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Artwork / Attempt at Alternative/Placeholder Intro Animation
« on: January 31, 2010, 01:14:32 am »
Long story shorter: (in other words, the stuff you don't need to read if your in a hurry)
A week ago or so i decided to move my lazy butt and broaden my horizons by finally learning some 3d. So i got myself a copy of Blender and went on to learn something new about it every day. Some two days ago i finally got to the point where i wanted to learn the basics of Animation in Blender. And since i wanted to avoid making those standard animations with cubes flying around, i figured, "hey, why not use some Alien Invasion models?". Some rendering hours later, here i am, writing about it.
First, here's the link to the video file. I propose downloading while reading, since i had to put it on my private FTP that my ISP is giving me (the file size was too big to attach it, 25,4 MB). So i cannot guarantee good download speeds. (Especially for people on the other side of the big pond).
http://soulrip.neostrada.pl/IntroRender02PP.7z
Also, a Megaupload link.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZVO3HD4V
To the point: (in other words, the stuff you wanna read)
Basically i was attempting something from which i could learn Animation, and also something that you might be able to use.
I got my inspiration form the intro animation lying around in the SVN Trunk, it was made by Destructivator if i remember correctly. Anyway, do keep in mind that its very much work in progress, comments are much appreciated. I used the model of the UFO Bomber by sitters, hope that's alright (my favorite UFO model btw). Im not sure how much time i can spend on expanding this animation (time issues), but the general idea is to suggest that whats shown on the video is the attack on Mumbai.
Now, while making this short clip i stumbled upon some general issues which would be very usefull to resolve for future Developers/Animatiors/Artists in general.
First off all:
1- What size are the spaceships and jets in relation to each other? (I do remember seeing a size comparison by Destructivator somewhere on the forum, but cannot find it anymore somehow).
2- What propulsion do the Aliens use? I read up they use Antimatter engines, but what does that mean from a design standpoint of view? I'm especially interested how the engine "residue" should look. I'm not too happy with the particle effect i used in this animation, but on the other hand, don't know what i should be aiming for.
3- Those "green elements" on the UFO's, i read up that they are supposedely some kind of heat expulsion mechanism, but how are they supposed to look? Should they emit some kind of green light? Or maybe particles?
4- Also, engines on the Bomber and for instance Scout look quite different. Should the effect applied to them look different?
5- Fromt what i read on the wiki, 6 ships landed in Mumbai, what class where those ships?
6- Should Animations be made in PAL/NTSC or HD resolutions? Im talking about the aspect ratio here. HD resolutions are probably more future proof.
Some of my personal remarks:
1- I dont really like the Planet, i downloaded it from some Blender resource site. It was licensed on some kind of free license, but i would like to create my own Earth anyway. Since the texture used in that file didnt allow me to scale the mudball up, i had to use camrea tricks to make it seem big.
2- The end of the clip is the epitomy of "Work in Progress", i didnt want to heat up my 2d editing program just yet. Btw, do you have a special font for the UFO: Alien Invasion logo? The one in the Top-Left corner of the website, or on the wallpapers.
3- Somewhere around frame 970, i can see some strange anomaly at the right corner of the screen, i have no idea yet what might cause those little green particles to be displayed, but i'll have to fix it.
4- The next step in the Animation is to show a group of smaller craft being on route to Earth after the UFO Bomber passes by.
5- I would like to try and avoid ground scenes as long as i can since im still a newbie to Blender.
6- I guess i overdid it with the "dark ambience", since i assume not many people are even able to distinguish stars in the background. (My monitor settings are pretty bright)
Puh, i guess that was it. Sorry for the long post. Hope somebody reads this!
A week ago or so i decided to move my lazy butt and broaden my horizons by finally learning some 3d. So i got myself a copy of Blender and went on to learn something new about it every day. Some two days ago i finally got to the point where i wanted to learn the basics of Animation in Blender. And since i wanted to avoid making those standard animations with cubes flying around, i figured, "hey, why not use some Alien Invasion models?". Some rendering hours later, here i am, writing about it.
First, here's the link to the video file. I propose downloading while reading, since i had to put it on my private FTP that my ISP is giving me (the file size was too big to attach it, 25,4 MB). So i cannot guarantee good download speeds. (Especially for people on the other side of the big pond).
http://soulrip.neostrada.pl/IntroRender02PP.7z
Also, a Megaupload link.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZVO3HD4V
To the point: (in other words, the stuff you wanna read)
Basically i was attempting something from which i could learn Animation, and also something that you might be able to use.
I got my inspiration form the intro animation lying around in the SVN Trunk, it was made by Destructivator if i remember correctly. Anyway, do keep in mind that its very much work in progress, comments are much appreciated. I used the model of the UFO Bomber by sitters, hope that's alright (my favorite UFO model btw). Im not sure how much time i can spend on expanding this animation (time issues), but the general idea is to suggest that whats shown on the video is the attack on Mumbai.
Now, while making this short clip i stumbled upon some general issues which would be very usefull to resolve for future Developers/Animatiors/Artists in general.
First off all:
1- What size are the spaceships and jets in relation to each other? (I do remember seeing a size comparison by Destructivator somewhere on the forum, but cannot find it anymore somehow).
2- What propulsion do the Aliens use? I read up they use Antimatter engines, but what does that mean from a design standpoint of view? I'm especially interested how the engine "residue" should look. I'm not too happy with the particle effect i used in this animation, but on the other hand, don't know what i should be aiming for.
3- Those "green elements" on the UFO's, i read up that they are supposedely some kind of heat expulsion mechanism, but how are they supposed to look? Should they emit some kind of green light? Or maybe particles?
4- Also, engines on the Bomber and for instance Scout look quite different. Should the effect applied to them look different?
5- Fromt what i read on the wiki, 6 ships landed in Mumbai, what class where those ships?
6- Should Animations be made in PAL/NTSC or HD resolutions? Im talking about the aspect ratio here. HD resolutions are probably more future proof.
Some of my personal remarks:
1- I dont really like the Planet, i downloaded it from some Blender resource site. It was licensed on some kind of free license, but i would like to create my own Earth anyway. Since the texture used in that file didnt allow me to scale the mudball up, i had to use camrea tricks to make it seem big.
2- The end of the clip is the epitomy of "Work in Progress", i didnt want to heat up my 2d editing program just yet. Btw, do you have a special font for the UFO: Alien Invasion logo? The one in the Top-Left corner of the website, or on the wallpapers.
3- Somewhere around frame 970, i can see some strange anomaly at the right corner of the screen, i have no idea yet what might cause those little green particles to be displayed, but i'll have to fix it.
4- The next step in the Animation is to show a group of smaller craft being on route to Earth after the UFO Bomber passes by.
5- I would like to try and avoid ground scenes as long as i can since im still a newbie to Blender.
6- I guess i overdid it with the "dark ambience", since i assume not many people are even able to distinguish stars in the background. (My monitor settings are pretty bright)
Puh, i guess that was it. Sorry for the long post. Hope somebody reads this!
.