Vaderios' rendering (of course, a more thorough one) could HURT the story telling process if we are going to have a pretty but unnecessary Cloud City CGI fly-by of Leia's Cloud City apartment, among other SE added elements.  It's as if you bounce back-and-forth between the SE and the purist editions at will sometimes, making arguments that counter previous arguments (you made an argument earlier I believe that you wanted to make these closer to what was envisioned, thus no EU stuff.  Well, if McQ and Kirshner envisioned the carbonite chamber as having gantryways going off into the distance, wouldn't you be going against their intentions now?)  Not to mention: how can something be claustrophobic if there is an obvious "open-air' environment surrounding the carbonite chamber?

This is not to get pissy (okay, maybe a little), it is just a little confusing as to what the real objective of this is all about.... other than the obvious (that you're doing it for yourself)

adywan said:

Now onto the Carbon chamber issue. I was looking over your plans to have the chamber at the top of the shaft but this creates more problems than it solves. That is a hell of a long way for Luke to travel to find Vader and really doesn't make sense. Why would Vader run all that way away from Luke just to lure him to the vane? All that needs doing is redesigning the actual vane so it can contain the carbon chamber at the top and explain where the corridors that led them to the chamber disappeared to. Its quite plain to see now i have gone through the Luke jumping down from the chamber to the pipe that you can clearly see that behind him is the base of the carbon chamber as the architecture and piping is very similar. It is meant to be one complete sequence as you see Luke drop from the chamber (even though you can clearly see that he jumps from hanging onto a pole in the first few frames of the pipe sequence, but this was just to simulate his drop during filming). So this means that the carbon chamber is indeed meant to be built into the vane. Now it looks like i'll have to build some sort of model for the vane shot and do a lot of redesigning, but at the same time keeping the look of the original. 

Also i won't be extending the actual carbon chamber in any way. Although it does look pretty cool in the McQuarrie paintings i feel that the limitations reached during filming actually helped the scene and gave that claustrophobic feel that this scene needs. Make the chamber look to big with all these extending platforms and your treading too close into PT  territory for my liking. if you look at the PT everything is just so expansive and flashy which just became a show piece and did nothing to help create any sort of mood for the scene. Less can be more.

Fair enough, but will you make the connecting arm to the Vane thicker to account for having to hold up the weight of the Vane itself?  I guess that's one reason I never thought the carbon chamber was in the vane itself but either above it or within the shaft wall, and that the tunnel Luke went through was the connecting rod TO the vane - the connecting post to the vane/pod (whatever you call it) just didn't look strong enough to support a structure other than something that was mostly empty or a bunch of corridors.

adywan said:

Will the TIEs remain like this, or will these change to be more like the grey/white TIEs during the asteroid sequence to better match their ANH counterparts?  I know the asteroid clip you put out a bit back was a test, but just throwing this out for a confirmation (personally, I like the consistency with ANH and would go for the grey TIEs for EMPIRE and JEDI, with maybe the Interceptors remaining bluish).

I know this may be redundant, but just double checking.

adywan said:

My thought on the whole stardestroyer placement issue (during the Executor reveal) is that all the stardestroyers have all just returned from deploying the probe droids around the various systems and are now regrouping with the Executor, so they would be facing all directions and not uniform in placement

Just to add to this, maybe what you could do is begin the scene by showing them all jumbled up, but show the SDs in the background start to group together during the montage INTO a well-organized fleet heading in one direction, so when we get to the full frontal Executor shot, you can see SDs already sliding into positions around the Executor and heading in the same direction.  That way the SDs are not just moving about all over the place but aren't boringly moving in the same direction right off the bat either.

ImperialFighter said:

vaderios -  although this angle of the 'width' of the 'Vent Pod' seems to rule out the 'Carbon Chamber' being above it in any way, as some 'schematicatics' seem to speculate, I think that the 'interior set shots could just about be accomodated, when looked at closely, especially when you look at the version you've posted on the right-hand side there.

The problem you run into is that you would have to have a MASSIVE bubble on the upper part of the pod, if not redesign the whole pod to accomodate the circular carbonite chamber AND the bluish void around it, even without the (possible) walkways extending from it.  Even if the tunnel Luke walks through from the carbonite chamber to the pod is not connected to the carbonite chamber (even though it is the immediate scene after Luke jumps down off the CC platform, you could -as a viewer- assume he went through a few extra passageways before the tunnel shot), the whole architecture of the entire sequence is way off.

