Dropship Crash Scene
This scene is 6.02 seconds long. It is where the dropship finally arrives on the
post apocalyptic earth of its enemy counterparts. The alien dropship crashes
into two cars along a darkened street. This scene has been worked directed
by James Berkley and also been worked on by James Stothard. Together we
have put in countless number of hours and communication to try and get this
scene as good as possible to fit into the already high standard of work that
we set ourselves.
This scene contains many elements of work from James Berkley and James S
that I will list here:
I started by researching techniques I could use to make this scene. I spent
nearly 3 days researching, learning and practicing different techniques to
create the desired effect. I looked at using ncloths to create the crash
simulation; I also looked at maya dynamics for this. After numerous tests and
setting up the scene, I decided to use maya dynamics for the animation.
I created a fully CG scene in maya including buildings and cars, I made
lighting and animation. However after discussion with the group we decided
that it didn’t look realistic enough to fit into the rest of the film and the best
option was to create a matte painting and layer the animation on top.
The scene started off with the film director, James S vision of an aerial view
of the dropship crashing down a road. With discussion we figured
It was best to create something a bit more ambitious. We decided on a still
camera view with the cars flying towards it. I started by making the matte
painting that includes over 50 layers to create an apocalyptic street that has
the correct perspective. The matte painting took a couple of days to
complete. I used techniques such as vanishing point, earsing strategically,
blending shades, burn tool, paint tool, blur tool, lasso tool, marquee tool,
overlapping, clone stamp tool colour correction and levels, just to name a
few.
After a bit of colour correction I got this:
The next step was to do the animation. I had done many many test using
maya dynamics and finally found something that worked. I then had to hand
animate the other car coming nearer to the camera because I had problems
with rigid body interpolations.
The next step was to texture the cars. I made a conscious decision to have
the underneath of the car come towards the camera to make it look more real
and show off the textures. It was important to sell the realism of the scene. I
began by creating the car shaders. I did this by connecting various different
shaders together with a layered shader or layer texture node. Each shader
had different specialized attributes for example cars paint is shinier than the
rust of metal etc. I had to add fracture nodes to the bump attributes in
shaders and also whilst playing with the spec colour and reflectivity of the
phong or blinn shader. I used ramps to get the correct colour.
After talking to James S, it was best to make the cars look dirty. I then
created even more shaders to add the dirt. Initially I thought about using
masks to create this effect, as I would have control over where the mud or
dirt was on the car. However I was not sure how to create this effect so I
connected two already made shaders through the transparency of the layered
shader node. This looks good enough but I didn’t have control where the mud
fell on the car. This is what I got:
At this stage, I had the matte painting, the maya dynamics and the animation
complete. I now set up a rendercam and through that camera I projected the
matte plane so I could line up the perspective. For the time being I worked
through this camera to make sure it was all aligned and looked good.
I was now waiting upon the newly built and textured dropship from James S
to integrate into the animation.
Once I got this file I simply hand animated the new ship over the old ship and
made it invisible. The scene was nearly complete. James S camera mapped
the matte painting in maya so we could integrate lighting off the matte
painting. In other words, by camera mapping the matte painting it meant I
could light the scene properly and light would be affected by the matte
painting around it.
It was now ready for final touches before rendering. I rendered in 720hd at
1280 x 720. The rendering process took 4:33hrs.
I had previously rendered some lower quality versions and added my own
postproduction effects in After Effects. I added a camera shake and motion
blur to sell the shot even more. Once the final version finished rendering I
sent two copies to Gergo for edit and post. I sent him a plain version with no
effects and another version with my added postproduction effects.
My instructions to Gergo was to colour correct the scene so that it fits with
the rest of the film. I also told him that he could add the camera and motion
blur effect because he has more experience at post than I do. I also
suggested that smoke and fire in the background would also help sell the
apocalyptic feel of the scene. I also suggested fog or particles as an added
extra.
This scene overall has taken countless number of hours to complete, with
different techniques being learnt along the way. In hindsight I would have
added a shattered or cracked floor following the dropship as it tore through
the street, however we decided it was not necessary.
Here is a brief list of the techniques used in maya:
• Dynamic animation
• Key frame animation
• Custom Shaders
• UV mapping
• Bump mapping
• Camers/projection mapping
• Lighting
• Compositing
• Camera work
• Polygon modeling
• Ncloth dynamics
No comments:
Post a Comment