Not to mention it would make it kinda awkward to put a chamber you going to be using on a regular basis for your business in one of the most hard-to-reach areas in a 100+ mile wide floating city.

But let's face it: STAR WARS isn't exactly logical.

I mean, what kind of plans did GREEDO's mother have for him?  Do you really think things would have turned out better for the guy if his name was Nice-o?

vaderios said:

The good with the paintings is that they are fast.

The diference with the mattes is it needs time.

Monroville: I really like the concepts you make. But Ady will be the final judge of what is in or not :)

I try to make your ideas with more detail just for fun and for brainstorming!

 

-Angel

Very impressive!  I apprecaite what you've done so far.

Even if Ady doesn't use my design, it would at least be cool to see something like this in the final product (a few scenes where the view is expanded like this).

On a side note, I guess it would make sense that the air shaft Luke and Vader fight within is located off to the side of the main column underneath Cloud City, due to the fact that after he falls into the various tunnels, he comes out on the bottom surface of the city, as opposed to getting ejected out of the vertical column (which I always though WAS the air shaft - maybe as a means of bringing air down to cool the reactor below).

vaderios said:

The I was execute MonroVille's idea!?

First off, thanks for the quick image post! 

I guess I'm looking for some created-from-scratch images, or ones that manipulate some of the live-action stuff just to give a better idea than my black and white sketch.

(1) For the establishing shot for the carbonite platform, I wanted to start with this as the base:

to give the impression that you have this claustrophobic platform that itself is suspended above a great abyss, with the idea that if the connections were broken the entire platform could fall hundreds of miles down below.  Even if you only see such a shot once (to establish the scenery) and see everything else on the carbonite platform, it would still create that impression in the back of your mind that they are all hanging above a seemingly endless abyss - thus you mix claustrophobia with agoraphobia and the fear of falling.

Thus I request if someone could create a color image of the carbonite chamber from a greater distance to essentially establish what it looks like from a distance, as well as allude to the spider-like quality of its design.

Here are some more examples:

the idea being if someone could take a scene of the live action, decrease the saved image size to fit the "matte" of the much larger carbonite chamber in full color to match the scene (with the orange lighted steps and highlights all around the platform and blue smoky lighting) to give it some perspective.

It would also be neat to see if anyone could do anything as far as taking the above design and taking shots and manipulating them like this:



and fill in the newly created "blue screen".

(2) whether the shaft would have 1,2 or 3 of the vent pods, the main thing was moving the connecting arm higher up and moving the gantryway Luke grabs onto lower down the pod (essentially reverse their positions).

For those who may be interested (vaderios, you've done some fantastic matte work.  It would be interesting to see what you or a more professional artist could do):

Here is how I figure the carbonite sequence goes:



1.  Han, Leia, Chewie and 3P0 come in through this gantry
2.  Han is encased in carbonite
3.  Luke enters through a lower gantry...
4.  ...which then justifies him coming up through a vertical hatch from a lower level in the carbonite chamber.
5.  Vader falls from Luke's attack, and Luke drops down to follow him.
6.  Luke enters the tunnel toward the Vent Pod
7.  Luke is force-thrown out the observation window
8.  Luke (using force powers) grabs ahold of the walkway, and then procedes to the Vent Pod access door
9.  Final confrontation with Vader.

The Vent Pods could be moved up closer to the carbonite chamber, but even so it would not be too far off that Vader had a back-up plan and led Luke to a secondary trap (Luke could use his force powers to track Vader, so having to go through a lot of stairways and hallways to go to the much lower Vent Pods wouldn't be too much of a stretch).

I don't know how this works, but here is an alternative blueprint:



I don't know how the entire carbonite platform would fit inside the very top without completely re-designing the Pod,

You know, I think I may change my avatar...




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFPI54fOWoo

Death Star Hotel in Azerbaijan Is No Moon

This structure is being built in Baku, Azerbaijan (an ex-Soviet country between Russian and Iran). Now I'm a firm believer in honesty being the best policy, so why they're trying to construct this under the guise that it's to be the "Full Moon" Hotel is a mystery to me. Just come out and say it already, Azerbaijan. This is not a 521-foot-tall hotel with 382 rooms on over 35 floors. This is the end of life on earth as we know it. That thing is going to blow up the damn planet. I, for one, am scared.

UPDATE: Just saw the rest of the pictures. Nothing to worry about. Turns out the damn thing is flat. No way is it large enough to house a superlaser that could destroy the planet. However it is large enough to expect a reasonable mini-bar in each room.

Two more from different angles: